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Cognitive development of language skills
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When it comes to the topic of a foreign language being taught at an early age, specifically kindergarten ages. Most of us will readily agree that it should. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of is it too much for children to remember and understand at an early age. Whereas some are convinced that younger brains can absorb more information, which is why foreign language should be taught in kindergarten, others maintain that children at that age may not be able to stay focused and understand all of the information. I agree that children should be taught foreign language at the kindergarten age because they achieve more on their academic studies also it increases their mental focus, it helps them to acquire knowledge …show more content…
The feeling of accomplishment that comes with their first steps toward a second language can motivate them on to a deeper and a visible desire for learning in general. The ease and pleasure of the experience of knowing a second language may boost their confidence and their desire for new discoveries. Bilingual children in one study reported in Nature showed an extensively larger density of grey matter in their brains, and those who had been open to the basics in a second language from an early age shown to have the greyest matter of all. Grey matter is responsible for processing information, including memory, speech and mental process. And if it can be increased by exposure to a second language, then language learning would be just like taking your brain to the …show more content…
Of course, many will probably disagree on the grounds that it may be too much for 2-5 year olds brain to understand what there being taught, some may enjoy it and some may not. Children at a young age are excited to start school but having too much on their plate will make him/her dislike school. Starting them off young will eventually become stressful because once they move on to a different grade the more challenging it will become, it’ll be having different subjects to learning and study for in school and to top it off learning a new language it would just make them want to quit and give
The brain has always had an amazing ability to adapt to its circumstances, an evolutionary edge, coupled with humanities capacity for reason and logic has made for quite a versatile organ. Researching neuroplasticity and non-synaptic plasticity can lead to a better understanding of how the brain adapts as well as how a normal brain functions. Neuroplasticity has the potential to affect brain mechanism related to emotional, motivational and cognitive processes (Crocker, Heller, Warren, O'Hare, Infantolino & Miller, 2012). Another functional and extraordinary ability of the brain is language. Language can define so much about how we think and yet after a brief window of time we find it very difficult to learn new languages. It is certainly not impossible to learn a second or third language but, it seems to be the case that plasticity occurs more with children (Giannakopoulou, Uther & Ylinen, 2013). Perhaps because plasticity can occur during developmental stages when language development is taking place or younger brains are just have more plastic potential. Understanding how plasticity and bilingualism interrelate can give us a better picture of how the brain deals with language, how this stimuli causes neuroplasticity to occur and how that plasticity can effect language functions. Does developing bilingual skills cause brain plasticity?
Some American children wish for the chance to be deeply in another language but as carla.umn.edu states, only about “260 schools are immersion out of about 100,000 schools in the United States”. At this point it’s just hard to find a good in depth immersion school to send a child to. Overwhelming People might say that learning two languages might be stressful for a kid, this might be true at the beginning but as they progress, it’ll become easier and they'll start seeing the benefits, as PandaTree says “It’s easier to acquire foreign languages as a
What a feeling! Learning a new language gives individuals a new way of thinking and feeling. Learning a new kind of language involves having total commitment and total involvement from students and teachers. In the article, Beyond English Development: Bilingual Approaches to Teaching Immigrant Students and English Language Learners indicates there are various standard definitions that describe language (Billings, Martin-Beltran, and Hernandez, 2010). Language is used to communicate with others and is essentially human, but not limited to only human beings. As individuals learn English as their Second Language, they learn that language is acquired by all kinds of people in the same way.
Personally, I feel like knowing multiple languages gives you a step up in today’s society where so many people speak languages other than English, but I cannot blame the children who only know one for only knowing one, can I? How do you compare students (and people) who know only one language to those who know more than one language? It is a difficult, and nearly impossible task I think to successfully compare the two groups without bringing some level of
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.
Today there is sufficient information available for educator and researchers regarding preschool English Language Learners (ELL). Help has come in the form of current research focuses on policies, strategies, incorporating home language in the curriculum, home school connection, preparation for second language, getting to know ELLs. NACY (2013), cites (Bialystok 2008; Kuhl 2009) the weight of current research indicates that becoming proficient in two languages is both possible for and beneficial to young children; bilingual preschoolers have shown increased cognitive linguistic and social-emotional advantages. These authors, also draw attention to a study (National Literacy Panel and the Center for research on Education
Having heard that with each language one learns, the next becomes easier, I have always through that learning languages does something incredibly beneficial for the brain. Research on the subject seems to indicate that in fact there are plenty of benefits of multilingualism spawning the phrase “the bilingual advantage.”
Recently, researches findings point out that the brain is a parallel processor which can perform many types of activities at the same time. Therefore, engaging language and brain will help in developing the process of acquiring and learning a second language.
Primary schools that introduce language learning at an earlier phase may do so for a number of purposes, but it is because of the benefits of learning a language at a younger age that this paper has chosen Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) as its target scheme of work. For the purpose of this assignment the focus language will be French (but the strategies to be discussed will apply to any MFL). The ideas within the scheme of work will be critically discussed as part of university experience, school practice and relevant research.
Learning to speak is the best ability anyone can attain. Being fluent in one language is already incredible, but being fluent in two or more languages? That is when things start to get interesting. In Jeffrey Kluger’s essay, “Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages,” he talks about the intellectual and practical benefits to being bilingual/multilingual. It is said that “the ability to speak two or more languages has a profound effect on [one’s] brain, from improving [one’s] analytical skills, to enhancing [one’s] cognition, to protecting [one’s] brain from dementia later in life” (125).
When a baby is born, he/she comes into this world eager to learn. Always taking in information and absorbing it like a new computer. Every experience he/she encounters could possibly stick in that baby’s mind. However, some of the things that a child hears or perceives can either benefit or corrupt their learning. Teaching a child a second language has the same concept as putting in new software in a computer. Many advantages come with a safe and powerful computer and the same would come with knowing a second language. If a child was not taught a second language in their early years, that child might be at a disadvantage in their future, and as that child grows up not knowing a second language could potentially hold him/her back with grades and obtaining a job. Knowing a second language can benefit from those things and can also help with keeping strong ties with their family, culture, community, and even music.
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...
The way children learn a second language faster have intrigued reseachers to conduct studies to learn the reasons behind their ability to learn. is it a biological advantage? or it have psychological and social factors. Reseachers have proposed reasons to why children acquire the language faster through studies on immigrants who had to learn the language faster due to a immigrating to a country with different language. Some researcher didn't agree to these studies they believe that adults learn languages better than children.
Research also confirms that children learn best in their mother tongue as a prelude to and complement of bilingual and multilingual education. Whether children successfully retain their mother tongue while acquiring additional languages, depends on several interacting factors.
When we know a new language, just we can start to see connections we couldn’t see before because each and every language approaches the world in a slight different way. As a result, we have the opportunity to understand the world from the respective of another culture and gain a greater appreciation of human society in all its diversity. Therefore, the importance of second language learning is gain reinforced. We became not just equipped to communicate across the cultures but empowered and to understand others’ point of view also.