Monolingual English Speaker

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).

Everyone in America has had to learn a second language in order to obtain a high school diploma, however this ‘learning’ of a language is merely a short class that does little to tie one down to a second language. There are few students who continue to seek more and more knowledge about their intended language. Some lose interest, while others make excuses by saying that it is too hard. However, learning more than one language has so many benefits that it is mind boggling to me that more people like to remain monolingual. Obviously time and resources are a concern, but there are so many ways to learn a language that can be catered to one’s individual needs. Think about all of the people in our nation whose first language is not English.

There are about 7,000 languages in the world today. In America, there are 350 languages alone. However, only about 25% of Americans can speak a language other than english. Despite the majority of Americans being monolingual, 43% of the nation believes it is important to learn a second language. Being bilingual has many benefits for the future. Knowledge of foreign languages can expand career potentials, help improve one's native language, and can aid opportunities to travel and experience new culture. Learning a foreign language is one of the most beneficial experiences for people in the future.

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.

Being multilingual gives you a greater appreciation for other countries and their cultures, as well as making it easier to learn from others who have different experiences from living in different countries since some things get lost in translation. Some people argue that having one language will bring people however, this is not the case. Not everyone has the resources to learn English so by being able to speak multiple languages makes it is easier to connect. Additionally, studies have shown that children who grow up bilingual have improved cognitive skills. By being able to manage two languages at the same time helps improve the brains over function with paying attention, thinking at a higher level, multitasking, and motor

While some may think that this is not certain studies have proven otherwise. In The Power of a Bilingual Brain, Jeffery Kluger states that, “Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who know two or more languages….. Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(1) Clearly, a bilingual education places students a step ahead not only in their education careers but, as well as in their daily life’s outside school. Jeffery Kluger discusses how a bilingual brain is not necessarily smarter brain, but is a more flexible and practical brain. Evidently, demonstrating to us one of the many benefits of a bilingual

We learned in our text that the development of language is a complicated process that involves phonemes, morphemes, syntactic development among several other factors (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg & Saffran, 2014, p. 218). Proper and effective development of these language skills has been shown to have a critical learning period that enables successful fluency of a language; this period usually occurs between the ages of 5 and puberty (Siegler et al., 2014, p. 220). I believe that this critical period is the backbone of the argument against bilingual education. Proponents of this argument believe that the sooner a child is immersed in the new language, the better off they will be with regards to mechanics and use of that language.

At an early age, I have always thought not having English as my first language was a disadvantage. I always wish I was born in America where I can have English as my first language so I would easily fit in at school and not have people making fun of mine accent. But now looking back I’m glad that I was be able to still know how to read and write Vietnamese. Being a bilingual is an advantage rather than disadvantage. By knowing two different languages I can be able to help translate to people in the community.

Many people feel embarrassed of having in accent in their speech. Being bilingual can be hard as well because people have a hard time pronouncing words and using the proper language. The benefits of being bilingual is having the chance to get more job opportunities because you know more than one language. In fact, knowing two languages can create good friendships because you are easier to communicate with anybody. Overall, being proud of knowing two languages has so much benefits that you feel accomplished on helping others.

Growing up speaking only English was huge advantage, I never had to worry about someone being there to interpret for me, nor did anyone have a hard time understanding what I meant or what I said and vice versus I never struggled to understand anyone in any setting. However, as an adult I find that only speaking English has hindered opportunities for me. When applying for jobs employers are now looking for people who are bilingual or multilingual, schools especially in Texas are leaning towards hiring teachers fluent in Spanish due to all the immigration from Mexico to Texas, this obstacle of only being a monolingual person affects me

Learning a foreign language has always held a higher prestige than speaking one language in one’s community, where it is important to maintain one’s native language, Einar Haugen stated that, “Bilingualism has been treated as a necessary evil, a rash on the body politic, which might be expected to cure without the need of calling in the doctors…,” (Haugen, 1952, pg. 2). In the English-only outlook, English acts as a social glue that holds the nation together, in which state sponsored bilingual services removes incentives to learn English and keep immigrants out of the mainstream. It is not enough for immigrants to learn English, they must also renounce their native tongue, where in their eyes bilingualism is regarded to as divided loyalties. In reality however, bilingual education holds much academic value, where acquiring another language is regarded to as a necessity for future work, travel and personal relations. Students who are fluent in different languages work together and aid one another

A few years ago, when I just came to the united stated, I had a hard time understanding and talking in English. I used to feel bad when people made fun of my accent. As the time flew, I learned English and I can talk and understand perfectly. Now I speak four languages and I felt lucky and proud, and I have greatest advantages of helping my family and relatives. There is no doubt in my mind that being a bilingual is the greatest advantages that I am having in my life such as getting a better job and helping other people.

Therefore, monolingual English speakers would have the same advantage as multilingual speakers. Thomas states that “the language that 85 percent of all Europeans learn as their second language is the magical language called English” (Source B). This being said, all other languages are thought of being a “genteel indulgence” and something that many will stop using as English becomes a more common language. Unfortunately, that is only a percentage of people that would think that as many see this as something that doesn’t benefit them. Many people like to live in the present not in the future and the fact of English becoming an international language is something that will be seen in the future. At the same time, however, many Americans are left thinking about why should they know another language as it is America they are living in where every person is thought to speak English. Also, there aren’t studies that show that a second language is a necessity to be able to live successfully. As English is becoming more globalized, a second language is seen by many as a

“Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who are bilingual are different than those who are not, and those differences are for all the better.”(time) Researchers are saying that it's so much more beneficial to learn two languages rather than one. “Multilingual people, studies show, are better at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(time) They are known to work faster and use less energy in the process. In doing so they retain their senses longer are studies show that it can delay or give you more time to get dementia or Alzheimer's than the average person. With all of the positive outcomes of learning in a bilingual school, schools make it very hard and competitive to make it into the

The article lists four reasons why English is important the first reason is that even