Bilingualism Matters

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, more than one in 5 school-aged children (21%) speak a language other than English at home. It has been estimated that half of the world’s population is bilingual. Bilingualism happens due to many different reasons. These reasons can be: immigration, education, intermarriage or other reasons. Many researches have been conducted towards finding the effects of being bilingual. Some researches indicated that being bilingual has some negative effects on children, whereas the other researches have shown that being bilingual has some many positive effects on individual’s mental abilities.

There is a one wrong belief that children who raised bilingual will always mix their languages. However, children can quickly learn what to use where it is needed. If bilingual children interact in both bilingual and monolingual situations, then they learn to mix languages at certain times only (François Grosjean). If we give aside the fears of parents’ thoughts of children will be confused because of being bilingual, we can start to see the importance of it.

Researches have shown that bilingualism is beneficial for children’s development. If a child exposed to different languages, than the child becomes more aware of different cultures, aspects and points of views. Also, bilinguals tend to be better than monolinguals at ‘multitasking’, focusing attention and are more capable to learn a new language.

Many researchers conducted experiments about the relationship between bilinguals and the risk of dementia and some researches have shown significant results. In the article of ‘Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain’ it is stated that, bilingualism has a somewhat muted effect in adulthood but a larger role in older age, protecting against cognitive decline. In adolescence period, bilinguals can have some difficulties about verbal skills and vocabulary. Overall, at all ages they demonstrate better executive control than monolinguals.  Better executive control leads to becoming better in high-level thinking, multitasking and ability to sustaining attention. As a result, better cognitive performance throughout the lifespan. Therefore, as a contrary to the formers beliefs, bilingualism gives children more than two languages.

Besides, all the benefits of being bilingual, it shouldn’t be considered wrong. Nowadays, some parents are just obsessed with the achievement of their kids. Children spend much more time with their nonnative speaking caretakers than spending time with their parents. It is for sure that learning a new language in early ages is very crucial and has many positive effects on children. However, we also have to think the consequences of some extreme situations. A child who is raised by a caretaker will not be able to set attachment with his/her parents and therefore will have a tendency to develop reckless, avoidant and ambivalent behavior. For this reasons, parenting has a great impact on every aspect of child development. Bilingualism matters, but not forgetting the importance of moderate environmental effects and secure attachment matters more in order to raise well-developed children.

References:

[1] American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, The Advantages of Being Bilingual

[2] François Grosjean’s new book, Bilingual: Life and Reality, Harvard University, 2010

[3] Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain, Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I.M. Craik and Gigi Luk