The Effects of Being Bilingual in Children- Chapter 7: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence
Introduction
Language diversity is steadily increasing in the United States of America and with it the number of children who are growing up bilingual. There are many positive traits in these children that can be attributed to their ability to speak more than one language. These positive traits are seen throughout the life of a child and well into adulthood. I, personally, have seen how impactful being bilingual truly can be. It can make children more susceptible to learn new language and to excel in various academic aspects. Not only are there benefits to being a bilingual child, there are also benefits to teaching children different languages at a young age. These positive effects will become clear further on in the reading.
Learning/Teaching a New Language at a Young Age
As stated in an article published in the CQ Researcher, there are more than 5 million public school students who have limited language proficiency (Jost, 2009). This figure is continuously rising as well. With these rising figures in children who are not capable of speaking English well, there are many different methods to teaching them how to learn English. One method that has proven ineffective has been English language immersion. This method consists of teaching a child solely in English and not allowing them to learn in their native language. In the chart below we see the effects the English language Immersion can have and the different ways this type of teaching is measured.
The article also states that when given the opportunity to learn in their own language children excel in their classes (Jost, 2009). Along with learning more efficiently the children become more interesting in learning a new language, as they progress in their education their capacity for learning English in their new country grow exponentially. As these children learn their new language they also become more adapted to their new culture. May children learn more than one language from birth. This type of learning is very helpful to children as they get older. Growing up with two languages that come automatically can help develop the brain in a more complex manner. This can differ from language to language. For example, a journal entry in the Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research showed that children of different backgrounds and native languages adapt to language differently (Lam, Sheng, 2016, p . 232).
Another thing that is being studied in bilingual children is the development of morphological awareness in children, this type of study shows how well a student will be able to read and spell (Lam, Sheng, 2016, p. 732). This type of study is conducted by seeing how children who are bilingual see and comprehend different words in their second language. Age is a significant factor in this type of learning. It is hard to tell in very young children if they are able to notice the difference in words and how different words interact with each other. This also effects the way children are being taught in schools. If the children are being well adjusted into classes that incorporate both their native language and their secondary language they are much better equipped to excel academically. In the TED talk given by Madison Bonaventura, she explains how beneficial a bilingual education can be to children.
Effects of Bilingual Education
Bilingual learning has so many positive effects for young children and for adults as well. Being bilingual can help develop more efficiently the ‘executive control system’ in the brain (Muñoz, 2014). This helps a person function better when it comes to things like: working memory, switching attention, and inhibition.
These functions are used when a person multi-tasks even when they doing things that do not involve language. People who are capable of speaking more than one language are also faster at responding to situations that require high brain monitoring levels. Bilingualism also affect the way a person brain develops and grows. The amount of grey and white matter in elder people who grew up bilingual is vastly different from people who are monolingual (Muñoz, 2014). Below is a TED talk that discusses the brain benefits of being bilingual.
These differences are noticeable as a person becomes older. Some effects that are more prominent as a child is the amount of interest a child has in their studies, the way they interact with their fellow classmates, and the way they respond to different situations. Working memory and attention span are two aspects of bilingual children that are effected greatly by their bilingualism (Blom, et al., 2017). Another benefit of bilingualism is a high level of cognitive development at a younger age. Learning another language at a young age is has different effects than when it is learned at an older age (Feldman, 2017). When learned at a young age having another language can have much more positive effects. These positive effects are seen in so many bilingual children and they are helpful in the future at well.
Conclusion
As you can see, bilingualism has many positive effects on children. These effects range from better scores academically, to better cognitive development. As a person who has personally seen the effects of bilingualism, they are quite prominent and visible as children grow older. Certain things, like teaching children with a method such as English language immersion, can detrimentally effect the way a bilingual person can use their languages. The positive effects of bilingualism are also seen in the social life of a child.
They are more likely to be open and ready to communicate with their peers. As the variation in language continue to change exponentially so will the amount of children who are capable of doing so many diverse things.
References
Blom, E., Boerma, T., Bosma, E., Cornips, L., & Everaert, E. (2017). Cognitive advantages of bilingual children in different sociolinguistic contexts. Frontiers in Psychology,8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00552
Feldman, R. S., & Paul, K., Dr. (2017). Chapter 7: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence. In Essentials of Understanding Psychology (12th ed., Vol. 3, Introduction to Psychology 1810, pp. 248–250). McGraw-Hill Education
Does being bilingual make you smarter? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/does-being-bilingual-make-you-smarter
Jost, K. (2009, December 11). Bilingual education vs. English immersion. CQ Researcher, 19, 1029–1052. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
Lam, B. P., & Sheng, L. (2016). The Development of Morphological Awareness in Young Bilinguals: Effects of Age and L1 Background. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research,59(4), 732–744. doi:10.1044/2015_jslhr-l-14–0171
