Spanish is one of the most spoken non-English languages in the United States today. Around 37.6 million people from the ages of 5 and older speak Spanish at home. The number of Spanish speakers here in the US has grown rapidly over the last few decades and is expected to keep rising. (Gonzalez-Barrera & Lopez, 2013) A lot of children today are bilingual and there are many advantages to being bilingual and many disadvantages as well. Bilingual children are looked down upon many people because they seem to believe that they will mentally develop a lot slower than monolingual children due to the fact that they have to balance out two languages. Bilingual individuals are equally as advanced in their development as monolingual children are, if not, even more cognitively and socially advanced than people think. A bilingual person is someone who is able to speak two languages. People become bilingual by learning a second language at the same
A child cannot learn a second language just by being exposed to it; they must learn to interact with someone in that language so it is able to stick with the child. (Bialystok, Ellen, & Kenji, 1994) There are a lot of people who believe that being bilingual makes these children fall behind when they are in school, when there are actually a multitude of advantages to knowing two languages. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2015) these benefits include, being able to learn words easily, being able to breakdown words a lot easier when trying to read, good listening skills, and being a lot more open to new ideas. Sometimes a child might have a speech or language problem and it will show up in both the languages they are speaking but it is not caused from being bilingual. Centeno (2013) found 4 powerful benefits for a child to be bilingual. The first one being the emotional benefits, for example, if a child’s family’s native language is Spanish and the child knows Spanish,
As I have read multiple articles about what bilingualism means, I have come to understand that it’s more complex than just speaking two or more languages. The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides three definitions of bilingualism: (1) the ability to speak two languages, (2) the frequent use (as by a community) of two languages, and (3) the political or institutional recognition of two languages. Espada’s view of bilingualism seems more in line with the third definition, and Rodriguez’s view identifies with the second one. I have developed my personal view as a mix of the second and third definitions. Although Merriam-Webster provides concrete definitions for bilingualism, people like Espada, Rodriguez, and myself have developed their own interpretation of bilingualism based on our cultural backgrounds and community environments.
Bilingualism can be defined as the ability to speak and/or write in two languages. In Australia English is the main language although in 1996, statistics show that 15% (2.5 million people) of the Australian population communicate in a language other than English at home and 42% of the population is born overseas (Australian Bureau Statistics, 1996). Most recently there are around 22 million Australians that speak in approximately 400 different languages (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2009). These statistics highlight the fact that there is an increasing rate of people who communicate in more than one language hence language is increasingly changing throughout society (Arthur, 2001). This suggests the need for support and understanding of bilingualism within children, families and the community.
Overall, bilingual educational programs help students transition into a new environment, understand the interactions around them, and learn more. In conclusion, bilingual educational programs enhance the quality of life for those who make America their home. Works Cited Are People Who Speak More Than One Language Smarter? | Health | Learning English. " News | English | English.
The debate now is whether there is sufficient studies proving the effectiveness of Bilingual education and the need to continue it in many states. In 1998 Los Angeles County passed Proposition 227 to create bilingual education programs. (LA Times October 23.1998) Because of the passing of this bill many students were left in limbo waiting for teaching plans to be made. As well as the budget to be reformed to accommodate the extra expenses of a bilingual education programs, books, and to hire the proper teachers and aids to assists in the new bilingual classes. Often there are only a few children in a classroom being taught in their native language whil...
You might wonder how it is possible to not confuse two phonetically different languages. The individual's brain has two language systems that work simultaneously without altering the other. The brain becomes more alert, quicker to deal with problems and resolve issues. Bilingual individuals can also differentiate between the literal meaning of words and phrases because they can think beyond labels and stereotypes.
A true bilingual would be someone who can, in everyday life, effectively speak two languages, an ability which not only assumes the person in question is both perfectly fluent in their two languages and lives in an environment where they would have to (Byers-Heinlein). However, monolingual children usually know more words in one language than a bilingual might in two languages, meaning a bilingual cannot effectively communicate in either of their languages as well as a monolingual would (Byers-Heinlein). Also, one language is often favored over the other by bilinguals, meaning that even if you know two languages, you’ll probably use one much more often and a large amount more capably than the other one (Meisel). Although learning English when
Bilingual education in our schools is crucial: but still there is talk about banning the use of foreign language in the instruction of our young children. We have to work to change that kind of attitude. We have to proceed from the assumption that bilingual
Learning multiple languages opens doors for people not only in their local communities, but on a global scale. It has also been proven to advance cognition by improving conflict management, executive controls, and sound recognition. Students who are bilingual have two active languages in their minds and create flexible minds by constantly processing and translating in both languages. These mental activities are displayed to be beneficial through impressive academics. For these reasons, bilingual education in the United States is critical. Language is the single most important asset in human civilization. Prior to it, cave men communicated through grunts and images. Not only does language tie people together, but it also has an impact on one’s mentality and personal
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.
Many parents concerned about negative effects on child development. However, second language does not have any negative effects such as child’s speech delay or language confusion. Let’s look at r...
Bilingual education is important to enforce in schools because it not only helps students but their parents as well. Since their first language is not English, bilingual education will really help them because it not only helps them succeed in mainstream classes that give instructions in English, but also aims to preserve the native language as on is mastering English; they cannot learn if they do not understand what the teacher or professor is saying.
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.
BILINGUALISM is actually the two languages which are spoken in single family or rather it is imposed on children to learn parent’s two different languages.
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...
Bilingual Education is defined by the National Association for Bilingual Education as the utilization of two languages as mediums for instruction with the goal of language proficiency in one or both languages. The goal of bilingual programs is to achieve second language proficiency by using the student’s first language as the mechanism for instruction. May (2008) states that bilingual education programs can be categorized into either transitional or maintenance models. The focus of transitional bilingual education is to replace the student’s primary language with that of the target language. Maintenance, or dual language, models focus on the student learning both languages, often simultaneously. The most common two programs seen in schools around the United States are transitional models and dual language immersion