The Benefits Of Being Bilingual

The advantages of bilingualism can be seen throughout “Aria,” a memoir originally published in Hunger of Memory in 1980, written by the Mexican-American author Richard Rodriguez. In his writing, Rodriguez's shares his experience of how he gained a new identity because he had to learn English and adapt to a new society in America. The purpose of his memoir is to give the reader a sense of why bilingual education shouldn’t be used in school. Rodriguez's writing reaches out to supporters of bilingual education who may not see the benefits that can be gained from not having the program in school.

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.

“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

This nation is a place where different cultures come together and learn to coexist. From native America, Latinos, Asians and probably other nations that are not well known; they all have something in common which they all are bilinguals. Authors Cisneros, Agosin, Dumas and Tan clearly illustrate that being bilingual has both advantages and disadvantages.

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.

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

Has it never crossed your mind how handy it would be to speak the language of the country you are being on vacations – let say Russian, Chinese, or (why not?), Kurdish. This is, indeed, a rhetorical question because wherever you are from, you have already had for sure a cross-cultural encounter that may had not worked as well as desired... If you grow up being bilingual, you probably know exactly about which transactional problems while speaking we are talking about, yet being bilingual has much more benefits than disadvantages. For instance, being bilingual or even multilingual is not only helpful for travelling or working but for your mental health. Psysiological studies show people speaking several languages are assessed as better while performing cognitive tasks .

These days there are more and more people who live in a country where other language than their home language is spoken. This could be due to different reasons, like immigration of the whole family or having married a person from another country. When children are involved most parents would like them to be bilingual, but this does not happen automatically. Some effort is required.

Growing up as a child in a military family, I had the fortunate experience of living in many places in the United States and abroad. With each new living adventure, we often met new families who were of mixed backgrounds and many of the new friends I made had one parent that was American and another that was of non-American or non-English speaking nationality. As such, these new friends were often bilingual. I often pondered what it would be like to live in a household where more than one language was spoken and found myself intrigued by that prospect. By the time I reached middle school though, the duty stations were all located in the United States and the majority

A large number of studies suggest that bilingualism offers many benefits to cognitive skills, (Marian & Shook, 2012; Sternberg, 2009). For instance to maintain a balance between two languages, bilinguals has to rely more on brain executive functions such as attention and inhibition (the capacity to ignore competing perceived information on the environment and focus on important aspects of input). Additionally, people who are bilingual tend to have better conflict management skills. Researchers have found that compared to monolinguals,

Bilingualism, or the ability to understand and produce two or more languages, is an increasingly common ability in our increasingly diverse world. In the United States alone, there has been a 6% increase in the number of bilingual people in the country from 1990 to 2010, as observed by Hyon Shin and Robert Kaminski (2010). Opinions on the cognitive effects of being bi- or multilingual have changed drastically over the past several decades as well. Not very long ago, it was thought that speaking multiple languages would detract from an individual's cognitive abilities, as well as limiting their vocabularies and competence in either language. Particularly in the case of children, some people tried not to expose their children to more than one language because they thought it would result in language impairments and deficits, leading to poor results in school. However, today there is a growing branch of thought that there are in fact great cognitive benefits to bilingualism, particularly in the area of executive functions.

Learning a second language at a young age has long-term benefits that can be felt even in old age. As human’s age their brains atrophy, but bilingual people can delay the consequences of this damage. These individuals are constantly experiencing the world using two languages so, while a monolingual person remembers how to ride a bike in one language, a bilingual person stores that memory twice, once in their first language a once in their second. This allows bilingual

The human brain is capable of the most remarkable abilities. It doesn't just manage the human body, but it also allows us to communicate by processing, interpreting, and understanding language. Human beings use language as the main source of communication, it allows an individual to express her/himself with greater precision. Each country has their own language, and with language comes different accents and dialects. Speaking one language alone is enough for the brain to develop, as that language is being constantly used. When it comes to speaking two languages, that's when the brain is strengthened, the individual is more intelligent and is able to acquire knowledge more easily. The use of two languages is described by the phenomenon of bilingualism.The effects of bilingualism are linked to the functional neuroplasticity — the ability of the brain to modify its structure and function with experience. This neuroplastic effect leads to changes in personality in which a bilinguist is capable of not just switching languages but switching personalities as well. One can argue that it takes more than being bilingual to change brain activity and function, but most would agree that the benefits of bilingualism outweigh the drawbacks. Advanced technology has shown that bilingualism has improved cognitive control, changed brain activity over time to strengthen its neurons, and protect against age-related diseases. A major recent discovery over the effects of bilingualism is a

Researchers are continuously investigating methods of advancing human development. Many studies have explored the world of bilingualism and found a few surprising results. The skill of knowing two or more languages has been linked to a variety of cognitive benefits. Knowing more than one language has been proven to impact more than just the linguistic system of cognitive development. This essay will review the positive effects bilinguals experience through early and middle childhood along with adulthood. In addition, with a few of my personal believes and experiences.