Simultaneous Dequisition Of Bilingualism And Multilingualism

Bilingualism is the ability to communicate in two different languages. Bilingual education is the use of two different languages in classroom instruction. According to the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health, and many other researchers, “languages are learned the easiest during a child’s youngest years. Therefore, when a child is growing up in a bilingual home or is receiving bilingual education, can easily speak both languages. Children who grow up in a household where two languages are spoken, usually acquire both languages simultaneously. Although their ability quality and skill of each language may be somewhat slower than a child that is

The intention of this paper is to provide several pertinent issues regarding bilingualism, and also attempt to clarify some aspects of bilingualism, relating to cognitive aspects. Individuals identified by the term bilingualism in different way, and on the other hand, with better skills in one language. Actually it is more common for bilingual individuals, even individuals who have been bilingual since birth; to be somewhat dominant within each language. Simultaneous bilingualism describes a person who is learning in two languages as the first languages (Sebastián, el al., 2005). An individual who is a simultaneous bilingual goes from communicating no languages at all straight to speaking two languages (Sebastián, el al., 2005). Sequential bilingualism identifies to a person who is learning one language after already having well-known a first language (Schwartz, Kozminsky, & Leikin, 2009). The large majority of investigational work with language development, mainly in the area of early lexical acquisition has aimed on monolingual infants (Bialystok, 2001). However, because of immigration, official language polices, cultural personal preferences and norms. Research revealed empirical data screening positive influence of bilingualism on children’s cognitive ability (Fennell, Byers-Heinlein, & Werker, 2007). Researcher discovered

Infants learn different languages by being exposed to them from their surroundings. Infants are capable of learning not just one language but multiple languages. This capability is because infants differentiate languages by using auditory and visual cues. Studies have shown that bilingual infants follow a different path than monolingual infants. Bosch and Sebastian-Galles (2003) tested infants from 4 to 12 months who spoke Spanish and Catalan on vowels that are phonemic to infants who know Catalan. Infants who were 8 months and monolinguals differentiated the vowels while bilinguals took till they were 12 months. Meanwhile, Burns, Yoshida, Hill, and Werker 's (2007) study showed that bilingual infants can discriminate and

MacLeod, A. A., Fabiano-Smith, L., Boegner-Page, S., & Fontolliet, S. (2012). Simultaneous bilingual language acquisition: The role of parental input on receptive vocabulary development. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29(1), 131-142. doi:10.1177/0265659012466862

Bilingualism carries broad appeal as a potential reserve variable because it is primarily influenced by environmental factors such as country of birth, emigration, or attendance in a second language school (Gold et al., 2013). Individuals become bilingual through these life circumstances and the environmental factors eventually contribute to the development and organization of brain reserve (Schweizer et al., 2012). The development of this reserve is thought to be directly correlated to the continuous monitoring of context that is necessary for language inhibition and activation (Gold et al., 2013). Research is finding that there is a delay of onset for lifelong bilinguals by 4.7 years for people with mild cognitive impairment and 7.3 years for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Research points to a substantial impact of bilingualism that both increases the ability to perform an important set of cognitive tasks and reorganizes neural networks recruited for that performance (Bialystok et al., 2014). Both languages of a bilingual speaker are constantly active to some degree, even in strongly monolingual contexts where there is no reason to expect use of the other language. This joint activation has profound implications for both linguistic and nonlinguistic processing. If both languages are active, then a problem in attention is introduced for a bilingual that does not exist for a monolingual speaker (Bialystok, 2011).

Before considering findings, it is necessary to define the terms for the concepts studied in this project. Bilingualism can be defined in many different terms mainly due to how proficient an individual can communicate in a second language. Bilingualism can be defined as the “native-like control of two or more languages” researchers consider one can only be bilingual if they are fluent and have mastered at least two languages. Anyone who has basic skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in a language other than their mother tongue is bilingual. However, during the twentieth century, the concept (or definition) of bilingualism changed and became broader (Anderson and Anderson,

What does it mean to be bilingual? Is it as simple as having the ability to speak two languages? Or does it have a deeper meaning? Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez have opposite views on the concept of bilingualism. Espada feels Latinos have the right to speak Spanish anywhere, considering language is intertwined with identity. Conversely, Rodriguez believes that to truly understand a language, you must forget the language that is already known to feel accepted in society. These ideas, similar to mine are not as simple as speaking two languages. To me the idea of bilingualism is respecting the two languages that are spoken by having the courage to speak them anywhere, at anytime.

I’ve always been in touch with my heritage and family. Even when I was young, I would go through books on Italian, constantly trying to roll my r’s or mess with the octaves of my still young and developing voice. While many of these memories I am fond of, I do have the occasional flashback of a slimy lump at the back of my throat, stumbling over words and pronunciation in front of patient relatives. Though, from my young studies I learned culture, of language-gaps and the struggle to adapt my then English-speaking self to also an Italian-speaking child, and I gained empathy. Of course, all people experience bilingualism differently, and as a white American I rarely received disappointed or violent backlash. For political writers like Martin Espada, and Robert Rodriguez, both have situations which are distinct from my own, and describe from two different points of view in being Latino and Spanish-speaking in America.

With the amount of raging debate America faces as the melting pot of cultures, the topic of multilingualism polarizes the nation to either hate it or love it, making it hard to compromise. Speaking on my part, being Hispanic, or simply one that the U.S identifies as a person with Spanish ethnic traits, I came to learn English as a second language. Learning English felt like a survival while also being a quest, the common case of speaking English at school and Spanish at home became a ritual. Occupied with learning English to feel acceptance, I didn’t find the necessity for schools to implement bilingual studies since I’m already a fluent Spanish-speaker. But, after reading Philip Carter’s article, Why this bilingual education ban should have repealed long ago, it also came to my consciousness that I’m not as “fluent” as I thought I was. Since the time I immigrated, I’ve lost most of my Spanish literacy skills, feeling distant to my mother tongue. In Franklin Raff’s article, American ‘multilingualism: a national tragedy, though I have some disagreements, I do find some reasonable points. Raff claims that different languages make conversation between people difficult and undesirable. There have been a few instances where I witness store clerks, be it cashier or associates, and most commonly nannies or housekeepers that solely speak Spanish. This brings difficulties when communicating with customers that only speak English. Even though having a communal language makes

Approximately 7 years ago, my grandmother got diagnosed with both Alzheimer’s and Dementia. From the beginning, doctors were quite explicit in stating how lucky she was to be bilingual because it will help preserve her cognitive functioning and delay her onset of symptoms, as is explored in a review by Bialstok, Craik, and Luk (2012). However, the concept of bilingualism helping cognitive functioning seems to be a topic of debate, challenged recently in a review by Paap, Johnson, and Sawi.

I first started developing my love for music as a small child. My father, who taught me to appreciate music, exposed me to the world of it. Of course as I grew, so did my love for music. When I sing, I can connect in a way, it seems, that no other can. Even as I read song after song, I never feel my love for music decrease. Each new piece I’m able to hear and sing becomes a part of me, and my heart. It’s important that we view bilingualism with this perspective, so we may learn to understand the importance of every language and culture. Our society is richer, and more complex when we include the cultures of others. Humans are more diverse with different languages.

Additionally, simultaneous acquisition is another way a child may learn two languages. Simultaneous acquisition refers to “child’s concurrent experience with two different languages beginning at about the same time in his or her life, typically during infancy” (Kohnert, 2008). Simultaneous acquisition can be from several methods including some examples of having a bilingual speaker come talk to a child when they are young or from a method called “one-parent—one-language”. In this method, one parent speaks the majority language to the child, and the other parent speaks the

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a pervasive problem in the United States, and is likely to become even more problematic as the population of older Americans grows in the coming years. In addition to the many genetic factors that contribute to AD, it has been suggested that cognitive reserve (CR) plays a role. CR is thought to mediate the relationship between language experience (LE) and later onset of AD in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, the literature on the proposed protective qualities of bilingualism is not conclusive. To help address questions about the relationship between bilingualism and later onset and/or lower incidence of AD, I proposed a large, prospective, longitudinal study of Americans. The collection of data on predictive variables, LE, and AD (if and when onset occurs) will be facilitated through collaboration among many US research institutions. These data will lend themselves to multiple-regression analyses. The results of this study will have important implications for Americans’ quality of life, as well as for the economy.

Nowadays, with continuous enhancement of economy and culture globalization, bilingual or multilingual speakers are increasing all around world. In United States, one out of five elementary school students speak another language other than English at home. Although some parents prefer their children exposed to monolingual environment, the mainstream trend is more and more children in America speak one language at home but another language at school, or use both first and second language at school. Bilingual education becomes more and more important for bilingual children growing up in target language environment. Commonly, children learn second language through two different sequences, one is simultaneous acquisition, and another is sequential acquisition. Which means they can choose to learn two languages at same time, or study second language after first language is well mastered. But for babies or toddlers under three years old, they seem to receive language passively; lots of people wonder how could these toddlers develop two languages and how could parents or bilingual educators guide them effectively. This paper aims to review literature on the aspect of language development of Bilingual toddlers; the theory results would contribute to effectively develop one to three years old bilingual toddlers’ language acquisition.

- Alan Davies (2003) says that when a person acquires a second-language at a very young age, the distinction between native and non-native speaker becomes ambiguous. And a child may be a native speaker of more than one language as long as the acquisition process start early.