The Benefit Of Bilingualism

Being bilingual is a tool that can enhance someone’s life tremendously. The development of this tool can happen either simultaneously or successively.

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.

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.

In the summer of 2017, a young man named Justin went to Mexico for the first time to visit family. Justin, speaking only English, struggled to communicate with those around him where the main language spoken in that country is Spanish. Here, being bilingual would sure be handy. Knowing more than one language, becomes beneficial in class, or when people are trying to communicate with each other, or possibly even to order food. Learning a second language should be mandatory for kids and also adults for the advantages they will earn, for a sense of belonging, and also to find ways of teaching others about another dialect.

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.

“Fob,” “Speak English!” and “Do you understand?” were questions and statements I received constantly as a child. I was born a legal citizen in America, but the discrimination I got for being Vietnamese lingered upon me for the first six years of my life. I grew up in a predominant Asian household due to my grandma’s inability to speak English; therefore, English was rarely spoken. The fear of being made fun of or laughed at prevented me from leaving my house. Beginning grade school, my teachers would have to slow down their lessons in order to keep me caught up. As I started school and was forced to learn English, I gained self confidence and a sense of belonging with the community. Being able to speak two different languages and celebrate both cultures allowed me to step out into the world and be myself. However, Richard Rodriguez grew up completely different from me. Although we both have two immigrant parents, his bilingualism separated him from the outside world and caused a division between his public and private languages. Whereas Martin Espada, who grew up in America, considers bilingualism as an identification of who people are and fights for bilingual education with his heart.

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.

Society has raised false beliefs or misinforms people when it comes to educating a bilingual child. People have a lack of information about language acquisition and how the brain is a powerful organ with the ability to learn multiple languages. Today 's adults have different opinions when is time to make the decision if they should raise their children in a bilingual home or not, and at the end they do not know what to do. The advances in science have given us more information on early childhood and how children are capable of learning in different ways. Also, has proven how a young child can learn two or more languages at the same time. However, a question that has been asked by parents multiple times is what are the benefits of raising a

With technology and travel, our culturally diverse planet has become a global melting pot and while the division of nations and nationalities still exists, all countries are comprised of individuals from various nationalities. As such, a great benefit of bilingual educations is that they often afford their students ample professional opportunities and tend to open more employment doors. Houston happens to be a perfect example of how and why bilingual education is important because as the 4th most populous city in the United States, it is also one of the most culturally diverse cities in the nation. With that, the need for individuals who speak languages other than English is an important attribute and is indicative as to why an incorporation of bilingual education can be helpful. Mizab and Bahloul note “[t]he 21st century is shaped to keep pace with the requirements of our interrelated world. The role of translators shifted as well from transferring meanings between languages to a more sophisticated cluster of professions: they become ‘language services providers’” (p.190). Though there are many people who “believe” that

I found an artcle on hufflingtonpost that talks about the benefits of being bilingual. The article states that people who speak multiply laguages have a higher level of mental flexibility than people who only speak one language. In the past bilnguals were looked down on. When you're swichting languages all the time, it strengthens your mental muscle and your executive function becomes enrached. There was an experiement performed on both spanish and english speakers to see if both lagunages were active in their minds at all time. At first the subjects 512 sentences in either english or spanish, switch between the two every two sentence. They had to read cognates out load in red as quicky as possible. The results show bilnguals rarely said a

More than half of the people around the world speak more than one language. In the US, a fifth of the population between the ages five and older speaks another language in addition to English. There are conflicting views on whether bilingualism offers more benefits than drawbacks. The almost obligatory question is: does bilingualism provides a greater benefit than just talking and understanding to people with different languages. This paper short-paper aims briefly explain some findings in these regards. It also examines the pros and cons of acquiring language at different ages. And finally, discusses how being bilingual can help people in their work environment.

First of all, bilingual education has shown to be able to increase the attention span of students. For years it had been believed that, when learning two languages, students found themselves to become increasingly distracted and confused, unaware of which language to use in what moment. Today, however, scientists can see that that is far from the case. In fact, if a student

Scholars assert that data suggests progressively beneficial effects of bilingualism throughout the lifespan. It has been found that bilingualism could prevent age-associated cognitive deficits1.

Having greater cognitive skills at their disposal enables bilingual children to outperform monolingual children in several tasks. Jeffrey Kluger writes in his article that, “Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling different ideas,” (Kluger). Bilingualism affects the brain in several beneficial ways that put bilinguals in a very satisfying position compared to their monolingual peers. Further research by Jeffrey Kluger shows, “A bilingual brain...is proving to be a more flexible, more resourceful one,” (Kluger). By having more resourceful brains compared to monolinguals, bilinguals can perform tasks more efficiently. This results in benefits from nearly every action taken by a bilingual. However, the benefits in terms of the brain continue. A new, small study by Northwestern University researchers says, “People who speak two languages have enhanced hearing processing, which improves their attention and memory skills,” (Preidt). Enhanced hearing processing, which means the ability to filter out whatever one is listening to, in bilinguals results in being able to pay attention much more efficiently, thus resulting in a quick understanding of whatever one may be listening to. This enhanced processing occurs because of how being bilingual changes the way the nervous system responds to sound (Preidt). These changes come automatically from being bilingual and are further enhanced the more a person is fluent in their second language (Preidt). Viorica Marian, an expert in bilingualism and associate professor of communication sciences, says in a university news release, “It seems that the benefits of bilingualism are particularly powerful and broad, and include attention, inhibition and encoding of sound,” (Preidt). The attention,

On January 23rd, 2018, Medical News Today published an online news article discussing a study that considers potential benefits of bilingualism on children that have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). There has been an expansion on studies that look at the benefits bilingualism poses on executive functions, which include attentional control, inhibiting behavior and working memory. For the specific study, they decided to test whether kids who are bilingual and diagnosed with ASD can shift between different modes at a smoother rate than monolingual kids with ASD. The study used 40 children, 20 of which were typically developing (10 monolingual and 10 bilingual) and 20 who were diagnosed with ASD (10 monolingual and 10 bilingual).