This research topic concerning bilingual children’s advantages arises from the dominance of cognitive development, executive function, but mainly their attention that makes bilingualism an advantage overall. Bilingualism accompanied specifically by the role of attention works together perfectly as an enhanced benefit for those who fluently speak two languages. In order for this undiscovered gain to be established, research comparing bilinguals with monolinguals had to commence. Peal and Lambert initially stated that bilingual children would obtain lower scores on verbal measures, but surprisingly bilingual children outscored their monolingual peers on all tests! These unanticipated results brought forth the argument that bilingual children …show more content…
showed “enhanced mental flexibility” because they had to flip back and forth between languages, thus was born the idea of the bilingual advantage. Since then, many studies have tried to pinpoint the source of this extraordinary advantage through testing inhibition, monitoring, and working memory. Yet, none have been identified as the sole responsible executive function for bilingual advantages, so broader studies are being tested. The effects of bilingualism improves and strengthens cognitive skills related and not related to language. The inhibition that suppresses one language and then allows the bilingual to switch and focus on the other language forces the brain to resolve inner conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. In the end, it was concluded that “the bilingual advantage is not in inhibition; rather it is the failure of bilinguals to inhibit attention to the non-target language that leads to the involvement of executive function and the eventual consequences for its development and function” (Bialystok, 2015). The importance of understanding the effect of bilingualism affects individuals on a large scale, as well as our society as a whole.
Individually, when bilinguals bear in mind the fact that their ability to speak two languages helps their cognitive skills in strengthening development and function of attention, their self satisfaction should escalate. This is a blessing, not a hindrance. In America, people wrongfully look down upon foreigners as they arrive in the States, learn a second language, while also cling to their native language and cultural values. Monolingual Americans unjustifiably believe they have the advantage over these future bilinguals. What they do not know is when bilinguals master two languages and put into practice brain plasticity and cognitive development they will surpass and excel monolinguals with flying colors. It is proven through research that bilinguals outscore their monolingual peers again and again by more quicker, attentive, and accurate results. They should take pride in their hard work and consistent pressing motives to master a new language, hold onto their first, and do not compare themselves to the native monolinguals surrounding them. The Associated Press reports that up to 66 percent of the world’s children are raised bilingual (2001). Consequently, with those numbers society is humbled in understanding the bilingual advantage. It is comforting to be reminded of such an enriched advantage in bilingualism, even though monolinguist society disputes otherwise. Honestly, respect and acceptance in understanding the role of bilingualism plays an influential performance in bringing individuals and society
together. Now that we have describe the importance of understanding this issue as a society, let’s focus on the mini yet udderly matchless mastermind behind it all. The human brain is an extraordinary organ. It has unlimited amounts of learning capacity and the beautiful ability to mold, sculpt, or modify itself as we grow older and continue to learn more. Neuroplasticity is one of the first things we learned in this course and it respectively applies to understanding the topic of bilingualism, role of attention, and the development of executive functions. Brain plasticity refers to the potential that the brain has to reorganize by creating new neural pathways to adapt, as it needs. So the question is, what does neuroplasticity have to do with learning a second language? Actually, it would almost be impossible to learn a new language without the brain’s neuroplasticity. In order to master another language it takes attention and memory. Parts of the brain that allow us to function in those aspects include the thalamus, hypothalamus, brainstem, and cerebral cortex. These are all a part of the brain’s reticular activating system, or RAS (Attention, 2015). Before this class I would not have been able to tell you what any of these systems did, but now it is easier for me to list their functions and see how they all interconnect and run together to get the job done. Not to mention, if there is deficit or disorder present we are able to look back and trace the cause. The world is unaware of the bilingual advantage, including bilinguals themselves. Being bilingual positively affects an individual’s cognitive processes, attention, metalinguistic awareness, and mental flexibility. Firstly, to bring awareness upon this topic I would evidently list all improvements bilinguals have over monolinguals. A few advantages include individual creativity, ability to solve problems, attentional control, inhibitory control, task switching, reading ability, and a number of others. Bialystok’s research and results support the statement that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on almost all tests and that the role of attention is the evident cause (2015). Now that everyone is aware of this powerful advantage it would be even more helpful to promote the long time health benefits. We know that bilingualism has an extremely positive effect on attention, but many people still do not know that speaking two languages can surprisingly setback neurological diseases. Research suggests that bilingualism may delay the onset of age-related dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, by up to four years. Although scientists don’t know why bilingualism creates this “cognitive reserve,” some theorize that speaking two languages may increase blood and oxygen flow to the brain and keep nerve connections healthy—factors thought to help ward off dementia (Sohn, 2013). Wouldn’t you want to be able to ward off such diseases just by studying a new language? The last step to promote awareness of this topic is to personally encourage and applaud bilinguals in their success. Yes, it is impressive, but we do not give them near enough credit. By sharing our enthusiasm and supporting one another, this world could become a more attentive and intelligent creation thanks to the spreading of bilingualism.
Learning new languages and cultures enhance the brain, but getting rid of them erases the soul. Bilingualism is an abstracted, virtually undefined word that seems to be stirring up complex discussions amongst various people. One example of the debating participants is Martin Espada with his essay, The New Bathroom Policy at English High School. He believes that the Spanish-speaking and English-speaking societies should coexist in harmony. Another example is Richard Rodriguez with his story, Hunger of Memory. He sees Spanish and English as two divergent worlds that shouldn’t interact. I believe that people should learn multiple views on bilingualism so we, as a whole, can figure out our difference and embrace, not erase, them.
This essay will demonstrate the research that is implemented on children with bilingual ability; discussing three main issues in bilingualism which is: the maintaining children’s first language, social and cognitive benefits, also why bilingualism should be in cooperated into school programming/curriculum.
Bilingual education offers a completely different world for students of different ethnic background and thus creates a comfort zone limiting the risk-taking factor necessary for the maturation of a child to an adult. Rodriguez argues supporters of bilingualism fail to realize "while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality" (Rodriguez 26). He explains that the imperative "radical self-reformation" required by education is lost by offering bilingual education and such a program suggests a place where the need for a sense of public identity disappears. A bilingual program gives a student the opportunity to be separated from real life and institutes a life that leaves out an essential understanding of the world. Bilingual students do not know the complexities of their world, including emotion, ethics, and logic, because the bilingual program secludes the eager minds to a much simpler, more naïve idea of how the society works, leaving out the confidence of belonging in public. This situation not only limits the education experience for non-English speaking students, but also hinders the further education of English speaking students by erecting a communicat...
In the article, “Public and Private Language”, Richard Rodriguez argues that bilingual education delays learning a “public language” and developing a public identity”. I can relate to Richard’s story because my family and me moved to America when I was young and we also had the same struggle learning a new language. I agreed with Rodriguez when he expressed that he didn’t feel like a true American until he mastered the English language because English is the first and main language in America.
American Bilingual Learning American children are competing with a lot of different countries in academics and according to quartz “might help employers choose easier because they look for language and speech”. This can also help with learning other languages because of similar sounds and mouth shapes. America these days has failed to keep their bilingualism like the rest of the world in fact, there is only about 260 bilingual schools in the country! America needs to reclaim their use for bilingualism Helping Graduates With Getting Jobs Being bilingual helps increase your chances of being hired, as Transparent Language states that there is not many open slots for jobs out there. With that being said “employers are looking for additional
From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.
I grew up going to a bilingual school where most of the students were Latinos. Since it was close to the border, it was reasonable that most of the kids were Latinos because a lot of them came from Tijuana, Mexico. My first speaking language was Spanish, so it was hard for me as well as the kids that cross the border to understand English. As I grew up going into junior high my classes were all English and with no Spanish. I certainly believe that we, the bilingual kids are lucky enough to know two languages. Yes, it’s America and the spoken language is English, but because it’s only English, then we shouldn’t discriminate against Spanish speaking. Many laws have passed that state that the bilingual classes should be cut, by either spending less time teaching Spanish or just offering for one or two years. Bilingual classes should stay and have more support from the federal government to fund more classes. Being bilingual has many benefits because not only do you know two languages, but you have more of a chance to get a higher position in a job because of the s...
If being monolingual helps children learn concepts, vocabulary and speech patterns faster than their bilingual classmates, then it’s advantageous to be monolingual. However, if being bilingual assists children in these areas and monolinguals fall behind, it is better to be bilingual. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of both bilingualism and monolingualism can help educators, caregivers and parents understand what they can expect from their children. Bibliographic Reference:.. Axmear, E., Reichele, J., Alamsaputra, M., Kohnert, K., Drager, K., & Sellnow, K. (2005). Synthesized speech intelligibility in sentences: A comparison of monolingual English-speaking and bilingual children.
There have been many claims, but it seems that there are six principal areas where the bilingual brain benefits. Those are learning in general, complex thinking, creativity, mental flexibility, and interpersonal communication skills. And lets not forget the effect of delaying dementia and keeping the brain functioning effectively longer. The authors note that “although it is difficult to prove the existence of a direct causal link, it is likely that multilingualism produces a special advantage in utilizing a person 's brain capacity as creatively as possible” (Academy of Finland, p.1). Thus, it might require further and more careful study to be able to directly prove or disprove the real effects on
There is a “CORELATION” between the effects of “BILINGUALISM AND THE COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN”.
The development of the brain of a bilingual individual is better than a monolingual individual. Few years ago, researchers from the University of Washington (as cited in Klass, 2011, para 4.) found that the brains of bilingual infants (from families where two languages were spoken) are able to discriminate the different of the phonetic sound of the languages they usually heard when they grew up than monolingual infants in where their brains were adapted to only identify their mother tongue only. Dr. Patricia Kuhl, one of the members of this research team thus believe that bilingual education can shape infants’ brains and keep them ready for future challenges. Concurrently, a renowned psychologist, Dr. Ellen...
Before addressing the topic at hand, there needs to be an understanding of more broad topics and questions. These topics include what bilingualism is, the difference between being fluent and bilingual, and factors which could lead to a child becoming bilingual. Most believe that someone who is bilingual merely speaks two languages, but that is not very specific. What does being bilingual even mean? Some sources say it is someone who is fluent in two languages, but being fluent is not specific either. There is a difference between being bilingual and being fluent in another language. Webster's Dictionary states that being fluent is being able to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately. One can be fluent in a language, but this definition does not translate well when relating to someone who is multilingual. Aneta Pavelnko, a Temple University researcher, found that when analyzing children who were Russian-English bilingual, in Russian, the bilingual children called a cup a "chashka", rather than native Russian children would refer to it as a "stakan" which translated to glass (Francois Grosjean Ph.D.). Francois Grosjean, Ph.D. stated that when studying English-French
Should Americans be more open to learning a second language? Studies conducted by scientist show that people who are bilingual have an advantage both physical and mental over people who are only monolingual. The studies conducted have shown small benefits that will have a larger impact in life with those who are bilingual compared to those who are monolingual. Results of the studies and test have shown that both adults and children who are bilingual are more empathetic towards others and have an easier time multitask as opposed to their monolingual counterparts. Other studies conducted have also shown a long-term benefit of being bilingual will help slow metal detrition as well as with finances in the future.
In 2009, teachers of a New Jersey school banned foreign languages and stated, “any language other than English will not be tolerated" (Debaron 1). This situation was soon no longer allowed. While over ten percent of the total adolescent education systems contain emergent bilinguals, a whopping sixty percent of those students are educated in only English (Bale). Maria Estela Brisk, a Boston College Education professor, believes, “schools has wasted much energy in the search for a "perfect" model and the best way to learn English” when they could just focus on proving “quality education” to every student in the system (1). Teacher’s main priority should consist of effectively teaching their students to prepare them for the future, but currently there are a lack of certified bilingual education teachers. When students are taught more in different ways, they can educationally benefit their cognitive abilities, involving the brain with “mathematics, problem solving, logic and memory”, can be improved to create an overall better student. Even by learning another language at a earlier age can contribute to __________. Learning another language will be
As time goes by and as the global community develops, the world grows more and more international, making second or third language acquisition become necessary to the majority. With the growing importance of multiple language ability, more and more parents think of bilingual or multilingual education, which means acquisitions of two or more languages, for their kids. In fact, we do have many reasons showing why multilingual education is important and beneficial, such as aspects of interpersonal relationship, employment, brain health, and so on.