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the benefits of learning foreign languages
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the benefits of learning foreign languages
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The bilingual cognitive advantage
Recent research has posited beneficial effects of bilingualism on linguistic cognitive abilities in two major areas: metalinguistic awareness and EF (Bialystok, et al., 2012). However, these major areas are not unitary systems; they include subcategories. This paper shed lights into them, while discussing cognitive control extensively in the next section.
Metalinguistic awareness
Metalinguistic awareness refers to ‘the ability to manipulate linguistic units and reflect upon structural properties of language’ (Kuo et al, 2011). Since it is not a unitary component (Bialystok, 2001), research always classifies it into subcomponents. The majority of research deals with specific aspects of linguistic structure. Thus, dividing metalinguistic awareness into four components: lexical, phonological, syntactic and semantic awareness (Chin & Wigglesworth, 2007).
Giving the fact that metalinguistic awareness is not a single unit; different aspects of metalinguistic awareness reveal different correlates. While research about lexical awareness supports monolingual superiority (Chin & Wigglesworth, 2007), phonological awareness studies show discrepancy (Adesope et.al, 2010). It follows that not all research findings support bilingual superiority in all metalinguistic aspects. Some, report disadvantage or no difference between monolinguals and bilinguals, despite the fact that null significance is rare because journals interested more in dramatic findings (Bialystok, 2001; Adesope et.al, 2010).
Executive functions
This umbrella term compromises ‘various complex cognitive processes and sub-processes (Elliott, 2003). It refers to ‘the set of abilities that allows an individual to select an action that is appr...
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...ya, J., & Bialystok, E. (2011). The effects of bilingualism on toddlers’ executive functioning. Journal of experimental child psychology, 108(3), 567-579.
Pratte, M. S., Rouder, J. N., Morey, R. D., & Feng, C. (2010). Exploring the differences in distributional properties between Stroop and Simon effects using delta plots. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(7), 2013-2025.
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John B.Watson, R Rayner, (February, 1920), Journal of Experimental Psychology, Conditioned Emotional Reactions, Vol. lll, No. i.
Kapantzoglou, M., Restrepo, M., & Thompson, M. S. (2012). Dynamic Assessment of Word Learning Skills: Identifying Language Impairment in Bilingual Children. Language, Speech & Hearing Services In Schools, 43(1), 81-96. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0095)
Mental flexibility is superior in bilingual children since learning two language forces their minds to process two language systems at one time. Bilingualism promotes divergent (a divergent thinker is someone who thinks of many possible solutions to a problem) and creative thinking (Baker, 144-145). This increase of creative thinking gives a wider variety of associations (Baker, 145-146). Bilingualism is also associated with increased meta-cognitive flexibility and better performance on certain perpetual tasks, such as recognizing a perpetual object “embedded” in a visual background or classification tasks (Marian, et al.,1). Their divergent thinking helps relevant aspects of a problem may become more salient to bilingual children since their experiences with two language systems and cultures enable them to incorporate different perspectives to the solution (Bialystok, 2001 pg. 204). Bilingualism promotes divergent thinking that is caused by greater cognitive flexibility.
The participants were the twenty-seven students of Professor David Otis' Experimental Psychology class. The group of twenty-seven was split into smaller groups. We were not paid with pecuniary funds, but we did receive partial credit towards our final grade in the class.
Donegan, Craig. “Debate over bilingualism.” CQ Researcher. 19 January 1996. 6, 49-72. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.
In this online blog entry, Elizabeth Landau claims that bilingualism can be very beneficial to one’s cognitive abilities. Her first sub-claim is that bilinguals retain better cognitive function as the body grows older. The grounds for this sub-claim is a reference to Ellen Bialystok’s study on Alzheimer’s patients revealing that bilinguals were several years older than monolinguals at similar phases of neurological impairment. The findings from this study support Landau’s main claim because it shows that bilinguals’ cognitive abilities regressed at a much slower pace than those of monolinguals’. The work of Bialystok is credible since she is affiliated with York University in Toronto, Ontario, and the research that Landau refers to in this blog entry are all from presentations at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Landau’s second sub-claim is that bilinguals are better at multitasking. She supports this sub-claim with Judith Kroll’s research that has found bilinguals better suited to multitasking because of their heightened attention skills. This is most likely because bilinguals are perpetually inhibiting one language in favor of the other, which gives them an enhanced ability to tune out irrelevant information. Once again, these grounds are credible and scholarly because Judith Kroll is a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, and like Bialystok, Kroll presented these findings at the annual conference. More importantly, Landau uses Bialystok’s research for support because the multitasking skills found among bilinguals correlate with improved cognitive abilities. The warrant here is that mult...
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.
First benefit is a better achievement in school and academically. Studies show that bilingual children have better reading and writing skills, also easily can learn third language. Carey Myles says: "Bilingualism has been linked to a variety of positive cognitive benefits, including early reading, improved problem-solving skills, and higher scores on the SATs, including the math section." Myles also claims that bilingual children have been shown to demonstrate "better listening perception" and that they "recognize that language is symbolic and are more skilled in communication” (2003). Also,research found that bilingual kids are able to better concentrate, stay focused on a subject in a classroom. Because this is an important factor, these children have a greater readiness and success in school. (Lust, B., 2006).
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...
Hypothesis: Bilingual brains are better at temporarily storing and manipulating information in working memory in their first language, but varying in the second.
Lambert et al. who was the first one who used the term balanced bilingual to describe those who have native-like competence. Fishman (1972) argued that one can speak two languages fluently...
LANGUAGE FLUENCY is also affected for bilinguals because they became confused and double minded before choosing appropriate words for particular object in particular
Previously it was believed and found that being bilingual could reduce cognitive ability but these findings are already falsified. The most important benefit of being bilingual is the improvement of the executive control. It is mostly found with brain imaging technics. As the second or more language learn, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain becomes more active. This area is mostly associated with problem solving, attention control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. This augmented executive control can be found in all developmental stages. In a Bialystok’s research (1999, 2004), 4- to 5- years old bilingual children accomplished better scores than their monolingual counterparts in the dimensional-change card-sort task. Moreover, in another study (Bialystok, Luk, & Kwan, 2005), in the Children’s Embedded Figures Task, bilingual children were abler to see the both sides of the ambiguous figure. These tasks require perceptual analysis and also the second task requires hindering the original meaning of the stimulus. Additionally, bilingual children were more successful in the Several Reaction Time Tasks and they have smaller Simon Effect (Bialystock, Craik, Klein & Viswanathan, 2004). On the other hand, being a bilingual is not all positive. Bilingual children, show very limited vocabulary knowledge when they are compared with their monolingual counterparts; and this limitedness can be seen across the life-span (Bialystok, 2011). They also have lower scores in the tasks that are required rapid lexical access and retrieval. Furthermore, they have difficulties in the Picture-Naming Tasks, Verbal-Fluency Tasks; they experience more tip-of-the-tongue states and reveal more obstacles in lexical decisions. In addition, in a study which compares monolinguals, bilinguals and speech-sign bilinguals, higher scores in nonverbal flanker task, which displays higher executive control, were only found for verbal bilinguals
Weiner, I. Healy, A. Freedheim, D. Proctor,R.W., Schinka,J.A. (2003) Handbook of Psychology: Experimental psychology,18, pp 500
Charlemagne once said that “to have another language is to possess a second soul.” Over half of the world population speaks more than one language and around 25% of the world’s countries have two or more official languages. Multilingualism used to be viewed as a disadvantage – especially among children- since researches appeared to show that multilingual persons had more problems such as confusion language compared to a monolingual person. But for the past decades, studies actually started to show benefits that multilingualism brought such as the superiority of bilingual children and adults in performance on tasks requiring cognitive control and the resistance of bilingual brains to cognitive decline.