“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way” - Frank Smith. This quote and many like it are some of the key reasons students should be taught a second language or at least attempt bilingualism at an early age rather than late high school and little in college. By the time the brain is nearly developed, and the space that could’ve been used for memorizing a new language would be used to save video game codes. Adding to the early education, they should also be able to explore more languages given in schools, rather than the Latin romance languages. From the following reasons, bilingualism should be taught at an earlier age to enhance more brain activity, bilingualism stands out more than monolingualism, …show more content…
However, from their research, bilinguals use more parts of the brain but doesn’t test higher than a monolingual tester. “Typically, English monolinguals show a decrease in speed and accuracy in their behavioral performance and an increase in the neural involvement of the LIFC (BA 44/45) during more complex (SO) versus less complex syntactic (OS) stimuli.” This means the tests and academics may be higher for monolinguals, but the results are low for reaction time and quick thinking in the real world. From experience as well, depending on what type(s) of languages you speak, the sentence structure and grammar would be significantly different. For an example, I speak Japanese and English. The sentence structure would be drastically different; “I like to play the violin.” would translate in Japanese to “I violin play like.” When it comes to learning a new language at an early age, it helps kids retain the knowledge gained from the new language. From Overhearing a Language During Childhood, “Our study focused on phonology and morphosyntax because these aspects of language seem easy for children to acquire and difficult for adults to master” Phonology and morphosyntax are the developing parts of the brain that processes the understanding of a new language from an older one. Phonology can be defined as, patterns of sounds in a language and across languages. Morphosyntax would be the grammatical aspect of the different languages. Phonology and morphosyntax would help truly identify the benefits of early education and whether students perform better than monolingual. It indeed
It is important to maintain children’s home language as it may help them learn and understand a second language. Barratt-Pugh (2000) discusses the benefits of bilingualism and maintaining it through early childhood settings, also mentions the concerns families have for their children maintaining two languages through schooling. Research within the article states that children who speak more than one language will have a higher level of understanding literacy content, form, genre, as well as understand the differences and translating within both languages. This demonstrates a contrast of strengths and experiences with literacy (linguist...
Bilingual education allows for an emotionally safe transition. This program lets children communicate in their native tongue, while being exposed to a new language. It's hard enough to be "the new kid" in school. It is easy to imagine the difficulty children have not being able to communicate with anyone and not understanding what is going on around them. Many argue that children will use the bilingual classroom as a crutch and will never learn English because of it. In actuality, it has been proven that children learn English faster if they are taught in their native language first. The goal of bilingual education is for students to learn while not falling behind. Without bilingual education programs, children come i...
There are more than 6,500 languages around the world. We can't control where we are born nor what will be our native language. Although, we can choose which we are going to speak as a second language. Speaking more than one language has obvious benefits in today's internationally growing world, and it has become common to know more than one. Being bilingual is a benefit, that one is never too old nor too ahead to experience and learn from
Right now, imagine a person in a future job. More than likely that person will encounter somebody speaking a language besides their native tongue. If someone would find themselves in that position, would they be prepared? There is a growing need for translators and other jobs that require a different language other than English. Demands for bilingual workers have doubled in the past five years, and employers say that job is now one of the highest requests by employers when applying for a job opportunity in the US. The Army, NYPD, and the State Department all can’t get enough workers with this important job skill (Kurtz). A second language should be mandatory in American schools because it makes employees more marketable, creates social interaction with different cultures, and increases cognitive skills.
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
Many people against second language learning argue that learning a second language is meaningless because it is never used after learning it and is soon forgotten. The problem is the country’s secondary language education methods. Rather than teaching at a young age, which they should, they make it mandatory at the high school level. Making children learn a second language at a young age is a better method because the earliest years of childhood are a critical period and at a later time, the brain’s ability to learn a new language is greatly diminished (Richards). Another problem is that most often, there isn’t enough repetition of what is learned in order for it to “sink in” to the memory of students. If taught at a young age and maintained throughout that students’ academic career, not...
...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.
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
It can be said that the subjects of this study are considered Balanced Bilinguals, because the five subjects speak both languages fluently, however, this depends upon the topic and their location. This will be seen later. Fishman (1971) “argued that rarely will anyone be equally competent across all situations. Most balanced bilinguals will use their two languages for different purposes and with different people. For example, a person may use one language at work; the other language at home and in the local community.”
“BILIGUALISM positive impacts are much less than that of negative but the most important advantage is that child become active and their intellectual become more and more sharper as he seek more of dual languages”
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.
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...
Language has pioneered many interracial relationships and historical milestones. Language is a necessity for basic communication and cultural diversity. Being multilingual is a skill proven influential to a successful future. Due to rapid globalization, countries all over the world are stressing the importance of learning a second, or even third, language. With the exception of time and lack of resources, adults have very few widely applicable disadvantages to learning multiple languages. However, language learning as a child presents more complications. Some of those include not having enough funding at the elementary school level to introduce a program for secondary language, academic overload for the youth, stress for both the parent and student parties, and the mixing of languages. Not all of these complications are true in any or all situations, however, and the absence of them provides multitudes of opportunity for future career and academic success. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parents or the education legislation to decide whether they encourage the learning of a secondary language at the young age necessary for retention. “The general consensus is that it takes between five to seven years for an individual to achieve advanced fluency,” therefore the younger a child begins to learn, the more likely they are to benefit to the maximum potential (Robertson). Keeping the language learning in high school or beginning the process earlier is a greatly controversial discussion that is important to address because of the topic’s already lengthy suspension.
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.
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