Disadvantages And Disadvantages Of Bilingualism Essay

Bilingualism is skill that is gained through life circumstances that does not require some innate skill (Bialystok, 2011). Some of these circumstances could include one’s family, immigration history, or birthplace. The ability to speak and understand more than one language is common among over half the world’s population (Bialystok et al., 2012). In the 1960s, many researchers warned against teaching children more than one language as it many cause confusion and it appeared to have negative effects on a child’s cognitive development (Bialystok, 1988). As research regarding bilingualism has progressed, the effects of bilingualism have been shown to be advantageous compared to monolingual counterparts. Recent studies have even found that bilingualism provides benefits all stages of life (Bialystok, 2011).

There are many myths about bilingualism having negative effects. One of those myths are that babies are hopelessly confused by exposure to two languages. However, studies have proven that learning more than one language as an infant is actually very beneficial and not difficult to do. According to Judith F. Kroll, babies develop the ability to discriminate the languages that they listen to and are more open to learning a new language. A study by Ferran Pons and other colleagues, revealed how bilingual children show an earlier attentional shift to the mouth. This is due to the fact that bilingual infants rely more on the perceptual salient of audiovisual speech cues in order to to construct two different language systems. Furthermore, another

As De Houwer summarizes, "There is no scientific evidence to date that hearing two or more languages leads to delays or disorders in language acquisition. Many, many children throughout the world grow up with two or more languages from infancy without showing any signs of language delays or disorder" (1999).

“Cognitive functions can be defined as cerebral activities that lead to knowledge, encompass reasoning, memory, attention, and language that leads directly to the attainment of information and, thus, knowledge” (What are cognitive functions). Many students at Doulos are unaware of the benefits of knowing two languages. Ironically students also don’t know that their own brain and its skills are improving because of their second language. Doulos teaches classes throughout the whole day in both English and Spanish. Students are regularly changing between languages and their brain is always active with both languages. “This constant practice strengthens the control mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). People who are bilingual are capable of switching between tasks more efficiently. “For example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape, they do so more rapidly than monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when changing strategies on the fly” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). Students’ cognitive and sensory process skills are more developed due to being bilingual (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). These improvements allow students to better process and understand information in different environments, thus leading to better

Bilingualism is a person’s ability to speak two or more languages fluently. Initially it was believed that bilingualism had negative effects on an individual’s intelligence and speech and it was thought that the knowledge of multiple languages would complicate one’s thought processing rather than improve its functioning. This theory

Due to the rise in bilingual programs in the U.S., researchers began to wonder how a child’s brain was able to process two languages simultaneously. To their utter amazement, students who were bilingual benefit in multiple areas of their lives. For example, they have greater cognitive flexibility, superior language skills, and a higher IQ. Nevertheless, some parents, teachers, and even some researchers were concerned that immersing students in the target language, with no instruction in the first language, may cause students to lose their ability to converse/use their first language. In other words, fear began to rise that teaching in only the desired second language may cause the students to favor that language over their native language. This is where the research controversies

The disadvantages described by Sternberg and Sternberg (2017) are that individuals who speak more than one language have a smaller vocabulary for each language, resulting in a slower ability to identify the meaning words. In addition, if an individual never learns any language fluently, the person will have difficulty distinguishing between the languages, resulting in a degradation of performance in school and the job

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

What are the pros and cons of bilingual education? Bilingual education is the use of two languages for instruction and the goal is to teach children concepts and skills in the language they know best and to build their knowledge through the use of English. As an education major that is currently taking multiple classes on this topic, I can say that bilingual education is a major topic in the education world right now. The concept of bilingual education, in my personal opinion, is valuable and worthwhile but with everything positive there are always negatives.

The researcher explained that when bilinguals use one language, the other (or others) stays active (“The Latest”). This means that bilinguals’ brains constantly fight against the interferences called Stroop Effect. Bilinguals have also different brain structure than monolingual because their Broca and Hippocamp brain areas are bigger than those of monolinguals (“The Latest”).

The regular need to select a target language is argued to enhance executive control. We investigated whether this enhancement stems from a general effect of bilingualism (the representation of two languages) or from a modality constraint that forces language selection. Bimodal bilinguals can, but do not always, sign and speak at the same time. Their two languages involve distinct motor and perceptual systems, leading to weaker demands on language control. We compared the performance of 15 monolinguals, 15 bimodal bilinguals, and 15 unimodal bilinguals on a set of flanker tasks. There were no group differences in accuracy, but unimodal bilinguals were faster than the other groups; bimodal bilinguals did not differ from monolinguals. These results trace the bilingual advantage in cognitive control to the unimodal bilinguals experience controlling two languages in the same

Sebastián-Gallés, N., Echeverría, S., & Bosch, L. (2005). The influence of initial exposure on lexical representation: Comparing early and simultaneous bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 52(2), 240-255.

No matter where you are in the world, you are taught about language. Whether it’s in your home learning your language or in school trying to learn a foreign language. Although while learning language the notion is never really thought about or brought up that the language and way we speak can influence the way we think and interact. Phycologist and neuroscientist alike have spent years, with multiple different tests to see if there is a connection between the various languages that are spoken and the way people not only think but also how they go about their daily lives. She writes to not only her colleagues and neuroscientists but also to anyone in the general public that is genuinely interested in the connection between

But brain researchers said they see no reason why not. The study showed that bilingual young adults performed better in ignoring irrelevant stimuli and focusing on relevant information. One possible reason for this ability is that the processes of learning two languages and switching back and forth between them, train the brain to divide important from less important auditory information. Also, researchers have found that found that dementia occurred four or five years later among people who spent their lives speaking two languages compared to those who spoke only

Research by Lera Boroditsky (2001) posed many interesting questions regarding linguistic diversity and the resultant interplay between language and thought: whether linguistic diversity stimulates different ways of thinking, whether learning new languages changes the way one thinks, whether bilingual and multilingual people think differently when speaking different languages. Clark (2003) maintains that although language does not indicate a complete map of consciousness or thought, it is at least a “representational map” that varies across languages.