Today we live in a world where a matric certificate is no longer enough to achieve success. We live in a society where cultural and ethnic diversity are more frequent than ever before. One thing that has become increasingly relevant in today’s society is Bilingualism. In Africa we are fortunate to have many languages surrounding us, however, in the educational system we need to involve bilingualism so that all individuals can benefit from education. In this essay the discussion of whether bilingualism is beneficial or not in an educational system will be discussed. Harley (2008) describes Bilingualism as a speaker whom is proficient in two languages. It is not necessary for the individual to be fluent in both languages but they should be competent …show more content…
However, the way in which the author explained bilingualism and how individuals in different situations use this ability added to the understanding of what occurs when one is in the situation to learn a L2 and what occurs to ones L1 while in this environment, this presented a very interesting and fascinating argument which added to the understanding and knowledge of bilingualism. The evidence the author provided with the different tests that were explained in depth backed this up. On this point, everything that the author stated had a study to prove its validity and reliability; this is important as it allows for the reader to be reassured that what they are reading is in fact true. Baker explored many areas of bilingualism in education and even though there was excessive information it helped with the comprehension of the topic that he wrote about. The experiments that the author used were highly beneficial as they added to the comprehension of the article. These experiments were explained in terms that were comprehendible as well as acted as examples to each statement that the author …show more content…
The scores received by all the children on all measures were used to calculate an average of the three groups, which contained 17 children each, that were tested (Stevens, 2005). The three groups consisted of the experimental French kindergarten group and the two control groups, English kindergarten and no kindergarten (Stevens, 2005). From each of the results there were 3 main trends that were recognized when comparing the results (Stevens, 2005). The Effect of Pre-School Bilingual Experience, the two controlled groups were combined to create the ‘monolingual group’, these children’s pre-school language experience had been in a single language and their performance was compared to the performance of the experimental group which were the ‘bilingual group’ therefore these children’s pre-school experience involved exposure to a second language (Stevens, 2005). The results showed that the bilingual group scored higher on the four of the tests that were done (Stevens, 2005). No difference was present in the two tests that consisted of recognition of the beginning word sounds and blending sounds (Stevens, 2005). The second result on the Effect of Beginning Grade One in a Second Language, each of the three groups had ten children beginning grade one in English and seven beginning grade one in French (Stevens, 2005). Children in the English grade one
Opinion Editorial By Hassan Abdi In the article written by Richard Rodriguez, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, he conveys an opinion that Bilingual education doesn’t work. He conveys it through his personal experience. Published by the Phi Beta Kappa to the American Society in 1981, the audience and his message are a broad and important now as it was thirty five years ago. As the amount of children that don’t speak English as their first language continue to rise, bilingual education has become a polarizing topic like most things, and for me, I am neutral on the topic. A form of bilingual education has failed me, but, for most students it benefits in the long term, and it 's not right to dispel one side of the topic to push your own
Richard Rodriguez, the author of Aria, develops a personal intake and personal experience on the topic of bilingual education. He uses different rhetorical devices throughout his essay, which include juxtapositions and antithesis. In paragraph 5 of the essay, Rodriguez states that “…it is not possible for a child—any child—ever to use his family’s language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life – a family’s ‘language,”( Rodriguez, Paragraph 5). Rodriguez cultivates this claim by explaining the purpose or the definition of bilingual education and what this education is meant to accomplish. The definition of bilingual education is,”…a program that seeks to permit non- English speaking children…to use their family language as the language of school,” (Rodriguez, Paragraph 5).
Individually, when bilinguals bear in mind the fact that their ability to speak two languages helps their cognitive skills in strengthening development and function of attention, their self satisfaction should escalate. This is a blessing, not a hindrance. In America, people wrongfully look down upon foreigners as they arrive in the States, learn a second language, while also cling to their native language and cultural values. Monolingual Americans unjustifiably believe they have the advantage over these future bilinguals. What they do not know is when bilinguals master two languages and put into practice brain plasticity and cognitive development they will surpass and excel monolinguals with flying colors. It is proven through research that bilinguals outscore their monolingual peers again and again by more quicker, attentive, and accurate results. They should take pride in their hard work and consistent pressing motives to master a new language, hold onto their first, and do not compare themselves to the native monolinguals surrounding them. The Associated Press reports that up to 66 percent of the world’s children are raised bilingual (2001). Consequently, with those numbers society is humbled in understanding the bilingual advantage. It is comforting to be reminded of such an enriched advantage in bilingualism, even though monolinguist society disputes otherwise. Honestly, respect and acceptance in understanding the role of bilingualism plays an influential performance in bringing individuals and society
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...
Hammers, J.F., & Blanc, M.A. (1989). Social and psychological foundations of bilinguality. In P. Mardaga (Ed.), Bilinguality and Bilingualism (pp. 110-133). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
When visiting just about any school across America, students who attend come from all over the globe. This raises the question across America about bilingual education. This can create many challenges in and out of the classroom. The classroom should be a safe place for all students regardless of what native language they speak. In the essay Lost in translation written by Eva Hoffman, describes a foreign student who tries hard to fit in. Instead, Eva begins to feel angry, hurt and confused because people laugh at her. In Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education by Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian Center for Applied Linguistics Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary San José State University David Rogers Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Guiding principles gives great ideas to educators to stop kids from making other students feel the way that Eva felt. After reading several articles about bilingual education, it is evident that all children in school should learn English but never lose their native language. When all the students speak one language, students will be less likely to make fun of each other. A good educator should learn enough foreign languages to aid them in effective communication in their classroom although; if an educator does not speak a foreign language, they should recruit within the classroom students to be peer mentors. However, a teacher should be willing to listen and encourage the students. Above all a good educator should be a good role model to their students by respecting their heritage and their language.
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.
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.
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...
...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.
In conclusion, the standard education of today, is not challenging enough to accomplish when the program is designed, compared to the bilingual education. Bilingual education allows individuals to create opportunities for themselves to pursue a wide varieties of career choices. The program is worth every penny to ensure students become successful members of bilingual society. To ensure that a student in more successful in their path to success, bilingual education should be promoted
Bilingual education and its effectiveness have been a considerable issue in countries regardless of their level of social and economical development and the aim of its implementation that can be either the multinational structure of society or the colonial background. However, a type, of system implemented, varies according to the government policy and public attitude towards bilingual education (Močinić, 2011, 176). The aim of this paper is to examine the current system of bilingual education in Nigeria and identify the extent of its efficiency, considering the colonial background and a developing country dimensions that create strong premises to the unbalanced bilingual education in the country. If one regards pupils’ monolingualism as the most significant evidence of country’s inability to successfully implement bilingual education, the one must side with Igboanusi (2008, 730), who considers current Nigeria’s system of bilingual education as inefficient. Moreover, the paper will further discuss the beneficialness of the bilingual education system in Nigeria in terms of its sufficiency to achieve the aim of its implementation.
This paper is primarily intended to present some major considerations about bilingualism and bilingual education from a sociolinguistic perspective. In first instance, I will deal with some of the definitions of these terms placing them along the continuum since the high complexity of the issues. Also, some features of individual and social bilingualism will be pointed out, and some of the most common effects on individual and on communities will be presented. Finally, a reflection upon a kind of ‘unnatural’ bilingualism is put forward.
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.