Bilinguals Compared to Monolinguals

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Recommended: Benefits of monolingual education

Overview of subject:

Before knowing whether or not bilingualism is a blessing or a curse, it is important to first investigate the similarities and differences between monolingual and bilingual children. Monolingual children in the United States are native English speakers who speak English at home with their family members and also in the community. Bilingual children in the United States speak a language other than English at home and speak English at school or within the community. Bilingual children may also speak both English and a non-English language at home, depending on their family’s native languages. Children raised bilingually from birth are “simultaneous” bilingual speakers and children who learn their second language after their native tongue are considered “sequential” bilingual children.

If being monolingual helps children learn concepts, vocabulary and speech patterns faster than their bilingual classmates, then its advantageous to be monolingual. However, if being bilingual assists children in these areas and monolinguals fall behind, it is better to be bilingual. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages to both bilingualism and monolingualism can help educators, caregivers and parents understand what they can expect from their children.

Bibliographic Reference:

Axmear, E., Reichele, J., Alamsaputra, M., Kohnert, K., Drager, K., & Sellnow, K. (2005).

Synthesized speech intelligibility in sentences: A comparison of monolingual English- speaking and bilingual children. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 36(3), 244-250.

Summary:

The researchers wanted to compare monolingual and bilingual children listening to synthesized and human speech. Axmear et al. (2005) said th...

... middle of paper ...

...xmear, E., Reichele, J., Alamsaputra, M., Kohnert, K., Drager, K., & Sellnow, K. (2005).

Synthesized speech intelligibility in sentences: A comparison of monolingual English- speaking and bilingual children. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 36(3), 244-250.

Bialystok, E., Luk, G., Peets, K., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive vocabulary differences in

monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(4), 525-531. doi:10.1017/S1366728909990423

Lowry, L. (n.d.). Are two languages better than one? Retrieved from http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Our-Views-on-the-News/Are-Two-Languages- Better-Than-One-.aspx

Windsor, J., Kohnert, K., Lobitz, K. F., & Pham, G. T. (2010). Cross-language nonword repetition by bilingual and monolingual children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (Online), 19(4), 298-310.

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