Introduction
Research question:
‘What role does bilingualism play in educational development?
Hypothesis:
In my opinion bilingualism plays a major role in the educational development of children. This is because research has shown that children who are fluent in their home language are more successful in learning a second language. Furthermore, being bilingual offers greater sensitivity to language, more flexibility in thinking and better ear for listening. It also improves a child’s understanding for the native language. Moreover, knowledge of other languages increases a career of opportunities offering several job options.
I will briefly give definitions of key words in my research question- * Role: proper or customary function
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Interviewing a wide range of people will ensure that I have enough information and knowledge on bilingualism and the role it plays in educational development. * Literature review: This will allow me to gather a range of information, from a variety of sources such as; textbooks, internet, journals, research papers, and books specific to topic area.
How I will conduct my research-
The primary and secondary research will both be conducted over a number of weeks during the period of time I have to complete my IRP. Also, throughout the duration of the time I have to complete my IRP I will be completing my diary, which I will record everything I have found.
My primary data will be collected over a number of weeks. This will include me personally going out and interviewing students and teachers also give out my questionaries. My secondary data on the other hand will be conducted by going out and researching existing information about my chosen topic. I will also browse the internet for relevant and rather useful information, read through books and textbooks.
Ethical and bias considerations-
When conducting an independent research project of any form, one must take into consideration ethical and bias issues. Throughout my research I will be keeping in mind the ethical and bias considerations. Also, to avoid any dilemmas I have made it an option on my questionaries for the participant to put
In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.
This study is important as it extremely relevant in the globalized society that we live in today, in addition to the fact that it offers further evidence on the tangible benefits of raising a child to be bilingual that come later in his or her life. Even if the study does not show a clear and convincing correlation between raising a child to be bilingual and higher academic performance in college, I believe that my study will encourage people to think more about the potential benefits of raising a child to be
By expanding ourselves past the comfort of the native tongue, we are able to create connections with other people. When learning another language, we may start to understand not only the language itself, but also comprehend new cultures, ways of thinking, and other people. From the very beginning of deciding to become a teacher, I knew I wanted to expand my ways of thinking so I positively benefit students of all cultures and language. I believe language learning allows people to view the world in different ways by becoming positively influenced by other cultures, people, and different ways of thinking. However, after deciding to become an ESL teacher, I truly believe that bilingual education is needed to help students develop and maintain high levels of proficiency and literacy in both their L1 and L2, while learning in the content areas. This is why I personally believe it is better for children to be raised bilingual instead of learning a second language later in life. One reason for this is that even though I was born in America, my parents wanted me to learn their language, which was Polish. Now, I am fully appreciative of the fact that my parents taught me Polish and placed me in a Saturday school where I was being taught both English and Polish. If I was taught Polish later in life, I think I would not use it to this day because I would not have made personal connections with the languages, as I was able to by being raised bilingual. There are many benefits of being raised bilingual instead of learning a second language later in life. It is important to understand that it takes on average 4-7 years to become academically fluent in a language; by raising a child bilingually, the children are able to use both languages more efficiently earlier than those students who learn a second language later in life. Since the child has been bilingual for a longer time, there are educational benefits commonly found. Bilingual children tend to have a higher concentration and are better at working through distractions while doing their schoolwork. Bilingual children also perform higher on average on tests that involve multi-tasking, creative thinking, or problem solving (Marian & Shook, 2012).
‘Bilingual’ people are differentiated from ‘Monolingual’ people by their frequent communication with two or more languages (Barac & Bialystok, 2012). Bilinguals are thought to be smarter than Monolinguals (Rubio-Fernández & Glucksberg, 2012). Smartness is a measure of successfulness in their education (Hatt, 2007, p. 146). Because of this, there is a debate to decide whether the next generation of children should be exposed to a Bilingual education. This has led to research into whether Bilingual education slows the learning of literacy and
This site contains information on 8,000 children across different ages and different levels of cognitive abilities. Three groups of kids with varying parental backgrounds were tested on their cognitive abilities. The three groups were children with two UK parents, two foreign born parents, and one foreign/one UK parent. According to Clifton-Sprigg, it has been established that early education in language influences the child’s ability to learn new skills. This poses the question whether being bilingual will be an advantage or disadvantage to the child. In this case linguists have shared opposing views on whether the child benefits from being bilingualism. Some linguists argue that bilingualism can give a distinct advantage because it improves the understanding of some concepts and improves creative ability. Other linguists offer a different perspective saying that children who are monolingual spend less time learning the language which allows them to pick up other skills easier. An observation done was that a child's linguistic ability is dependent on the parents and how suited they are to teach the child language. Problems become apparent
Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.
It has been shown that learning a second language from primary school has cognitive and academic benefits. When a child becomes bilingual it helps to develop stronger communication skills in their native language and learn additional new languages at a faster rate. Majority language students who learn score significantly higher on the IOWA, SAT and ACT tests than minority language students. Being a bilingual child enhance ability to adapt to changing situations and engage in high level cognitive thinking. When bilingual child grow they are more employable and they get more carrier opportunities than monolingual person. So there is reason enough to learn second language and to keep learning them as we are able. The bilingualism advantages may not appear in the child’s primary age. But bilingualism’s real benefits could be far more important. A good bilingual primary program is a great way to support the development of children in their native language and also a good start to them toward a future of fully bilingual professional
Bilingual students have the ability to think cognitively in both their first language and their second language. What they lack is the spoken or written language in
While some people may believe that learning a second language may only create controversy in our society, many strongly believe that one has the freedom to speak any language they choose to. Since there are a variety of different nationalities in the Unites States, bilingual education can promote learning for people who share distinctive ethnic backgrounds. Bilingual education gives students a sense of cultural pluralism, not only that, but it has been proven that learning a second language starting from a young age hold cognitive and academic benefits. Children who are bilingual, establish more adequate skills in their first language causing them to learn other languages at a faster rate, raise a sense of confidence and self-esteem, and have an easier time transitioning into a new environment making it less intimidating; therefore, the advantages of bilingual education most certainly outweigh its disadvantages.
In order to become a true bilingual, you must have a balance in your linguistic capabilities. Research indicates that the study of a second language during a child's early years results in cognitive benefits in areas such as mental flexibility, creativity, deviating thinking and higher-order thinking skills. Foreign language study has also been shown to improve listening skills and memory. Bilinguals are often more focused than monolinguals and mentally decline slower, researchers say. It also enhances problem solving and analytical skills, allows better formation of concepts, increases visual-social abilities and furthers logical reasoning. In short, bilingual children are more adept at linguistic processing than monolinguals.
Bilingual education is necessary for our self and our parents, such as education, work, live and life, and bilingual language have an advantage over than some people who get one language, and most of parents want their child to learn in
Bilingual education is necessary for our self and our parents, such as education, work, live and life, and Bilingual language have an advantage over than some people who get one language, and most of parents want their child to learn in
Bilingualism refers to speaking two languages fluently, where one is a native language and the other is a secondary language either learned through family, school or by other means. It is not true that introducing a new language to children will affect their language development and delay. Instead, it has the benefits of improving cognitive and literacy skills, which means that children will become smarter when they are bilingual. Nonetheless, the languages should be spoken constantly and need an equal amount of exposure to the children. If not, the children’s brain will be damaged. This will cause lack of confidence if one language is exposed more than other. Furthermore, speaking two languages improves the development of the brain structure. In the present day, I believe that every individual child is either bilingual or monolingual. It is because many families moved to a foreign land where the language is different, so their children have no choice but to learn a new language. In addition, the children can also be exposed to a new language in numerous ways. For example, they can be taught by watching TV shows, cartoons in a different language from their mother tongue. In my opinion, children will learn a new language faster when they watch cartoons. It is because the children will copy what they see on the TV, and absorb the information into their brain. Furthermore, children can learn a language through play. When children play with adults and other children, they will
Bilingualism varies additional in research– relying on the examination, distinctive groups of people may be considered bilingual. Bilingualism alludes to a circumstance where a child groups up and is dealt with two distinct languages. It is firmly identified to the wonder of language acquisition – the route in which we as a whole take in our native language as children. Knowing two languages instead of one is beneficial. However, in recent years, researchers have started to explain how the advantages of bilingualism are significantly more crucial than having the ability to speak with a bigger group of people.
Studies have shown if your brain does not have the source of bilingual language, it is not as “powerful”. Bilingual children tend to have an academic advantage in classrooms. “Children with a second language as young as age three have demonstrated a head start on test of perspective-taking and theory of mind-both of which are fundamental social and emotional skills”(Lynch) . Not only does it improve on their language skills, but also helps with 2 of the 4 learning skills described in the theory PIES(Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social). By gaining these skills it helps improve their academics and knowledge in the world. Children with the bilingual language have also been proven to switch task more proficiently. A 2004 study by psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee compared bilingual and monolingual preschoolers. The study was to see if they had the ability to sort by colors and shapes. Each child had two bins placed in front of them marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle. They were then given blue circles and red squares. The first task was to sort by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with blue squares and red squares in the bin marked with a red circle. Both groups were able to complete this task. Next, they were asked to sort by shape. Which became a challenge because it meant placing the shapes in a bin with a conflicting color. In the end, the bilingual classroom was faster at completing this task. The