1. Outline of the topic
The area of interest of this research proposal is bilingualism and its effect on children’s cognitive processes, also, analysing the way in which the educational system might or might not be prepared to accommodate bilingual children’s needs. The main question is whether and how the bilingualism could influence the learning process of children, and how educators can be properly guided to help these children develop intellectually and socially in class. Early years childhood development can majorly affected by the peer pressure of having to learn English as an Additional Language (EAL).
The discussion over bilingual education for young children focuses on different matters, such as culture and language maintenance,
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While researching it is very important, for early year practitioners to have an ethic consideration towards the effect the research interference will have in their development. The United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child and Children’s legislation highlights the importance of the voice of children, as they need to be heard, and that their opinion matters.
According to past literature, there are few key ethical issues when conducting a research that involves children, the author of this particular study highlights that before the researcher starts the study one should always consider the important ethical issues, in order to comply the appropriate requirements (Alderson, 1995).
Focusing on the research at hand, there are a few of these key points that need to be considered, always keeping in mind the child’s best interest. As a child so young cannot make the choices for themselves, the requirement of signed consent from parents will be needed. Also, make sure that the information is available for the family of the child, written in a different language, if necessary (Harker, 2000).
Always when conducting a research, the parties involved need to know their rights, in this case, they will be given the right information about the study and will be rightly informed of their right to withdraw at any time, either temporarily or
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Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities. Journal of Applied Research on Learning, 2(2), pp.1-21.
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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.
According with Jean Piaget whose theory on child development has been a great influence in education; language development is the most important phase during the Preoperational stage of cognitive development. During this stage children develop and build up their knowledge and vocabulary by asking questions and expressing ideas through words, images and drawings. This stage is considerate to happen from two years of to seven years of age (Kendra Cherry). Language development has direct implications in the intellectual development of a child, and it is one of the main tools to develop our thinking process. We use words to store and access memories or other information. For Latinos children and especially recent arrivals whose language is Spanish entering to school where their primary language (Mother tongue) has no validation neither use may be traumatic and even hinder their future opportunities to succeed in a school system that is complete foreign in concept and in language. In order to integrate and create opportunities for the Latino students to succeed the in the educational system we must create programs that address the specific needs of the Latino community such as bilingual education where students learn to speak, read and write in their mother tongue language first.
De Houwer, A. Two or more languages in early childhood: Some general points and practical recommendations (ERIC Digest). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. (1999)
Bilingual education in public schools has been the topic of much discussion over the last several years. This discussion has been prompted due to the ever increasing numbers of Spanish-speaking persons emigrating to the United States, especially in those states that border Mexico--California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. What the debate seems always to overlook is our country’s other non-English speaking members. This country is now and has always been the “Melting Pot” for the world with persons emigrating to this country from most every country in the world; however, we commonly gear the focus of bilingual education toward our Spanish-speaking citizens.
Padilla, Amado. "Bilingual Education: Issues and Perspectives." From Community to College, New York, St. Martin's Press 1992
Naturally, bilingualism needs to be taught from birth to be most effective, yet schools ignore this (Meisel).Moving right along, our current teaching methods take some amount of inspiration from ancient romans teaching greek in schools, ways that are extremely outdated (Porter). Much research is focused primarily on bilingual learners who have grown up bilingual, and exclude children who had only begun learning their second language in school (Meisel). Usually, the fears of the people directly involved in bilingual education are ignored by researchers of the subject (Meisel). In Byers-Heinlein’s article they state “A one-person-one-language approach is neither necessary nor sufficient for successful bilingual acquisition,” but later proclaims “In situations where each parent spends equal time with a child, one-parent-one-language can be a great way to ensure equal exposure” (Byers-Heinlein). Generally, the teachers who disagree with the current method of bilingual education are often afraid to speak out because they will be labeled racists, haters of foreign languages, and critics of immigrants (Porter). Moreover, despite the various differing opinions present in the communities of bilingual educators, debates on whether to keep it are not tolerated (Porter). Although, the difficulty with which current bilingual education would be changed would provide one of the few legitimate incentives for teachers to advocate their system; they don’t want to put in the effort to do so (Porter). As a matter of fact, ethnic education politics are one of the only reasons that the current methods are not already abandoned (Porter). Finally, “The case for the effectiveness of Transitional Bilingual Education is so weak that
The technique relies on a holistic approach that adopts instructions that allow students to actively participate in the learning process. This is easier for children that feel that the society appreciates their diversity through bilingualism and biliteracy. The society and parents need to encourage children to take up bilingual classes because they offer a lot of benefit to the society through favoring critical thinking, rationality, and sensitivity to other cultures, empathy, and detached or balanced awareness. However, Sonia Nieto mirrors a society that is made to fake being American and become ashamed of their family. It helps appreciate that it is not by choice that anyone speaks any other language as the first language and that the society and community influence the language of choice. Therefore, bilingualism cannot be detached from any community that freely promotes and accommodate the language spoken by the other community. Children and community members learn each other’s language without disregarding each other favoring effective learning that influences bilingualism and biliteracy in the long
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.
...n language and the development of literacy. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(2), 175-186. doi: 10.1080/13670050903474085
Rosenberg, M. (1996). Raising bilingual children. The Ambassador, The American School in Japan Alumni & Community Magazine, II(6), Retrieved August 14, 2010 from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Rosenberg-Bilingual.html
...thousands of years. Generally, bilingual education can mean any use of two languages in school, by teachers, students, or both – for a variety of social and pedagogical purposes. It also refers to the different approaches in the classroom that use the native languages of English language learners (ELLs) for instruction. These approaches include teaching English, fostering academic achievement, acculturating immigrants to a new society, and preserving a minority group’s linguistic and cultural heritage. Building on, rather than just discarding the students’ native-language skills, create a stronger foundation for success in English and academics. Also, if students learn languages at a younger age, it will be easier to remember and learn them, rather than if they were older. It helps to learn another language for students, and can later be useful in the future.
BILINGUALISM have both Positive and Negative effects on the Child’s linguistic, Cognitive and Educational Development.
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...
Early Childhood Care and Education, UNESCO (2007) points out the overlooked advantages of multilingual education in the early years. When children are offered opportunities to learn in their mother tongue, they are more likely to enroll and succeed in school and their parents are more likely to communicate with teachers and participate in their children’s
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.