English Bilingualism Advantages

Teachers are forcing kids away from taking specific classes due to bias opinions, which is why for many schools in the United States language is not looked at as a priority. Picture growing up in a small town, in Maine, which in the data table from Shin and Kominski’s report showed to be a state with the least amount of citizens that spoke a language other than English as their primary language, shows that for some people language is hard to see has being important. In High School some have found a passion in language but don’t receive the proper curriculum that would allow them to succeed. Instead of introducing language in High School, our school systems should focus on adding it into the curriculum that is taught in elementary school and middle school. By starting when you are young, the time you are graduating high school you can speak at least one other language and classify yourself as bilingual. Dianne Steinbach explained it as, “Something that many of us took for granted when we were younger people is now disappearing” (First Speakers:Restoring). Since there is such a large increase in language diversity

The advantages of bilingualism can be seen throughout “Aria,” a memoir originally published in Hunger of Memory in 1980, written by the Mexican-American author Richard Rodriguez. In his writing, Rodriguez's shares his experience of how he gained a new identity because he had to learn English and adapt to a new society in America. The purpose of his memoir is to give the reader a sense of why bilingual education shouldn’t be used in school. Rodriguez's writing reaches out to supporters of bilingual education who may not see the benefits that can be gained from not having the program in school.

More young americans nowadays are being raised in homes speaking non-English, but these students are falling behind in schools where there is not a bilingual program available. According to the U.S. Department of Education, in schools without a bilingual education program, 71% of English speakers are at or above the basic requirements for fourth grade reading while merely 30% of non-English speakers reach this level. 35% of English and 8% of non-English speakers reach proficient reading levels while only 9% of English and 1% of non-English speakers perform at advanced levels. It’s evident that the availability of a bilingual program is crucial to the success of an individual who needs the resources that can be given to them through the use of bilingual education. The percentages of the non-English speaking students previously mentioned could undoubtedly be comparable to those percentages of the English speaking students if the education they were being provided with was cohesive to their comfortability, and the material being taught was in a language they could better understand.

This nation is a place where different cultures come together and learn to coexist. From native America, Latinos, Asians and probably other nations that are not well known; they all have something in common which they all are bilinguals. Authors Cisneros, Agosin, Dumas and Tan clearly illustrate that being bilingual has both advantages and disadvantages.

Being bilingual will not only help you communicate with others but also give you many different opportunities. Being bilingual is just not about speaking another language but also learning the culture that comes with it. From the new language you will learn about other traditions, music, food, and overall the way others speak and express themselves. Another thing you can acquire from being bilingual is the chance of getting a better job and develop professionally better. Studies also show that bilinguals express themselves better and that it’s better to start learning a second language at an early age. There is doubts about teaching a children a second language because some people believe that if they teach them a second language at an early age it can cause confusion in the child, and they will end up not being able to learn either one correctly. This information has not yet been proven what studies have shown is the complete opposite which is that a bilingual person has a higher possibility of being successful than a monolingual.

Language is used every day in our everyday lives all over the world. Marian and Shook state that “language is used to communicate our thoughts and feelings, connect with others, identify culture, and understand the world around us” (Marian & Shook ,2012,para.1) There are many languages all over the world and some people understand more than one language such as understanding both English and Spanish. People that are Bilingual are exceptional in a way that they are intelligent, helpful, and have advantage openers.

Being bilingual constitute to communication advantages, cultural advantages and cognitive advantages, or viewed from the perspective of balanced bilingualism. Researchers who find cognitive advantages mostly focus on balanced bilinguals. Bialystok, 2001 and Cummins & Mulcahy, 1978 as well as Arnberg, 1981 agreed on the notion that children tend to move toward balanced bilingualism and it increases the likelihood of obtaining cognitive advantages. Further studies also found that balanced bilinguals had certain advantages in cognitive processes. They were better at concept formation and in tasks that required symbol manipulation and mental flexibility (Bain & Yu, 1980; Diaz 1983; Peal & Lambert, 1962). Bilingualism can enrich a person’s linguistic repertoire and also contributes to flexible and critical thinking (Pavlenko, 2005a, 2011). Hamers and Blanc claim that “cognitive advantages…seem to be mainly at the level of a higher creativity and reorganization of information” (1989, p50). Cummins

These days there are more and more people who live in a country where other language than their home language is spoken. This could be due to different reasons, like immigration of the whole family or having married a person from another country. When children are involved most parents would like them to be bilingual, but this does not happen automatically. Some effort is required.

As the title suggests, “Speaking in Tongues: The Many Benefits of Bilingualism” is an article that examines the advantages of bilingualism. Due to the nature of the world, a great number of people have acquired the ability to speak more than one language. The author explores the benefits such an ability offers, arguing that bilingual children develop social, linguistic and cognitive skillsets that not only provides a chance to explore different cultures, but raises a child’s awareness of how language functions. The author also weighs on the cognitive aspect; applying the works of Ellen Bialystok to their ( the author’s ) argument. In the author’s view, bilingual children are better at dealing with conflicting cues and assessing information.

The bilingual education programs in the United States have a long history despite an ongoing battle. The goal of bilingual education has been focused on two areas of assimilation and integration. Bilingual education programs help immigrant children to learn English and adopt American culture. Under social and political preferences, most of the schools use transitional bilingual education but with English only. As a result, the students’ home languages, culture are devalued in the schools. Students learn English while at the expense of losing their first language. Despite much research bilingual education is not fairly recognized by the public. However in fact when a bilingual education program “supported the minority language were consistently superior in various outcomes.” Case closed, bilingual education programs should be properly administered with the requisite support needed. We still wish to look at some further benefits though. Students who are given instruction in their home language helps them to catch up to their English speaking peers in subjects such as English language art, reading, and mathematics. Bilingual education students do better than the English-only instructed students overall. Bilingual education is more effective than English-only monolingual education. Actually, by using the students’ first language in school this does not interfere

Many people do not believe in bilingual education because they think that the student would confuse the two languages and in the end speak neither one correctly. A closer look at when the two language mixes reveals that most of them master one of the languages to the same degree as a monolingual speaker (Korth 3). Through their bilingualism, they can use linguistic means creatively in accordance with the demands of the situation. This flexibility is a cognitive ability, which monolingual speakers can achieve only through effortful learning and training. Switching from one language to the other can be interpreted as an indication of the speaker’s fluency (Korth 3). In some cases, the languages are only spoken in specific places. If a child speaks

Deborah K. Palmer and Ramon Antonio Martinez argue that being bilingual shouldn’t be a disadvantage to how students learn, but it should be promoted in all English Language Arts classroom. In New York and Texas, English is the primary language that is being taught in schools and if a student is not proficient in English, he/she would be placed in an ESL class to improve their English. Since many English classes aren’t implied to incorporate bilingualism in their lesson planning, it shouldn’t mean that it should be ignored. Previous research has shown that students incorporate their bilingual skills in their everyday language practices and skills connecting to the English language arts standards that it might even be used as a resource in class.

From the time they are young children until the time they are seniors, bilinguals own several advantages in various categories over monolinguals. Being brought up in a bilingual environment is quite different than how one would normally be brought up. Young bilinguals are constantly being exposed to two languages at the same time, being able to understand and use both when they feel necessary. From a young age, bilingual children are already able to have good decision-making skills due to these several situations they are in that require them to select which language is best for which situation (Kinzler). Being brought up as a bilingual will also develop a child’s cognitive skills in various vital

Today, bilingual education used in many countries for variety of social and educational purposes. It is the actual problem of this century. Because, the world is changing and according to the requirements of time, the human mind adjusts to new discoveries, to new tops. The relevance of training to bilingual manner as a basic component in-depth language education is defined, first of all, a general global trend towards integration in the economic, cultural and political spheres, in the sphere of education determines the trend towards integration of subject knowledge, focus on the knowledge of a coherent picture of the world. Modernization in the field of school education is associated with high quality education, development of new technologies, new perspectives, expanding the horizons of students. Now, special attention is paid to creating conditions to develop the creative potential of the student and to empower in-depth education. Training based on bilingual program is important, because it provides

1). Despite the dictionary definition, the definition of bilingualism was identified as ambiguous and lacked an operational definition (Baker, 2001; Cummins, 1976; Macnamara, 1967). Consequently, defining who is or is not bilingual remained disputable between linguists and researchers. However, several hypotheses were proposed.