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125 Bilingualism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Bilingualism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction:

Bilingualism is a fascinating concept that has gained significant attention in recent years. The ability to speak two languages fluently has numerous benefits, not only from a cognitive perspective but also in terms of cultural understanding, career opportunities, and personal growth. If you are assigned an essay on bilingualism, you might find it challenging to come up with a unique and engaging topic. Fear not! In this article, we will provide you with 125 bilingualism essay topic ideas and examples to inspire and guide you through the writing process.

Language Acquisition:

The advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism in early childhood.
How does bilingualism affect language development in children?
The role of parents in fostering bilingualism in their children.
The impact of bilingual education on language acquisition.
The critical period hypothesis: Does it apply to second language acquisition?
The effects of bilingualism on cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills.
The connection between bilingualism and creativity.
The relationship between bilingualism and literacy skills.

Cognitive Benefits:

Bilingualism and its impact on memory retention.
The cognitive advantages of being bilingual in an aging population.
How does bilingualism affect attention and focus?
The impact of bilingualism on executive functions and decision-making.
The correlation between bilingualism and higher IQ scores.
The cognitive benefits of simultaneous vs. sequential bilingualism.
Bilingualism and its effects on brain structure and connectivity.
The role of language dominance in cognitive advantages in bilinguals.

Cultural Identity:

Bilingualism as a tool for preserving cultural heritage.
The influence of bilingualism on one's sense of identity.
The challenges of maintaining bilingualism within immigrant communities.
The impact of bilingualism on cultural integration and social cohesion.
Bilingualism and the formation of multicultural identities.
Language attrition: The risk of losing cultural identity through bilingualism.
The importance of bilingual education in promoting cultural diversity.
Bilingualism and its impact on intercultural competence.

Education and Career:

The advantages of bilingual education in a globalized world.
Bilingualism and academic achievement: Does it correlate?
The impact of bilingualism on career opportunities and employability.
The role of bilingualism in the field of translation and interpretation.
The importance of bilingual teachers in promoting linguistic diversity.
Bilingualism and its influence on language teaching methodologies.
The challenges faced by bilingual students in mainstream education.
The impact of bilingualism on studying abroad and cross-cultural experiences.

Societal Implications:

Bilingualism as a means of bridging cultural gaps and fostering understanding.
The role of bilingualism in addressing language barriers in healthcare.
The impact of bilingualism on political participation and democratic engagement.
Bilingualism and its effects on social integration and community cohesion.
The challenges of bilingualism in official language policies and legislation.
Bilingualism and its impact on language revitalization efforts.
The influence of bilingualism on media consumption and cultural representation.
Bilingualism and its role in international diplomacy and global communication.

Language Processing:

The cognitive mechanisms involved in language switching for bilinguals.
The impact of bilingualism on speech production and fluency.
The effects of bilingualism on language processing speed.
Bilingualism and the role of language interference.
The differences in language comprehension between bilinguals and monolinguals.
The neural mechanisms behind simultaneous interpretation in bilinguals.
Bilingualism and its effects on language perception and phonetic awareness.
The impact of bilingualism on language processing in individuals with language disorders.

Bilingualism and Technology:

The role of technology in enhancing second language acquisition for bilinguals.
The impact of online language learning platforms on bilingualism.
The influence of social media on bilingual language use and code-switching.
Bilingualism and its implications in machine translation and natural language processing.
The challenges of preserving bilingualism in an increasingly digitalized world.
The role of virtual reality in language immersion for bilinguals.
Bilingualism and its effects on language learning apps and software development.
The future of bilingualism in the era of artificial intelligence and voice assistants.

Language Attitudes and Perception:

The societal perception of bilingual individuals and language proficiency.
Language attitudes towards bilingualism in education and workplace settings.
The influence of societal norms on language choice and bilingualism.
Bilingualism and its effects on language prestige and standardization.
The impact of language attitudes on heritage language maintenance.
The challenges faced by heritage language speakers in maintaining bilingualism.
Bilingualism and perceptions of language dominance and proficiency.
The role of language attitudes in promoting or hindering bilingual education.

Heritage Language:

The importance of maintaining heritage language skills in bilingual individuals.
The impact of heritage language loss on cultural identity.
Bilingualism and the role of heritage language in family dynamics.
The influence of heritage language on intergenerational communication.
The challenges faced by heritage language speakers in language maintenance.
The impact of heritage language programs in preserving bilingualism.
Bilingualism and the transmission of cultural values through heritage languages.
The role of heritage language in bilingual literature and artistic expression.

Language Policy and Planning:

The implications of language policy on bilingualism in education.
The impact of language planning on minority language maintenance.
Bilingualism and language policy in multicultural societies.
The challenges of implementing bilingual education policies in diverse contexts.
The role of language planning in promoting bilingualism as a national asset.
The influence of language policy on language shift and language endangerment.
Bilingualism and the role of language rights in protecting linguistic diversity.
The impact of language policy on indigenous language revitalization efforts.

Language Contact and Code-Switching:

The sociolinguistic factors influencing code-switching in bilingual communities.
The role of code-switching in bilingual identity construction.
The impact of language contact on code-switching patterns.
Code-switching as a linguistic resource for bilinguals in communication.
The functions and motivations behind code-switching in bilingual conversations.
The influence of language proficiency on code-switching behavior.
The role of context in determining code-switching strategies for bilinguals.
Code-switching and its effects on language attitudes and perception.

Language Maintenance and Shift:

The challenges faced by immigrant communities in maintaining bilingualism.
The impact of language shift on heritage language maintenance.
The role of language ideologies in promoting or hindering language maintenance.
Bilingualism and the effects of globalization on language shift.
The influence of language attitudes on language maintenance in bilingual societies.
The role of language planning in preventing language shift in minority communities.
Bilingualism and the impact of dominant language exposure on heritage language retention.
The effects of language shift on intergenerational communication and cultural transmission.

Language and Identity:

Bilingualism and its effects on identity negotiation in multicultural contexts.
The role of language in shaping individual and group identities in bilingual communities.
Bilingualism and the impact of language choice on social identity.
The influence of language ideologies on bilingual identity formation.
The challenges faced by bilingual individuals in balancing multiple cultural identities.
The role of language in constructing national and regional identities in bilingual societies.
Bilingualism and its effects on self-perception and self-esteem.
The impact of language socialization on bilingual identity development.

Language Variation and Dialects:

Bilingualism and the influence of dialectal variation on language acquisition.
The role of bilingualism in dialect maintenance and preservation.
The impact of language variation on bilingual code-switching patterns.
Bilingualism and the effects of language contact on dialect shift.
The challenges faced by bilingual individuals in navigating dialectal differences.
The influence of language attitudes on the perception of dialectal variation in bilingual communities.
Bilingualism and its impact on language standardization and dialectal prestige.
The role of dialectal awareness in promoting bilingual language proficiency.

Language Disorders and Bilingualism:

The challenges faced by bilingual individuals with language disorders.
The impact of bilingualism on language assessment and diagnosis in individuals with speech and language disorders.
Bilingualism and the effects of language interference on language disorders.
The influence of bilingualism on the treatment and intervention of language disorders.
The role of cultural and linguistic factors in bilingual language disorders.
Bilingualism and its effects on language development in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
The challenges faced by bilingual speech-language pathologists in providing therapy for bilingual individuals.
Bilingualism and its implications for the assessment of cognitive-communication disorders.

Language and Emotion:

Bilingualism and its effects on emotional expression and perception in language.
The influence of language choice on emotional experiences for bilingual individuals.
The impact of bilingualism on emotional intelligence and empathy.
Bilingualism and the role of language in emotional regulation and coping strategies.
The connection between bilingualism and linguistic relativity in emotional perception.

Conclusion:

Bilingualism is a vast and complex field with a wide range of topics to explore. Whether you are interested in language acquisition, cognitive benefits, cultural identity, education, societal implications, language processing, technology, language attitudes, heritage language, language policy, language contact, language maintenance, language and identity, language variation, language disorders, or language and emotion, this comprehensive list of 125 bilingualism essay topic ideas and examples should provide you with the inspiration you need to craft an engaging and insightful essay. Remember, the key to a successful essay is to choose a topic that sparks your curiosity and allows you to delve deep into the subject matter. Happy writing!

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Gray Matter

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

March 17, 2012

Editor’s Note: We’re resurfacing this story from the archives to show you how learning a second language can improve how you think.

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.

In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.

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Article contents

Bilingualism: a cognitive and neural view of dual language experience.

Judith F. Kroll Judith F. Kroll School of Education, University of California, Irvine
and Guadalupe A. Mendoza Guadalupe A. Mendoza School of Education, University of California, Irvine
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.900
Published online: 15 August 2022

There has been an upsurge of research on the bilingual mind and brain. In an increasingly multilingual world, cognitive and language scientists have come to see that the use of two or more languages provides a unique lens to examine the neural plasticity engaged by language experience. But how? It is now uncontroversial to claim that the bilingual’s two languages are continually active, creating a dynamic interplay across the two languages. But there continues to be controversy about the consequences of that cross-language exchange for how cognitive and neural resources are recruited when a second language is learned and used actively and whether native speakers of a language retain privilege in their first acquired language. In the earliest months of life, minds and brains are tuned differently when exposed to more than one language from birth. That tuning has been hypothesized to open the speech system to new learning. But when initial exposure is to a home language that is not the majority language of the community—the experience common to heritage speakers—the value of bilingualism has been challenged, in part because there is not an adequate account of the variation in language experience. Research on the minds and brains of bilinguals reveals inherently complex and social accommodations to the use of multiple languages. The variation in the contexts in which the two languages are learned and used come to shape the dynamics of cross-language exchange across the lifespan.

bilingualism
language processing
language learning
language regulation
cognitive control
neural plasticity

What happens to language processes when individuals learn and use more than one language? In most places in the world, speaking two or more languages is common, suggesting that bilingualism is not a special condition but one that reflects the ordinary adaptations that individuals make as they are exposed to language. But the consequences of that exposure over the lifespan vary as a function of the age at which the two languages were acquired, the context in which they were learned and are used, and the cognitive resources available to the speaker (e.g., Kroll, Bice, et al., 2021 ; Kroll, Takahesu Tabori, et al., 2021 ). In the past three decades, there has been increasing interest and excitement about understanding how bilingualism might reveal the plasticity of the mind and the brain (see Bialystok, this volume ; Bialystok, 2017 ; Pliatsikas, 2020 ). This article explores how language processes themselves change when two or more languages are in play. These two lines of research are related to one another, but it is only recently that studies have asked directly how language processing might engage cognitive resources and change as a result (e.g., Kroll & Rossi, in press ; Salig et al., 2021 ). Here, bilingual language processing is examined as well as how these processes emerge in development and how the language processes and their consequences together impact how cognitive and neural mechanisms are recruited in ways that ultimately shape the bilingual mind and brain.

The last 30 years of research have provided robust evidence for the claim that the bilingual’s two languages are highly interactive, changing dynamically when they are in contact with one another, and sustaining the influence of the other language even when that language is not being used. The history of this work has been reviewed extensively (e.g., Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2018 ; Kroll & Navarro-Torres, 2018 ; Kroll et al., 2015 ). For present purposes the focus is on those findings that have created the foundation for the ideas presented in this article.

Reading, Listening, and Speaking Two Languages

When bilinguals read or listen to words in one language, the other language comes online in parallel, producing joint activation even when individuals intend to use one language alone (e.g., Dijkstra, 2005 ; Shook & Marian, 2013 ). The activation of the language not in use has been observed regardless of the similarity of the two languages (e.g., Morford et al., 2011 ; Thierry & Wu, 2007 ), across all levels of proficiency (e.g., Kroll et al., 2002 ), and regardless of whether bilinguals are processing words in sentence context or in isolation (e.g., Schwartz & Kroll, 2006 ; Titone et al., 2011 ). The persistent finding of cross-language activation across conditions that might have otherwise been expected to reduce or eliminate the influence of the language not in use suggests that it is a basic feature of bilingualism. Even more surprising is that when bilinguals plan speech in one language alone, the other language is engaged, at times to the point of having the phonology of the unintended language on the tip of a speaker’s tongue (e.g., Kroll & Gollan, 2014 ; Kroll et al., 2006 ). Because the initiation of spoken production is under the control of the speaker, the observation that the nontarget language is briefly available is counterintuitive, again suggesting that the co-activation of the two languages is not optional but a stable feature of the bilingual’s language system.

The logic of the many studies that have demonstrated the presence of cross-language activation has been to manipulate features of the relationship between the target language and the language not in use and ask whether that relationship holds any consequence for performance. For a person who is monolingual, the relationship to the other language should have no bearing on performance. Therefore, demonstrating that bilinguals do not behave like monolinguals would serve to show that bilinguals are taking the cross-language information into account. At the lexical level, this has been shown by asking bilinguals to recognize or produce cognates (translations that share similar word form as well as meaning) and interlingual homographs or false friends (words that share similar form across language but that have distinct meanings). Whether these cross-language pairs confer benefits or costs for bilinguals depends on the particular properties of the experimental design, but cognates generally facilitate recognition and production whereas interlingual homographs produce interference; these effects can be documented in measures of behavior and in measures of brain activity (e.g., Dijkstra et al., 1998 ; Midgley et al., 2011 ; Van Heuven et al., 2008 ). Likewise, there appears to be an implicit activation of the translations of words in the language not in use in measures of both behavior and brain activity (e.g., Meade et al., 2017 ; Morford et al., 2011 ; Thierry & Wu, 2007 ).

The initial research on cross-language activation was focused largely at the lexical level to examine the processes of word recognition and word production. Studies of grammar and phonology reveal a similar dynamic exchange across the bilingual’s two languages (e.g., Chang, 2012 ; Dussias & Sagarra, 2007 ; Goldrick et al., 2014 ; Hartsuiker et al., 2004 ). Although there are constraints on cross-language interactions that are shaped by linguistic features specific to each of the two languages (e.g., whether one of the languages is a tone language or whether one language marks grammatical gender and the other does not), the evidence is compelling in demonstrating that the bilingual’s two languages are dynamic—changing in response to one another and in response to the contexts in which they are used.

Cross-Language Transfer and Bidirectional Influence

Traditional accounts of second language learning have focused on the transfer from the first or more dominant language, the L1, to the second or less dominant language, the L2. Although a diverse set of mechanisms has been proposed to account for how knowledge in the L1, particularly at the level of the grammar, might enable or constrain L2 learning ( MacWhinney, 2005 ; Pienemann et al., 2005 ), the underlying principle is that existing linguistic knowledge will be exploited to guide the acquisition of new information. There is also recognition that not only is there transfer from L1 to L2 but that the dynamic nature of the interactions across the two languages comes to produce transfer from the L2 to the L1 and that bidirectional transfer occurs as soon as L2 learning begins.

The evidence for the influence of the L2 on the L1 has been reviewed in a number of recent papers and chapters (e.g., Kroll et al., 2021 ). Briefly, it has shown that the processing of the native or dominant L1 is affected by knowledge of the L2, even when proficiency in the L2 is just beginning to develop. Bice and Kroll (2015) tested a group of young adult native English speaking students learning Spanish as an L2. Like many lexical studies on cross-language activation, they asked whether cognate status would influence performance in a word recognition task. Critically, the word recognition task, in this a case lexical decision (i.e., is the string of letters a real word?), was performed in English, the learners’ native language. In behavioral measures of reaction time and accuracy, there were no differences for either learners or monolingual English speakers for words that were cognates in English and Spanish and for words that were not. But in electrophysiological measures, there was a modulation of the N400 component of the Event Related Potentials (ERPs) that showed that the learners were differentially sensitive to words in English that were cognate translations of words in Spanish. The result suggests that even before learners become aware of the relationship between the two languages, there are changes in brain activity in the L1 that reflect the exposure to the L2. (See Brice et al., 2021 for a recent longitudinal study on L2 immersion that tracked brain activity over time using functional magnetic resource imaging [fMRI] and showed that the largest changes associated with increasing L2 proficiency were found for the L1.) Similar findings have been reported for L2 learning when assessing the L2 directly, with evidence that brain activity shows almost immediate changes in the context of L2 learning even when behavior for L2 is at chance and exposure to the L2 has been minimal (e.g., McLaughlin et al., 2004 ).

Demonstrating that the L1 is sensitive to the L2 is a first step in revealing the openness of the native language to L2 influence. But recent studies have gone beyond demonstrating sensitivity to show that the L1 changes dynamically as bilinguals move from one context to the next and as the demands of the environment impinge on language processing (e.g., Green & Abutalebi, 2013 ). In the final section of this article, this issue is revisited to consider what those contexts might look like and how bilinguals adapt to the demands of their environment. The implications of finding that the L2 affects the L1 are profound because they challenge assumptions about the native language and require that bilingualism be understood as a far more fluid process than how it has been previously conceptualized. Most traditional accounts of language processing and language acquisition attribute a privileged role to the native language, assuming that the first learned language early in life becomes a stable system that may influence the acquisition of new language knowledge but that itself is not necessarily changed by that process. The assumption has been that the goal of the L2 learning is to achieve a stable native-speaker level of proficiency. Recent studies have suggested that not only is the L1 changed, with the bilingual speaker different than monolingual speakers of either of their two languages (e.g., as per Grojean’s 1989 admonition that the bilingual is not two monolingual speakers in one), but that the L1 comes to be regulated to enable bilinguals to use the two languages appropriately in the face of varying contextual demands.

Much of the research that has contributed to an understanding of bilingual language processes and their neural basis has been conducted with young adults, many of whom acquired the L2 after early childhood, typically in school contexts. But much of the world is bilingual and, in the United States, the most common bilinguals are heritage speakers of a home language other than English ( American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017 ). It is important to recognize that for bilingual speakers who have a home language that differs from the community language, there is often a switch of language dominance, from the home language in early childhood to the community language later in schooling and in adulthood. Early language exposure is quite varied and the long-term consequences that result, regardless of whether the dominant language changes or not, are not well understood. The experience of emerging bilingualism for individuals first exposed to two or more languages early in life is considered next.

Bilingualism During Infancy and Early Childhood

People become bilingual or multilingual in a multitude of ways, with experiences in early life proving to be significant determinants of language acquisition. The typical trajectory for young children who learn a language consists of being exposed to their mother tongue as infants, babbling at six months of age and speaking full sentences by three years of age (e.g., Kuhl, 2004 ). But how does variation in early life experiences affect the typical language development trajectory? Even in the earliest stages of life there is evidence for differences between monolingual exposed infants and multilingual exposed infants. Studies show that bilingual infants between four and a half and six months old acquire a sensitivity for the languages of their environment such that they can distinguish between their two languages despite these being rhythmically similar (e.g., Bosch & Sebastián-Gallés, 1997 ). However, even in the earliest stages of life, learners may become bilingual differently based on their experience.

Some individuals achieve bilingualism by acquiring their first and second languages simultaneously. In contrast, sequential bilingualism is the process by which bilingualism is achieved by learning the L2 sometime after learning the L1 earlier in life. Differences between simultaneous and sequential bilingualism have been demonstrated in the past literature. Kaltsa and colleagues (2020) found differences between simultaneous and late sequential bilinguals aged between 8–10 years of age, with vocabulary and syntactic skills closely related for simultaneous bilinguals but not for sequential bilinguals. Beyond simultaneous versus sequential bilingualism, the experience of bilinguals at later stages of life varies greatly based on their early language experience.

Research on bilingual infants has shown evidence of significant effects of bilingual exposure even in the earliest stages of life. To gain a better understanding of the effects of early exposure to two languages, Ferjan Ramírez et al. (2017) examined brain activity in 11-month-old English monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual infants. They used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to track brain activity as the babies listened to speech sounds in English and Spanish. The results revealed that both monolingual and bilingual infants showed a stronger response to an English than Spanish contrast, however the bilingual infants showed greater flexibility in phoneme discrimination suggesting a broader tuning to speech linked to exposure to more than one language in infancy. The bilingual babies also showed activation of brain areas involved in executive function, suggesting that exposure to two languages is beginning to have consequences beyond language itself. In an earlier study, Werker and Tees (1984) showed that by the end of the first year of life, babies have tuned to the language or languages to which they have been exposed. Babies exposed to more than one language appear to be more open to speech sounds in other languages than their monolingual counterparts, something that has been called the “perceptual wedge” in recent studies tracking brain activity in young bilingually exposed infants ( Petitto et al., 2012 ).

Additional research has shown that bilingual infants, despite being nonverbal, can discriminate between their two languages even before they speak their first word, demonstrating the importance of language input during the earliest stages of life ( Werker & Byers-Heinlein, 2008 ). Similarly, Weikum and colleagues (2007) found a bilingual advantage such that when bilingual infants saw a silent video clip, they—unlike monolingual infants—were able to regain interest when the silent speaker on the screen switched languages. The same advanced perceptual attentiveness was found in a study testing Spanish–Catalan bilingual infants ( Sebastián-Gallés et al., 2012 ). What is remarkable about the latter study is that it took place in Barcelona, Spain, but using the same English–French videos that Weikum et al. created for their study in Vancouver, Canada. Babies in Barcelona hear Spanish and Catalan, not English and French, and yet they are advantaged relative to monolingual babies in a way that suggests that it is bilingualism itself rather than specific language exposure that may be critical to development. These studies on infants demonstrate the importance of early language exposure, and suggest further inquiry into how this might extend into early childhood.

Bilingualism in early childhood has been linked to enhanced linguistic and cognitive performance in past research. Preschool aged bilingual children were faster and more accurate at a vocabulary assessment and executive attention tests in comparison to their monolingual counterparts ( Yang et al., 2011 ). A similar advantage was reported in kindergarten aged bilingual children who performed significantly better on an executive function task battery in comparison to monolingual children, suggesting an advanced use of cognitive operations involved in language switching may benefit children ( Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008 ). Pelham and Abrams (2014) found that bilinguals generally suffer from a lexical access deficit in comparison to monolinguals, such that they have a smaller vocabulary size in that particular language. However, the habitual use of two languages has been linked to executive function benefits, possibly as a means of compensating for reduced lexical access (see Bialystok et al., 2010 ). In a provocative study, Haranto et al. (2019) reported data from a longitudinal study on over 18,000 children that showed that bilingualism appears to reduce the deleterious consequences of poverty on executive function in low socioeconomic status (SES) children. Early life language experiences have been linked to these long-term consequences for both language and cognition, but how does variation or diversity in language experience itself play a role in shaping these outcomes?

The Effects of Variation in Early Language Experience

Focusing on diversity in early language experience offers an illuminating lens for studying bilingualism more broadly. Past research has taken the first few years of life, generally between birth and five years of age, to be critical for language development. Historically, this has been discussed and debated around the idea of a critical or biologically sensitive period for language learning (e.g., Birdsong, 2018 ; Johnson & Newport, 1989 ; Lenneberg, 1967 ). If language development is constrained by maturational mechanisms that unfold as a function of age, then learning an L2 following that critical period would be expected to be a limited endeavor. Indeed, a great deal of research, particularly on the acquisition of L2 syntax, has taken the approach of asking whether L2 learners past the hypothesized critical period are restricted in their ability to acquire particular features of the L2 (e.g., Clahsen & Felser, 2006 ). While there is robust evidence for the effects of age of acquisition (see Hartshorne et al., 2018 for a big data approach to bolster the claims about critical periods), other findings, in part fueled by developments using the methods of cognitive neuroscience, suggest far more plasticity in new language learning throughout the lifespan than initially assumed (e.g., Pliatsikas, 2020 ; Steinhauer, 2014 ). The shift of focus has also opened new lines of research on how language learning beyond the first few years of life might be influenced by diversity in language experience.

Individuals come to learn and use two or more languages in different ways. Speakers vary in the contexts in which they may use their languages, the frequency with which each language is spoken, and whether they code-switch with other speakers. Relatively few studies have examined the enduring consequences of early life language experience. If the first years of life are the most important for learning a new language, how do differences in early life experience come to affect later language acquisition?

As noted in the section Cross-language Transfer and Bidirectional Influence , the most common bilingual language experience in the United States is that of being a heritage speaker, with a home language other than English. Many heritage learners become bilingual with the language of the community, learning the community language along with the home language or later as an L2. The politics surrounding bilingual education have the consequence that few heritage speakers are schooled in the home language but instead switch to the community language as young children when they enter school. Ultimately, many heritage speakers become dominant in the language of the community with a high degree of variability in spoken proficiency and literacy in the home language. The profile of language development for heritage speakers has produced a range of claims about how heritage language development differs from native language development in a language that is learned and maintained as the language of the community or from L2 development (e.g., López et al., 2019 ; Polinsky & Scontras, 2020 ).

Many children who speak a heritage language are children of immigrants or individuals who do not speak the dominant language of the environment. This creates a complex linguistic environment for children who may serve as language brokers, translating and interpreting for their parents or family members and for other adults such as teachers and neighbors who cannot understand their heritage language (e.g., McQuillan & Tse, 1995 ). The experience of language brokering engages cognitive resources and has been hypothesized to have a number of significant linguistic and cognitive consequences (e.g., López & Vaid, 2018 ).

Another form of heritage language use is that of children who use dialectal variations of the dominant community language. An example are children in the United States who are bidialectal and speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE). AAVE is the variety of English natively spoken by African Americans ( Labov, 2010 ). Past research has found a relationship between the usage of AAVE and spelling patterns, such that Black college students who speak AAVE devoice single final consonants when spelling in contrast to their White counterparts who do not ( Treiman, 2004 ). Washington (2001) outlined the poor reading achievement of children who regularly use AAVE; however, she pointed out that other factors such as low socioeconomic status may contribute to African American children’s reading performance in comparison to nonminority children. Like other heritage speakers of a home language that is not supported in school, studies have documented a decrease in the use of African American English by children as early as the first grade (e.g., Craig & Washington, 2004 ).

Contemporary research on language development and bilingualism is just beginning to fully consider the consequences of variation in early language experience; however, two sources of evidence provide provocative support for the idea that features of early language experience may be available many years later even when they have not been actively used. Perhaps the most dramatic example comes from studies of international adoptees. Unlike heritage speakers who switch from a home language to a community language but where the home language is active and available to varying degrees, for international adoptees, there is typically an abrupt switch of language environment, with the result that young infants and children are cut off entirely from the language to which they were exposed from birth. Studies of infant speech perception demonstrate very early learning, with the speech system tuned to the language to which babies are exposed by the end of the first year of life (e.g., Kuhl, 2004 ; Kuhl et al., 1992 ; Werker & Tees, 1984 ). But what happens when children are cut off from the input to the native language? The evidence suggests that although adoptees may have little conscious awareness of the native language, there is residual information that facilitates relearning (e.g., Choi et al., 2017 ; Oh et al., 2010 ) and that their brain activity as young adults reveals their exposure as infants (e.g., Pierce et al., 2015 ).

Pierce et al. (2015) compared three groups of adolescents and young adults who were living in Montreal. The international adoptees were born in China and exposed to Mandarin as infants but then adopted by French-speaking Canadians with no subsequent Mandarin input. A second group were native French speakers matched in age to the adoptees, and a third group were age-matched bilinguals who had grown up in homes with both Mandarin and French. Using fMRI, Pierce et al. showed that the brain activity of the adoptees was somewhere between the native French speakers and the fully bilingual speakers, suggesting that some features of the initial exposure were still evident many years later. This demonstration does not establish how much of a foundation that residual brain activity might provide towards relearning but suggests that despite the absence of any conscious knowledge of Mandarin, the exposure during infancy has enduring consequences.

A second source of information about the enduring consequences of early language experience comes from studies of childhood overhearers, adults who as children were exposed to a language other than the dominant language of the community, typically in the context of home and family, but unlike heritage bilinguals, never learned to speak and read that language. Au et al. (2002) reported a study of young adults who were childhood overhearers of Spanish. Their performance was compared to native speakers of Spanish and late learners of Spanish as an L2 on features of Spanish phonology and grammar. Although the childhood overhearers were not native-like, on measures of spoken production (e.g., voice onset times, accentedness), they were much closer to native speakers than the L2 learners of Spanish. On measures of Spanish grammar and morphology, they were more similar to the L2 learners than to the native speakers. Like the studies of international adoptees, the evidence on childhood overhearers suggests that there are extended consequences of early exposure, even when the language is not used actively. Studies that have examined relearning of the lost or overheard languages have produced mixed results but with a suggestion that at least under some circumstances, there are benefits in relearning (e.g., Oh et al., 2019 ).

The studies on early bilingual exposure converge in demonstrating dramatic consequences for the tuning of the speech system in the earliest months of life, with evidence for enduring traces of initial language experience well into early adulthood. In the next section of the article, the Contexts and Condition for Bilingualism are addressed to understand how beyond exposure itself, there are distinct contexts that shape the many forms that bilingualism takes.

Contexts and Conditions for Bilingualism

The course of initial acquisition is only one factor that determines how bilinguals manage two languages in one mind. Over the course of their lives, bilinguals who speak the very same languages may come to live and work in different environments that may support or fail to support the use of each language. In what follows, the studies reviewed attempt to identify the features of the environment that play a unique role in accounting for the experience of being bilingual. A question is frequently asked about the languages themselves. Does the form of bilingualism depend on which two languages are paired? At one level, the answer to that question is obviously yes because languages differ in many ways, and those differences influence the opportunities for cross-language transfer and interaction. Yet, at another level, there is remarkable convergence across bilingual language pairings for the principles that have been described. Speakers of languages that are quite distinct, like Chinese and English (e.g., Thierry & Wu, 2007 ) and individuals who are bimodal bilinguals, using one spoken language and another signed language, reveal cross-language interactions that are largely similar to those seen for bilinguals whose languages are more similar. (See Morford & Kroll, 2021 for a review of research on bimodal bilingualism.)

Interactional Contexts and Social Networks

Individuals may achieve a high level of proficiency in each of their two languages but still use them in quite different ways. In some contexts, one language may be used as the language of the home and community and another language may be the language of work and school. In locations that are truly bilingual, there may be opportunities to use both languages almost interchangeably. For bilinguals who find themselves immersed in an environment in which the dominant language of the community is their L2, there may be few opportunities to speak their L1 with others. In the past, the characterization of the linguistic and cultural contexts for language learning and language use was primarily the goal of sociolinguistics. More recently, there has been an attempt to ask how the mechanisms that enable language learning and language processing are affected by the contexts in which they occur.

In the first section of this article, Reading, Listening, and Speaking Two Languages , the idea that both languages are always active and always interacting, even when bilinguals find themselves using one language alone, was discussed. That observation, on its own, might be hypothesized to create a serious problem for bilingual speakers that challenges their ability to select the intended language in the appropriate context. The fact that it does not create a problem suggests that speakers adapt to the dynamics of language co-activation by developing mechanisms to regulate the two languages and to engage domain-general cognitive control in ways that are sensitive to the demands of the environment (e.g., Green, 1998 ; Green & Abutalebi, 2013 ). Those mechanisms affect language learning and language processing themselves (e.g., Bogulski et al., 2019 ; Zirnstein et al., 2018 ) and the domain-general cognitive resources that support them (e.g., Adler et al., 2020 ; Hsu et al., 2021 ). Although there is a great deal that is unknown about the relationship between language regulation and cognitive control (e.g., Declerck & Philipp, 2015 ; Hervais-Adelman & Babcock, 2020 ) what is clear in many studies is that adapting to the competing demands of the environment in which the two languages are used is crucial. In the present discussion, language regulation refers to the coordination and engagement of a range of executive functions that serve to modify the availability of each language in response to the demands placed on bilingual speakers. While the modulation of each of the bilingual’s two languages will draw on domain-general cognitive control mechanisms, there is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between language and cognitive control processes.

Beatty-Martínez et al. ( Beatty-Martinez, Navarro-Torres, & Dussias, 2020 ; Beatty-Martinez, Navarro-Torres, Dussias, Bajo, et al., 2020 ) investigated the consequence of different interactional contexts for language processing for three groups of Spanish–English bilinguals who were all native speakers of Spanish and highly proficient in English as the L2, but who lived in different environments. One group lived in Granada, Spain, where Spanish is the language of the home and community but where English is used at school and work. The two languages are used separately and there is little intra-sentential code-switching. A second group lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the two languages are used more cooperatively and there is frequent code-switching. The third group lived in the United States in State College, Pennsylvania, where the community is largely monolingual speakers of English. These bilinguals code-switch with each other but have limited opportunities in the larger community to speak Spanish. The bilinguals in each location performed a speeded picture naming task in both languages and the AX-Continuous Performance Test (AX-CPT), a cognitive measure that identifies proactive and reactive control (e.g., Braver et al., 2001 ). Bilinguals in all groups were able to name pictures at a high level of accuracy. The critical finding that Beatty-Martínez et al. ( Beatty-Martinez, Navarro-Torres, Dussias, Bajo, et al., 2020 ) reported was that the bilinguals immersed in the United States, in a context where they could not reliably expect others to speak Spanish, produced a pattern of picture naming that revealed the engagement of proactive cognitive control. Bilinguals with high proactive control were better able to maintain their L1, Spanish, in the face of an environment that itself offered little support. Although the other two contexts are quite distinct from one another, in each there are cues to language use that do not require the same level of monitoring to determine with whom each language can be spoken.

The results of the Beatty-Martínez et al. ( Beatty-Martinez, Navarro-Torres, Dussias, Bajo, et al., 2020 ) study suggest that it is not simply whether or not bilinguals engage in code-switching, nor whether they are proficient in both languages that determines language performance. In line with the adaptive control hypothesis ( Green & Abutalebi, 2013 ), bilinguals adapt to the demands of the environment in selectively drawing on cognitive mechanisms to enable the active maintenance of the two languages. It is not only about being able to speak each language proficiently, but also about the decisions that must be made about which language you can speak in the presence of which interlocutors. Although the goal of this study was not to address the cognitive consequences of bilingualism directly, the results also suggest that characterizing language experience more fully may be necessary to determine the conditions under which bilingualism confers benefits, costs, or little if any consequences for cognition (see Navarro-Torres et al., 2021 for additional discussion of the characterization problem).

Interactional contexts are of course not only restricted to geography. In different environments, bilingual speakers are members of social networks that may differ linguistically and culturally. A set of studies has begun to identify the way that social networks may influence language processing for bilinguals and monolinguals alike (e.g., Gullifer & Titone, 2020 ; Gullifer et al., 2018 ; Lev-Ari, 2018 ). Gullifer and Titone developed a measure of language entropy to identify the number of different languages that a speaker uses in different social contexts. The measure is an index of the uncertainty that bilinguals face in using each of their two languages across speakers and contexts (see Gullifer & Titone, 2021 for a discussion of uncertainty more generally). Using both behavioral and neurocognitive measures, they showed that bilingual speakers with high language entropy, using different languages across different environments, appeared to engage greater proactive cognitive control than bilingual speakers without this requirement (see Pot et al., 2018 for a similar finding with older adult bilinguals). Like the Beatty-Martínez et al. ( Beatty-Martinez, Navarro-Torres, Dussias, Bajo, et al., 2020 ) findings, the research on language entropy demonstrates that variation in the context of language use may be a critical factor for understanding differences across otherwise similar groups of bilinguals.

Other recent studies have shown that language variation itself may be important. Bice and Kroll (2019) used a training paradigm to teach Spanish–English bilinguals and monolingual English speakers words in Finnish that obeyed a vowel harmony rule. Neither Spanish nor English has this linguistic feature, making the word learning task more difficult than a simple paired associated learning task with novel words. The study recorded behavioral measures and electroencephalography (EEG). For pragmatic reasons having to do with the move of the laboratory in which the study was being conducted, half of the data were collected in Pennsylvania, in a dominant monolingual English environment, and the other half in Southern California, in a linguistically diverse environment. The most interesting result was for monolingual speakers, all of whom identified as English-only speakers with minimal knowledge of another language. Those in Southern California showed brain activity at the end of the experiment that revealed sensitivity to generalization of the rules in Finnish even when presented with a novel exemplar. The monolinguals in Pennsylvania did not. Although both groups revealed initial learning of the rule and neither group revealed behavioral evidence for generalization, the pattern of brain activity suggests, at least in a preliminary way, that the linguistic diversity of the environment itself may create a greater openness to new language learning. This was a serendipitous finding as a result of the two locations of data collection, so needs to be taken cautiously, but the results contribute to an emerging area of research that is showing that not only bilinguals, but also monolinguals vary as a function of the context in which language processing occurs, and that far from the idea that variation is simply noise, that it may enhance both language and cognition.

How the Cognitive and Neural Consequences of Bilingualism are Shaped by Language

The research reviewed points to a complex dynamic in which the bilingual speaker’s two languages are in a perpetual state of interaction that is influenced by their knowledge of the two languages and by the requirements placed on them to adapt to the environments in which they speak each language. It is beyond the scope of the present article to review the extensive evidence on how bilingual minds and brains change as a function of their experience (see Bialystok, 2017 and also this volume ; Pliatsikas, 2020 ). Instead, the next question asked is on what causal role these language processes might play in shaping the cognitive and neural outcomes of bilingualism.

As language learners acquire and use an L2, there is not only transfer from the native or more dominant L1 to the L2 but marked changes in the L1 itself. It has been hypothesized that these changes to the L1 are not simply passive effects on language processes but contribute to the bilingual speaker’s ability to regulate the more dominant language (e.g., Bogulski et al., 2019 ; Zirnstein et al., 2018 ).

Although there are many observations of native language change, including an extensive body of research on language attrition (e.g., Schmid, 2010 ), the studies that most brought this issue to the attention of the field were the asymmetric processing costs observed in language switching (e.g., Meuter & Allport, 1999 ; and see Bobb & Wodniecka, 2013 and Declerck & Philipp, 2015 for reviews). Unlike code-switching which occurs in normal discourse contexts between bilingual speakers (e.g., Beatty-Martínez, Navarro-Torres, & Dussias, 2020 ), language switching is a laboratory paradigm in which bilingual speakers are cued to name pictures or digits in one of their two languages. The finding that Meuter and Allport reported, and that has since been replicated many times, is that there are greater switch costs to the L1 than to the L2. At first, that finding seemed counterintuitive because the native or dominant language might be thought to be more active and resilient than the second or less dominant language. The switch cost asymmetry came to be understood as a reflection of the control processes that are engaged to navigate the use of the more dominant L1 when the less dominant L2 was also required (e.g., Green, 1998 ; Kroll & Gollan, 2014 ). If both languages are active, then the more dominant language would have to be suppressed to enable speech planning in the less dominant language. When a switch is required back into the dominant language, the hypothesis is that additional resources would have to be engaged to overcome the momentary inhibition. Indeed, in some instances, not only are there asymmetric costs but production in the more dominant language may temporarily become slower than production in the less dominant language (e.g., Declerck et al., 2020 ).

Subsequent research has debated the nature of the mechanisms that affect the L1 in this way and the scope of the observed inhibition of the L1. The point for the present discussion is that it is typically the L1 that is affected, changing rapidly in different task environments. Other studies have demonstrated similar phenomena when the switch occurred over a longer period of time, e.g., after naming a series of pictures in one language and then switching to the other language (e.g., Misra et al., 2012 ; Van Assche et al., 2013 ). It is not only that the larger social context of bilingualism matters, but also that the immediate demands on bilingual speakers require continual adjustments, with even momentary exposures creating these changes (e.g., Degani et al., 2020 ). These adjustments appear to be a natural feature of what it means to be bilingual.

Where else are these dynamics seen? When individuals are immersed in an L2 environment, there is a shift in the availability of the native or dominant language, with the L1 less available (e.g., Baus et al., 2013 ; Linck et al., 2009 ). As we saw in the Beatty-Martínez et al. ( Beatty-Martinez, Navarro-Torres, Dussias, Bajo, et al., 2020 ) study of interactional context, when bilingual speakers are immersed in an L2 with relatively few L1 speakers available, they seem to rely on proactive cognitive control to maintain the L1. The presence of control mechanisms that are tuned by bilingual experience may function not only to maintain the L1, but to coordinate across competing language and cognitive demands. A number of studies have shown that this coordination may be key to enabling bilinguals to use the L2 proficiently (e.g., see Zirnstein et al., 2018 for an illustration of how the interplay of language regulation and cognitive control enables immersed bilinguals to engage in prediction processing while comprehending sentences, and Morales et al., 2015 for an example of how bilingualism modulates the coordination across the components of control). These consequences of bilingualism are complex, both for language processes and for the cognitive and neural processes that support language. What is key is that the complexity that has been captured in recent research is systematic, pointing to the underlying causal mechanisms that adapt as individuals become bilingual and use two languages actively.

Concluding Remarks

There is much that has not been discussed in this brief article. Notably, there is a substantial body of research on bilingual language processes at the sentence level that has addressed the issues of variation and context which have been discussed here (e.g., Dussias et al., 2019 ). Research on code-switching, where some bilinguals switch languages in the middle of an utterance, has been a topic of particular interest in this regard both because it is highly regular and appears to reflect the social interface between language processing, cognition, and the brain (e.g., Beatty-Martínez & Dussias, 2017 ; Fricke et al., 2016 ; Kaan et al., 2020 ). Likewise, although the consequence of early exposure to bilingualism during infancy has been discussed, the extensive research on the perceived accentedness of speech (which, like code-switching, provides an opportunity to examine the interplay between language processes and the sociocultural environment in which it is embedded; e.g., Kutlu, 2020 ) has not been addressed.

Across the lifespan, the consequences of bilingualism for aging have not been considered (e.g., Zhang et al., 2020 ). Much of the research on bilingualism and aging addresses the cognitive and neural consequences (e.g., Abutalebi et al., 2015 ; and see Bialystok, this volume ), without reference to language processes, although evidence has suggested that the control mechanisms for young adult bilinguals may also be involved (e.g., Mendez, 2019 ). Finally, only the studies that track the trajectory of new language learning for young and old bilingual and monolingual adults as they acquire a new language were discussed. That research has suggested that bilinguals may be advantaged with respect to new language learning (e.g., Kaushanskaya & Marian, 2009 ) that language learning itself may counter some aspects of cognitive decline in old age (e.g., Antoniou et al., 2013 ), and that some of the cross-language processing and control dynamics that have been discussed here may be important (e.g., Bogulski et al., 2019 ; Hirosh & Degani, 2018 ).

Since 2000 , there have been profound discoveries about the ways in which bilingual language experience comes to impact our minds and brains. The story that is emerging is complex because language experience itself is both complex and varied. But the lesson learned in this period is that bilingualism is not only of interest in its own right, but also as powerful lens to reveal the relations between language, the mind, the brain, and the social world. Much of what has been reviewed in this article would not have been known had monolingual speakers alone been examined.

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The Advantages of Being Bilingual

Language is one of the defining characteristics of humans. It is an interplay between culture, geography, and biology and is the one thing capable of connecting billions of people. At the time of writing, there are over 6,000 languages spoken across the globe, with English, Mandarin, Hindu, and Spanish being among the most widely spoken .

With such a massive diversity in spoken languages, it quickly becomes apparent why speaking multiple languages can be so advantageous. Geopolitics, education, and businesses rely heavily on efficient communication and minimal instances of misunderstandings. Think of how often simple linguistic misunderstandings cause large disputes and errors, both at the individual and collective level, and you can see why being bilingual is crucial for social activities. Below are some of the advantages of being bilingual

Communication is the key to understanding

One of the best advantages of being bilingual is that it will open up a new avenue for creating connections with others. The United States, for example, is home to 350 languages alone. As a result, it is seen as a melting pot for cultures, but unfortunately, tensions can arise within the country’s smaller communities simply due to language barriers. Having a sizable portion of the population fluent in at least one other language creates bridges between these communities, leading to fewer points of contention.

Teachers are some of the people best positioned to take on the task of fostering new generations of bilingual students. Schools across the U.S. already have foreign language courses integrated into their graduation requirements, but continued education in language studies is often recommended to obtain fluency. For those who never took a foreign language course in school or who wish to piggyback on what they’ve already learned, an online language tutor is arguably the best method toward fluency. There is also an assortment of self-paced online courses and smartphone apps that can supplement this knowledge.

Seeing as English is the most widely spoken language globally, it’s no surprise that it is rigorously instilled into students living in countries outside of the U.S. Learning English gives these students highly sought-after career opportunities in tourism and work abroad. That said, fluent English speakers also have a chance to make money teaching English to students who live in countries where English is not the native language.

Many companies often emphasize hiring people who are fluent in other languages. Knowing multiple languages will increase your odds of being hired, particularly in customer-facing roles. To tap into additional markets, hiring bilingual employees is strategic for businesses to have workers that can communicate with non-native language speaking demographics.

As a traveler, learning the language of the countries you visit opens up a more comprehensive lens into the culture, which has many benefits. For instance, learning Spanish and traveling across Latin America will give you a window into the deeper nuances of specific subcultures. It’ll also make it easier to navigate these countries, lessen the chances of falling for scams, allow getting better deals on consumer goods, and make befriending the locals easier.

All of this is to say that there is a clear incentive for bilingualism among different cultures to bypass language barriers and create a more interconnected, global society.

Exercising your mental faculties

Beyond the unifying nature of language, becoming bilingual has proven cognitive benefits for those who take on the effort. These benefits can be subtle, but ultimately bilingualism can make you a better reader, problem-solver, and general learner.

Whether or not you learned a second language as a child or later in life, studies have shown that being bilingual can help stave off cognitive decline in old age. What’s more, knowing how to switch between two languages has been shown to increase memory and creativity.

Having the ability to read in another language gives bilingual people access to more knowledge resources. For example, novels, news reports, and scientific studies written in another language are now accessible to bilingual people. In addition, increased use of these language skills is continually honed as new words and semantic nuances are discovered within these texts. And in terms of reading news reports, bilingual people can glean more profound insight into events happening across the world, thus making them more worldly people.

And finally, having already mastered another language, especially as a child, gives bilingual people the advantage of learning other skills. Language is a set of systems, much like any other system such as computing languages, scientific disciplines, and music.

So, not only does being bilingual increase your career opportunities, but it also grants learners cognitive abilities that can be applied to just about any other task that living in modern society requires. Moreover, by fostering bilingualism in as many people as possible, the world can become a much more unified and productive place to thrive within.

Psycholinguistics

Bilingual Education: What the Research Tells Us

January 2017
In book: Bilingual and Multilingual Education (pp.81-100)

University of Auckland

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Becoming Bilingual: An Experience That Changed My Life

John Nobile Carvalho is a Biochemistry major from Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. John’s inspiration for writing this paper was in finding the most significant and impactful moments of language learning. The reason he considers his essay important is “because during the writing process I was able to recall memories and think of the journey I’ve been on, and all the challenges I’ve faced while learning two languages.” He also credits remote learning with providing plenty of time to devote himself to his studies and this project: “I was aware that this factor could help me focus and write something interesting for people who are not bilingual as well as people who are bilingual.” Besides being a student, John is also a musician and a book lover, and counts the blues and science-fiction books among his passions. He states that he “could never live a day without playing my guitar for a few minutes, or not reading a few pages of a book. These are the two ways I have to escape reality and enjoy the moment.”

The process of becoming a bilingual person can be seen as a long journey, which has several challenges, but at the same time several achievements. Learning a new language can be considered a challenge because it goes far beyond just learning to use words, expressions and knowing how to apply correct grammar, and what I mean by that is that you have to make mistakes, live in situations where you feel vulnerable, and go through difficulties. Even though it is not a simple task, I believe that this process allows us to develop persistence, willpower, maturity and a lot of discipline. Given the explanation, I ask myself the following question: what was my process of becoming bilingual, and how did that make me who I am today?

Well, my journey started relatively early in my life. The first memories I have in mind, when I had contact with the English language, was around the age of 7 years old. I mainly remember the moment when my father used to listen to songs that had quite different lyrics than what I was used to listening to in Brazilian music. I remember asking my dad what those words were and what they meant, and I also remember referring to them as ‘‘strange words.’’ I can perfectly remember the way my father had explained to me that it was English; he said it was a type of language that human beings use and that in particular it was used elsewhere in the world. That fascinated me, and with each day that passed by, I would ask my father to show me more and more music by American artists; this led me to develop a passion for Blues, Rock, Jazz, and Soul Music. I loved the rhythm, melody, and harmony of the songs of these musical genres, but there was a big problem. I could not understand practically anything about what the lyrics were saying, and that was quite frustrating.

After a while, it started to bother me, so I realized it was time to take an initiative. I realized it was time to seek to understand the meaning of the lyrics of the songs I loved so much. I remember sitting on the floor of my room, trying to read and pronounce each word in the rhythm in which I heard them in the songs. I also remember feeling quite angry at first because I could not understand anything at all. Over time, this curiosity made me discover that I could use online translators and websites that made music translations available from English to Portuguese. At that moment I realized that there were no more limits for me. I knew that everything would start to flow naturally.

Basically, my relationship with the English language started to develop organically, and after a few months of practicing English, the words that did not make any sense started to make all the sense. I was obsessed with learning new words, phrases, and expressions. When I least expected it, with the help of subtitles, I was able to watch cartoon shows, movies, and documentaries in English. I felt fulfilled when I was able to understand certain simple dialogues, for example in the video games that I used to play, and for me, that was rewarding. Another memory I have was when I joined elementary school, and the public school where I studied used to offer English classes, and I remember having ease in these classes thanks to all the effort and dedication that I had put into studying and practicing English on my own.

As time went by, my relationship with the English language was solidifying and becoming stronger and stronger. I practically did not listen to music in Portuguese anymore; I did not care about watching cartoons and films in Portuguese anymore, which made me more immersed into American culture. I remember in 2009, when I was only 11 years old, my cousins and colleagues who played football with me asked me why I did not like to watch Brazilian and South American football like “A Liberators da America” (South American Tournament). I always said that European football championships like the Premier League (from England) were more interesting, but they did not understand that I thought it was interesting because I was discovering a “new world”. Right after I turned 14, my parents gave me my first skateboard, and it motivated me, even more, to continue learning things related to English and American culture. I used slang in English with my friends and tried to speak in English with my English teachers at school. I used to sing and play songs in English. I found it fascinating the fact that in less than seven years I had already learned so much about English.

During these seven years of studying and learning the English language, I remember listening to a lot of people around me, like my parents, uncles and aunts, cousins and several friends saying that I was doing the right thing. English was a synonym for “success and mystery” in my mind. They used to say “João, you must learn the English language, as this will bring you great opportunities in your future”. Everyone was absolutely right, and I say this because all the incentives and motivations they gave me were essential for my evolution and progress. I am incredibly grateful mainly for my parents, because thanks to them, I was able to have access to a good education. I was able to access the necessary resources to continue making progress. Without them none of this would have happened, and I would never have gotten as far as I did.

Now, after fourteen years of dedicating myself to studying the English language, I realize that my view on it has changed dramatically. At first, I was just a child venturing into a strange and unknown language, and that was incredibly attractive. When I say that my vision has changed drastically, I mean that now this language is not only a source of curiosity. It has practically become the tool that allows me to connect with the world, and in a way even with myself. I can say with all conviction that being bilingual is one of the most important tools I have in my life. I would say that English for me today is like the oxygen that I breathe all the time, and what I mean is that I can no longer live without it.

English is not just another language that exists in the world. For me, English has shaped my identity and the person I am today. What I mean by that is that English is not just a language, in my life it goes much further. A beautiful example that I always carry in mind is how English made me develop a beautiful conception of music. I consider myself a musician, and I consider music as one of the greatest inventions of mankind, and thanks to the English language I was able to venture into the world of music. Nowadays I study music every week in English: I play in concerts; I play with my friends, so through this example, it is evident how English managed to shape one of the main characteristics of my identity. Another example that comes to mind is that since I was a child, my biggest dream of all has been to become a scientist in the future. That dream only started after I watched countless scientific documentaries, read several books by phenomenal scientists like Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, and with every day that passes I am sure that my dream will be realized. Thanks to English, I was able to develop the habit of reading, watching documentaries, searching for information and building knowledge, and in my opinion, I think this is incredible. Through the study of this language, I was even able to value my mother tongue even more because like English, Portuguese is an intriguing and spectacular language that I am proud to speak.

To emphasize how crucial the process of becoming bilingual has been in my life, I can tell you how my life has changed completely since I moved to the United States. My first real contact with American society was a wave of feelings and emotions. To clarify what I am trying to say, I could use the experiences of author Orhan Pamuk (2007) as an example, when he describes how frustrating and difficult it is to adjust and adapt to a new culture and a new language. The silence was sometimes my only form of expression, as it was his. However, the best part is that this “wave of feelings and emotions” made me realize that all the years of study and my effort should be valued and put into practice. After a few months, I already felt more comfortable, so I was able to enjoy everything that this new environment had to offer me. I developed not only a love affair with the English language but also with the city of Boston. I had an epiphany and a profound reflection that, like Brazil, the United States is also the place I refer to as home.

This leads me to another interesting and profound reflection that I have been experiencing lately. The fact of moving to the United States is not only a great opportunity to have a beautiful future, and it is not just another phase of my life. It is also an opportunity to be able to connect worlds and cultures. Amin Maalouf (1998) clearly describes how beautiful it is that bilingual people living in other countries can be sources of knowledge, and according to him, these people have a great responsibility in acting as bridges that connect different cultures.

Maalouf is absolutely right, and his reflection resonated with me because I feel this responsibility; I feel responsible to share the American culture with my friends and family who live in Brazil. Likewise, I am responsible for sharing Brazilian culture with American society. I think this is extremely important because if I do that, I can make a difference in the world, I can help the world. I can help the world become a harmonious place, and I feel that I can use the knowledge I have to help people to develop more empathy, respect, and love for people from different places and cultures. Being bilingual and living in another country means having the responsibility to help people and eliminate any kind of prejudice, intolerance, and misunderstanding that they have in mind.

Given all these facts, contexts, and personal experiences, I return to my question: what was my process in becoming bilingual, and how did that make me who I am today? Well, the answer is quite simple, I have had an incredible journey so far. Every second studying English, all my effort, every person involved, every mistake made, every learning experience — all of this was crucial to getting me to where I am today. This journey brought me knowledge and reflections, which helped me to better understand the world and myself. I would never have imagined that English would bring me so many opportunities — all of this was beyond my expectations. I am sure that English will bring me more unique experiences, and I can say with all gratitude that I am ready for all of them.

Maalouf, Amin. (1998). Deadly Identities (Brigitte Caland, Trans.). Al Jadid , 4(25). Retrieved from https://www.aljadid.com/content/deadly-identities .

Pamuk, Orhan. (2007, April 7). My First Passport: What Does it Mean to Belong to a Country? (Maureen Freely, Trans.). The New Yorker . Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/16/my-first-passport .

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The Benefits of Being Bilingual

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The Benefits of Being Bilingual was originally published on Idealist Careers .

Bilingualism, or the ability to speak two or more languages fluently, can be a huge asset for job seekers. As a 2017 report by New American Economy discovered, the need for bilingual workers in the United States more than doubled in the previous five years. This trend is projected to increase, especially for Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic speakers.

But even if you don’t speak one of these languages—or don’t use a second language on the job at all—bilingualism makes you a more adaptable thinker, according to a report by the Language Institute . Quick and flexible thinkers with broad perspectives will benefit any employer.

Here are some of the benefits of being bilingual, from the job hunt to personal and professional development.

The benefits of being bilingual in social-impact careers

The New American Economy report also reveals bilingual jobs are common in fields with a high degree of person-to-person interaction. Employers in fields like education, health care, and social work actively seek bilingual workers. Dozens of languages may be represented among students at a school, clients at a housing or health facility, and residents of a neighborhood—especially in urban areas. A staff member who can serve as an interpreter or translator is invaluable. Language skills are also applicable in many advocacy jobs; immigration lawyers, for instance, often need to communicate with clients who may not speak English.

So where can your language skills be best put to use? The most in-demand bilingual skill depends on where you live. In a place where many people speak a certain language—be it Spanish in Miami, French in Louisiana, or Vietnamese in the Bay Area of California—many jobs strongly encourage bilingual candidates.

Benefits of being bilingual beyond language

Your bilingual skill set can give you an edge whether you speak your second language in the workplace or not. Knowing two languages makes your brain more flexible ; switching between two sets of grammar rules, vocabulary, tones, and nuances is a lot of work! In fact, even if you’re only speaking one language, your brain activates both language systems and requires you to focus on one—making you a natural at complex mental tasks.

This adaptability can make you quicker at thinking on your feet, better at workplace problem solving, and a whiz at multitasking. When it comes to working with people, bilingual thinkers can be more adept at “reading” and communicating with others.

Bilingualism versus biculturalism

Linguistic fluency comes in many varieties. If you learned a second language in school, you’ve probably mastered reading, speaking, and listening. But if you spoke two languages at home or learned a second language specific to your ethnic background, you may also be bicultural—someone with insider knowledge of two different cultures. This includes the dominant culture of the country you’re in; for example, the English-speaking culture in many areas of the United States.

Each culture has its own rituals, values, and behaviors that go far beyond language. A bicultural candidate will be able to navigate between the complex aspects of both cultures. While this perspective is key when working with diverse cultural groups, it also gives you a skill you can apply in any job—the ability to understand and combine multiple perspectives at once, known as integrative complexity. Your aptitudes count as a bonus in many ways, from interpersonal skills like mediation and conflict resolution to brainstorming big ideas for an organizational mission.

Promote your skills

If you’re bilingual, remember that you’re a standout candidate! Mention your second language on your resume , even if you don’t consider yourself fully fluent. A little ability can be just the boost you need to bring something extra to the table.

In an interview , you can emphasize your:

Ability to understand diverse perspectives;
Creativity and inventiveness;
Problem-solving expertise;
Skill at different modes of communication; and
Any other benefits you think bilingualism has given you, since each person’s experience will be different.

Ready to start searching? Check out job, internship, and volunteer opportunities requiring or encouraging a specific second language skill .

Bilingual Education: Programs Support Essay

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Argument in support of bilingual education programs

More than three decades after its inception, bilingual education is still entangled in myriad controversies. Although the initial structure of bilingual education program has been changed severally, the debate about whether bilingual education should or should not be practiced is not likely to die away in the near future.

Most importantly, these conflicting parties have been unable to agree on whether bilingual education yields any considerable value for L2 English speakers. On one hand, the intransigent proponents of bilingual education argue that, the program provides a common ground upon which non-English speaking children can compete favorably with their English speaking counterparts in technical subjects such as science and mathematics.

Contrastingly, opponents argue that bilingual education system impede the acquisition and development of English language among L2 speakers; thus, delaying their assimilation into the American society. Furthermore, this debate has also attracted the attention of multiculturalists who perceive bilingualism as an effective method of preserving immigrants’ language and cultural identities.

Conversely, this perception has also been criticized in that, immigrants already in the United States should not retain their language, but should be assimilated into American society through exclusive English language teaching. Nonetheless, in spite of the inconclusive research findings about accrued benefits of bilingual education, this essay will explore these controversial presuppositions, with an aim of proving the worthiness of bilingual education.

To begin with, opponents of bilingual education argue that various people have succeeded without bilingual education (Duignan). The latter author underscores that, although the above claim have taken place under some special circumstances, the individuals owe their success to other second language inputs.

This implies that, whereas these individuals’ may not have been subjected to bilingual education per se, they experienced de facto bilingual programs. According to Cummins (255), proponents of this claim often cite Richard Rodriguez (1982) and Fernando de la Pena (1991) to support their argument against bilingual education. Rodriquez claimed that he succeeded to attain high level of English proficiency even though he never received bilingual education (Duignan).

However, Cummins (256) argues that Rodriquez claim is not entirely truthful because he had two crucial advantages that led to his success in English language proficiency. For instance, Rodriquez was not an immigrant and he grew alongside other English speaking peers in Sacramento, California. This interaction exposed him to informal English language inputs.

Apparently most immigrants’ children do not have this advantage as most of them rarely use English outside their school setting (Duignan). Moreover, Rodriguez had access to numerous English books, which further improved his English language skills. Therefore, his success should not be adopted to eradicate the essentiality of bilingual education.

On the same note, de la Pena allege that having immigrated into United States at the age nine, he succeeded to attain superior competency in English language without undergoing through the bilingual education system (Cummins 257). This occurred in spite of the fact that he did not have prior encounter with English language prior to immigrating to the United States.

However, his case is weakened by the fact that, back in Mexico he was in fifth grade, thus had a good grasp of Spanish language and advanced subject matter. Correspondingly, opponents of bilingual education base their argument on the fact the system has attracted augmented negative public opinion.

However, Cummins (262) accentuate that this negativity is as a result of biased questionnaires that are adopted during those surveys. The latter author highlight that these questionnaires are often subjective and most questions are confusing to the respondents. For instance, questions are constructed in a manner that portrays mother tongue education as a great hindrance to the pursuance of higher education, and that it reduces employability of such students (Duignan).

On the other hand, Cummins (261) accentuates that if the questionnaires were not biased most parents would support bilingual education. According to Cummins (262), prior research has positively indicated that most respondents concur that L1 provides a solid foundation for L2 acquisition. Furthermore, most respondents support the notion that bilingualism yields both economic and psycho-cognitive benefits (Garcia 128).

The above analysis implies that the number of those against bilingual education is much less than what is often depicted in the public opinion surveys. Apparently, most opponents are frustrated with some specific practices of bilingual education, but not the entire system (Cummins 262). Most importantly, some opponents could be opposed to some regulations associated with bilingual education, thus their opinion would be different if those regulations were to be modified (Duignan).

Furthermore, research has indicated that most academic publications supported bilingual education except for some newspapers and magazines articles, which have often expressed a negative opinion. Needless to say, the fact that some people hold a negative perception about bilingual education is fallacious and should not be adopted to downplay the essential benefits of bilingual education.

In his article, Garcia (pp. 126-129) supports bilingual education due to the numerous benefits associated with the program. The latter author underscore that opponents of bilingual education in California blame the program for poor academic achievements, yet international and national researches have indicated that bilingualism attract myriad psycho-cognitive advantages.

In addition, Garcia (127) cites previous studies conducted among Hispanic descent students, which showed that bilingual children who interacted with bilingual programs showed greater potential in academics than monolinguals who attended English only programs. Most importantly, the latter group was shown to have faired poorly on standardized tests, portrayed a poor school attendance trend and their drop out rate is slightly higher than those attending bilingual education programs.

Furthermore, Garcia (128) cites several other studies that have portrayed that first language is an essential tool in promoting academic excellence among children and adults with inadequate formal education background. As a matter of fact, first language accelerates the acquisition of second language and promotes its’ usage in academic activities (Garcia 126). Thus, bilingual education programs should be given the precedence it deserves due to the numerous societal benefits attached to its’ practice.

Similarly, the practice of bilingual education has often been criticized due of insufficient studies to support its’ effectiveness. Conversely, although some studies have supplied negative results about the effectiveness of bilingual education, most of these conclusions are not entirely against bilingual education, rather researchers are concerned with scanty bilingual education efficacy studies (Duignan).

However, this allegation against bilingual education is not convincing and more often than not the problem is mainly on semantics than the actual practice of bilingual education. Cummins (265) underscores that the concept of bilingual education is rather dynamic and the controversies could because the parties are discussing different forms of bilingualism.

Nonetheless for the purpose of this paper, bilingual education is regarded as the transitional bilingual education whereby an L2 English learner receives academic instruction in his/her L1 in the lower grades in preparation for complete immersion in English instruction classes in latter grades. The idea behind this argument is that learning in L1 will enable the learner to achieve competency in English language based on literacy transfer concept.

Moreover, although some studies have often quoted the immersion programs in Texas, McAllen and El Paso as superior than bilingual education, Garcia(127) accentuates that the cited studies are actually bilingual education, but with a different practical approach.

On the same note, the latter author also underscores that the sample size for the above studies was extremely small and was carried out within a very short time frame, thus their results are anecdotal. On this note, the fact that a vast number of researches support bilingual education efficacy is evident that children exposed to these programs are more successful that those in all-English programs. Perhaps, these criticisms should be directed at the programs design than on the entire system.

To quote my own personal experience, bilingual education programs have enabled me to attain high level of French and English fluency although none of these languages is my native language.

This situation would not have been possible if I was immersed in English only or French only programs thus bilingual education has brought immense benefits to me; such that, I am able to utilize these languages in the classroom and they might come in handy in my afterschool life. The fact that globalization is opening new opportunities designate that bilinguals will have a greater advantage over monolinguals, who are immersed in English only programs.

Thus, the opponents should be perceived as individuals’ who are only concerned with instant results. This is based on the fact that, they cite that bilingual education delays assimilation of students into the American society. Although bilingual education process might be perceived as long and daunting, the end results justify the means. Hence, there is no reason to deny immigrants students a program that is beneficial to their lives both in the present and in future.

In a nutshell, in spite of inconclusive studies on bilingual education efficacy its’ significance cannot be overemphasized. On this note, obtainable studies indicate that bilingual education has performed exceptionally well and that with proper program improvement strategies, it has the potentiality of yielding even better results.

Although the author does not deny the fact that some elements of bilingual education might be wanting, the biggest problem is not about the practice of bilingualism, but on the availability of books to facilitate the adaptation of L1 and L2 within the bilingual education programs. As indicated above, Richard Rodriguez success was due to his exposure to vast English literature books, which enhanced his English language proficiency in the absence of bilingual education instruction.

Similarly, the current bilingual education systems can borrow a leaf from Richard Rodriguez case and ensure that students have unlimited access to books in order to cultivate a reading culture that would enhance the students success in attaining English language proficiency. As a matter of fact, learners can utilize these books to enhance their literacy levels of both L1 and L2.

Against this backdrop, bilingual education practices should be allowed to continue owing to the numerous benefits outlined above. Furthermore, the shortcomings of this program should be identified and dealt with conclusively in order to pave way for better bilingual systems.

Works Cited

Cummins, Jim. “Bilingual Education in the United States: Power, Pedagogy, and Possibility”. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 20. 3, 1998, 255- 270. Print.

Duignan, Peter, J . Bilingual Education: A Critique , 1998. Web.

Garcia, Ofelia. “Bilingual Education Is Beneficial.” In Williams, Mary E. ed. Are Multicultural Approaches Good For Education? Opposing Viewpoints . San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. pp. 126-129. Print.

Components of the original IDEA
Knowledge Management in e-Learning
Bilingualism: Views of Language
Bilingualism Resistance and Receptivity Explained
Bilingualism in Canada
Student Learning Outcome
Verbal learning
Developing Professional Knowledge to Create Professional Success
English-Language Learners in the Modern World
Hopi Education Theories and Practices
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Chicago (N-B)

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TOP > Papers & Essays > Language Development & Education > Understanding Bilingual Education 1: Analyzing Purposes of Bilingual Education

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Understanding bilingual education 1: analyzing purposes of bilingual education.

Author:	Steve McCarty, Professor, Osaka Jogakuin College and Osaka Jogakuin University
Issue Date:
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Understanding Bilingual Education 1. Analyzing Purposes of Bilingual Education (This paper) 2. Analyzing Types of Bilingual Education 3. Analyzing Cases of Bilingual Education

Introduction to Bilingual Education

Bilingualism is the study of languages in contact, typically in situations where people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds share the same space. Bilingualism was analyzed into four levels in another paper : individual, family, societal, and school levels (McCarty, 2010b). Bilingual education is bilingualism at the school level. It is not to be confused with bilingual child-raising (Pearson, 2008; McCarty, 2010a), such as speaking two languages to an infant systematically at home, which is bilingualism at the family level. Bilingual education should involve teaching in two or more languages in a school, that is, more than one language as the medium of instruction for students to learn regular school subjects.

However, other levels of bilingualism, including their cultural dimensions, do influence bilingual education. All people have a cultural identity and a linguistic repertoire, the languages they can use to some extent. Grosjean (1982) explains that "language is not just an instrument of communication. It is also a symbol of social or group identity, an emblem of group membership and solidarity" (p. 117). As a result, the attitudes people have toward different languages tend to reflect the way they perceive members of the other language groups.

Furthermore, languages have a relative status or value as perceived by the majority of a society. Languages are regarded as useless or attractive according to the economic power or cultural prestige attributed to them by the mainstream of a society, which tends to privilege national or international languages. Native languages of children of immigrants may seem to be of no use, and tend to be disregarded, while languages that are valued by the mainstream society tend to be used in education. However, Sweden has offered educational support in 100 languages (Yukawa, 2000, p. 47), while Japan's limited support has been nearly all in the Japanese language. This shows that it is not a matter of wealth but of the dominant way of thinking in the nation. The contrast in treating minority students can be as stark as a choice between assimilation and multicultural policies (Grosjean, 1982, p. 207).

Various Purposes of Bilingual Education

There are "varying aims of bilingual education" because it "does not necessarily concern the balanced use of two languages in the classroom. Behind bilingual education are varying and conflicting philosophies and politics of what education is for" (Baker, 2001, p. 193). These different purposes then lead to various actual school systems of monolingual or bilingual education. Ten typical aims of bilingual education were cited by Baker:

As can be seen from the above list, there are many and diverse purposes for conducting school programs that are called bilingual education, according to the way of thinking of decision makers in different cultures. Grosjean summarizes how implicit government policies affect the languages used in education: "Depending on the political aims of the authorities (national or regional), some minority groups are able to have their children taught in their own language, while others are not" (1982, p. 207). "If the government's aim is to unify the country, assimilate minorities, or spread the national language, more often than not minority languages will not find their place in education" (p. 207). Whereas, "if a society wants to preserve ethnic identities, give equal status to all languages and cultures in the country, revive a language, teach a foreign language more efficiently, or make its citizens bilingual and bicultural, it will often develop educational programs that employ two languages and are based on two cultures" (p. 215).

Conclusion to the First Paper on Bilingual Education

As Grosjean identifies the key issues above, the concerns of bilingualism researchers and practitioners shine through. A society may be judged by how it treats its minorities or protects the human rights of its vulnerable members. Some purposes for selecting languages to use in education may be better than others from both ethical and pedagogical perspectives. In any case, analyzing the diverse purposes behind the languages that appear in schools can deepen the understanding of resulting educational systems in the world, and possibly suggest improvements in terms of bilingual education.

Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (3rd ed.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
McCarty, S. (2010a). Bilingual child-raising possibilities in Japan. Child Research Net: Research Papers.
McCarty, S. (2010b). Bilingualism concepts and viewpoints. Child Research Net: Research Papers.
Pearson, B.Z. (2008). Raising a Bilingual Child. New York: Living Language.
Yukawa, E. (2000). Bilingual education in Sweden. In S. Ryan (Ed.), The best of Bilingual Japan, (pp. 45-47). Osaka: Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Bilingualism SIG.

	, , , ,

Understanding Bilingualism 1: What it Means to Be Bicultural
Understanding Bilingualism 2: Bilingualism Concepts and Viewpoints
Understanding Bilingualism 3: Bilingual Child-Raising Possibilities in Japan
Educational Support for Children with Foreign Backgrounds: Impact of Parents' Japanese Language Skills on Children's Japanese Proficiency and Future Careers
Assessment of Lexical Development in Preschool Children with Brazilian Roots and Attempts to Support Language Development Based on Their Heritage Language
Japanese Education for Children Who Cannot Speak Japanese

Essay on Bilingualism

Students are often asked to write an essay on Bilingualism in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Bilingualism

What is bilingualism.

Bilingualism is when a person can speak two languages. This skill can be gained early in life, like a child growing up in a house where two languages are spoken. It can also be learned later, like a student studying a second language in school.

Benefits of Bilingualism

Being bilingual has many good points. It can make your brain stronger and more flexible. It can also make it easier to understand and learn about other cultures. Plus, being able to speak two languages can help you get jobs in the future.

Challenges of Bilingualism

Learning two languages can be hard. It takes time and practice. Sometimes, people who speak two languages can mix them up. But with patience and hard work, these challenges can be overcome.

Bilingualism in Society

In many places around the world, being bilingual is normal. In these places, people use two languages to live, work, and play. This shows how important and useful bilingualism can be in our lives.

250 Words Essay on Bilingualism

Benefits of being bilingual.

Being bilingual has many benefits. It makes the brain strong and flexible. This is because switching between two languages is a mental workout for the brain. It also helps in connecting with different people and understanding different cultures.

Challenges in Bilingualism

Learning two languages can be hard. It takes time and practice to become fluent in two languages. Sometimes, it can also be confusing to switch between languages.

How to Become Bilingual?

To become bilingual, one can start learning a new language at a young age. Schools, online courses, and language clubs offer classes. Practicing speaking, reading, and writing in the new language every day can also help.

Bilingualism is a valuable skill. It helps in brain development, understanding cultures, and connecting with people. Though it can be challenging, with regular practice, anyone can become bilingual.

500 Words Essay on Bilingualism

Bilingualism is a term that describes a person’s ability to speak two languages. It’s like having two tools in your toolbox instead of one. When a person can speak, read, and write in two languages, we say that person is bilingual. Some people learn two languages when they are very young, maybe because their parents speak different languages. Others learn a second language at school or as an adult.

Bilingual people can also find it easier to learn more languages. If you already know two languages, picking up a third or even a fourth can be easier. This is because you already understand how languages work.

Bilingualism and Culture

Language is a big part of culture. By learning and understanding another language, you can also learn about another culture. This can make you more open-minded and understanding of people who are different from you. It can also help you feel connected to more people around the world.

Also, if you don’t use one of your languages often, you might forget some of it. This is why it’s important to practice both languages regularly.

In conclusion, being bilingual can be a great skill. It can help your brain, make it easier to learn more languages, and help you understand other cultures. But it can also be hard and require a lot of practice. Whether you’re born into a bilingual family or decide to learn a second language, it’s a journey that can open up a world of opportunities.

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Bilingual Instruction Assistant (Art Prop 28) - Napa Valley Language Academy at Napa Valley Unified School District

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Join our collaborative, inclusive environment that allows you the opportunity to do meaningful, rewarding work. Become part of our family-oriented, welcoming community that strives to prepare each student for a successful future by delivering rigorous and relevant learning experiences that develop their literacy and career-ready skills, cultivate their interests, and build resilience, compassion and confidence. Candidates who receive an offer of employment will be hired contingent upon the satisfactory completion of the following: Fingerprinting/background checks, Verification of freedom from Tuberculosis, and Verification of I-9 Employment Eligibility.

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Art Prop 28

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Bilingualism, Second Language and Benefits of Being Bilingual

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Studies that involve bilingual acquisition studies highlight the frequency of perception in which language one is stable while language two is compelling because it experiences changes in development. These studies question [...]

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119 Bilingualism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Looking for a good essay, research or speech topic on Bilingualism? Check our list of 119 interesting Bilingualism title ideas to write about!
Importance Of Being Bilingual: [Essay Example], 513 words
This essay will explore the importance of being bilingual in today's society, focusing on the cognitive, social, and economic benefits that come with language proficiency in multiple languages. By examining the ways in which bilingualism enhances cognitive functions, fosters cross-cultural understanding, and improves career prospects, this ...
Bilingual Language Acquisition
Get a custom Essay on Bilingual Development: Second Language Acquisition. For example, many children learn their native language at home and another language such as English or French at school. Bilingual language acquisition takes place in two main ways that include simultaneous acquisition and successive acquisition (Cenoz & Genesee, 2001).
125 Bilingualism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Fear not! In this article, we will provide you with 125 bilingualism essay topic ideas and examples to inspire and guide you through the writing process. Language Acquisition: The advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism in early childhood.
The amazing benefits of being bilingual
Most people in the world speak more than one language, suggesting the human brain evolved to work in multiple tongues. If so, are those of us who speak only one language missing out?
Bilingualism as a Life Experience
Bilingualism and executive function As bilingual children toggle between two languages, they use cognitive resources beyond those required for simple language acquisition, Luk writes in a forthcoming edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development. Recent research has shown that bilingual children outperform monolingual children on tasks that tap into executive function — skills ...
97 Bilingual Education Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Looking for a good essay, research or speech topic on Bilingual Education? Check our list of 97 interesting Bilingual Education title ideas to write about!
Opinion
The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).
The Advantages and Limitations of Bilingualism: [Essay Example], 1790
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the benefits of being bilingual for a person's cognitive development. Unlike the understanding of bilingualism during the early 20 century, where nationalistic policymakers and researchers considered bilingualism interference and hindrance of the cognitive function that negatively affected learners ...
Bilingualism: A Cognitive and Neural View of Dual Language Experience
Summary There has been an upsurge of research on the bilingual mind and brain. In an increasingly multilingual world, cognitive and language scientists have come to see that the use of two or more languages provides a unique lens to examine the neural plasticity engaged by language experience. But how? It is now uncontroversial to claim that the bilingual's two languages are continually ...
The Advantages of Being Bilingual
The Advantages of Being Bilingual Language is one of the defining characteristics of humans. It is an interplay between culture, geography, and biology and is the one thing capable of connecting billions of people. At the time of writing, there are over 6,000 languages spoken across the globe, with English, Mandarin, Hindu, and Spanish being among the most widely spoken.
Benefit of Bilingual Education: [Essay Example], 543 words
Bilingual education is an approach to learning that involves the use of two languages, typically the student's native language and a second language. This approach has been gaining popularity in recent years, as educators and researchers have recognized the numerous benefits it offers to students. In this essay, we will explore the various advantages of bilingual education and why it is an ...
(PDF) Bilingual Education: What the Research Tells Us
PDF | This chapter explores key research findings about bilingual education and the related efficacy of various approaches to teaching bilingual... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ...
Becoming Bilingual: An Experience That Changed My Life
Becoming Bilingual: An Experience That Changed My Life. by John Nobile Carvalho. John Nobile Carvalho is a Biochemistry major from Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. John's inspiration for writing this paper was in finding the most significant and impactful moments of language learning. The reason he considers his essay important is "because ...
The Benefits of Being Bilingual
Benefits of being bilingual beyond language. Your bilingual skill set can give you an edge whether you speak your second language in the workplace or not. Knowing two languages makes your brain more flexible; switching between two sets of grammar rules, vocabulary, tones, and nuances is a lot of work! In fact, even if you're only speaking one ...
Bilingual Education
Nonetheless, in spite of the inconclusive research findings about accrued benefits of bilingual education, this essay will explore these controversial presuppositions, with an aim of proving the worthiness of bilingual education. To begin with, opponents of bilingual education argue that various people have succeeded without bilingual education ...
Understanding Bilingual Education 1: Analyzing Purposes of Bilingual
What is bilingual education and what purposes does it serve? This paper aims to introduce bilingual education and clarify why there are such diverse patterns of languages used in education. Although education in only one language is taken for granted in some regions of the world, there is still the question of what purpose it serves.
Essays on Bilingualism
Differences Between Bilingual and Monolingual Children in Education. 5 pages / 2133 words. Bilingualism offers a unique perspective on language acquisition and cognitive development, challenging conventional notions of language proficiency and highlighting the benefits that come with mastering multiple languages.
Essay on Bilingualism
High-quality essay on the topic of "Bilingualism" for students in schools and colleges.
Essay On Bilingual Person
Essay On Bilingual Person. 1036 Words5 Pages. To begin with, a bilingual person is someone who speaks two languages or more. Many bilingual people grow up speaking two languages because these children were speaking their parents' native language however when they go out for playing, at school or kindergarten they need another language because ...
Essay On Bilingual Language
Well according to the book it states, " The Bilingual Education Act of 1974 provided federal funds to meet the language needs of non-English speaking students. (Cengage 297).". This means that thanks to the Bilingual Education Act of 1974 the government will provide funds in order to meet the needs of non…. 563 Words.
The Benefits of Bilingual Education in The Modern World
If someone is interested in the arts of another culture of people who speak a particular language, learning their language is a great way to gain a better understanding of their culture. By learning a second language, a person will become more cultured and open to the diversity of the world. Being bilingual makes the brain a stronger muscle.
Teaching in Two-Way Dual-Language-Bilingual Education: An Analysis of
Introduction. The role of schools in the education of language minoritized youth has a long and complicated history in the United States closely tied to assimilationist discourses, notions of Whiteness, monoglossic English perspectives, and civil/language rights battles (García & Torres-Guevara, Citation 2010).Despite the continued legacy of this history in our schools today, bilingual ...
Bilingual Instruction Assistant (Art Prop 28)
Art Prop 28 Join our collaborative, inclusive environment that allows you the opportunity to do meaningful, rewarding work. Become part of our family-oriented, welcoming community that strives to prepare each student for a successful future by delivering rigorous and relevant learning experiences that develop their literacy and career-ready skills, cultivate their interests, and build ...
Bilingualism, Second Language and Benefits of Being Bilingual: [Essay
Second, let's look at how a second language differ from being bilingual. Bilingual, as mentioned, means that the individual is able to speak two languages at the same proficiency level. Second language refers to an individual who are proficiency in its native language, and are learning a second language, but are not at the same proficiency level as a native speaker of that given language. In ...