Language Development: Advantages of Bilingualism - Term Paper Example

Introduction Studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of multilingualism on the development of cognitive functions especially in children and younger people. There are various of factors associated with bilingualism. First, the issue of choosing the language of instruction in class environment can be better solved by understanding how bilingualism can benefit the students. While past studies indelicate that there are some advantages associated with bilingualism, there are no clear cut evidences of how these affect the people. In fact there could be many factors both negative and positive that may emanate from the issue of multilingualism. Due to the potential of impact on a child’s cognitive development, multilingual skills for children who are still in their formative years is something that most educators must consider. There are a number of issues which must be addressed. For instance, how does the possession of bilingual skills affect a child’s ability to interact with the intellectual environment around them? Importance of multilingual skills Multilingual skills have such big impact on the intelligence of children. In this regard, it warrants the need for better understanding and the importance of making sure that these children are given the best language options in school. If it can be identified that bilingualism increases the development of a child’s cognitive functions, this would have far reaching implications and would require the children to be given an opportunity to learn more languages. Moreover, it would also require review of the impact of the language used in tutoring. For instance, is multilingualism is such as important issue, it might be better to teach children who use English as a first language in another language other than English. This would also apply for any other language. Many researchers and scholars have tried to investigate the issue of bilingualism. For instance Pascale et al (2012) investigated whether the cognitive advantages gained from bilingual skills are extended to children who are affected by poor economic conditions. The two groups were matched for economic similarity so as to make guarantee that there were no differences in the economic ability of the two groups. The hypothesis of the study was that cognitive advantages gained from bilingual skills were not affected by social economic factors. The study used the comparison of two groups of Portuguese children, some in Luxembourg and the other group in Portugal. The ones in Luxembourg were bilinguals while the ones into Portugal were monolinguals. The economic status of each of the participants in the two groups was determined to be averagely the same as the group average. The education in the two countries is considered to be the same level so these factors could not have led to the disparity in the way the two groups in the two countries were able to respond to questions. The study found that the students who were bilinguals had better executive functions as tested through the various types of tests they were given. Method To do this, they followed two groups of young children, one made of Luxembourg bilingual in and the other made of monolingual children from Portugal. A total of 121 pupils in grade two were interviewed in both Northern Portugal and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The group in Portugal (n=540 were monolingual while the group in Luxembourg (n=67) were bilingual. The students were then given cognitive ability tests to test their expectative functions. Other studies Esposito and Ward (2013) also carried out a study on the same issue with an intention to identify how bilingualism affects the cognitive function of an individual. The study was intended out by comparing two groups of young students of grad3es K, 2 and grade 4. Apart from testing the impact of bilingualism on executive function, the study also trusted the time taken for these function to take place, if they did. Thus, the study chose to skip a grade between every one grade from K to grade 4. The study found that bilingualism was a contributing factor to children’s executive function development. This was regarded as important since better scores in executive function in the early years is a better indication of how the child will perform in his later years. Method 120 children from Grades K, 2, and 4 were tested for cognitive abilities. The study used Kindergarten pupils, (n= 35) second grade students (n = 43) and fourth grade students (n = 42). The students were measured for their cognitive ability in the different grades to investigate how long the child needs to be exposed to bilingualism in order to fully benefit from it. The aim of using grade K, grade 2 and grade 4 was to compare how both bilingual and monolingual students in these three grades faired in the cognitive development. This would help understand whether increased expose to bilingual skills increased the advantages reaped from bilingual skills. Bialystok and colleagues (2010) also carried out a similar study which investigated of the impact of bilingualism on the cognitive elements of a child are delivered. They hypothesized that bilingual students would have a better cognitive development than monolingual students, regardless of language spoken. Method In their study, they used three groups of children. The first group was made of native English speaking students, the second was made of Spanish speaking students and the third was made of bilingual students who spoke English and at least one or more of the other many languages. This study was geared towards understanding whether multilingual students were more likely to increase their cognitive abilities and their executive functions. The study concluded that that multilingual students were better in developing their cognitive functions and this was manifested in the children’s ability to increase their execute functions. Relations to this study Language plays such an important part of a person’s learning abilities mainly because knowledge is transferred from the teacher to the student though language (Rodriguez, 2014). At the same time, the mechanics of learning a language are also an important issue in making sure that a person’s cognitive abilities are developed. Managing two languages is a complicated process and every time a person has to change from one language to another, they have to change the rules of language and the working in order to communicate in the new language. This process is an even harder one for children than for adults. In this way, it can be said that multilingual children have better chances of learning how to cope with more important issues with regard to the way their brain and their cognitive functions work. As a result, multilingualism has a very important impact on the development of the cognitive development of a child, and this is manifested in the way the bilingual children develop better executive functions than monolingual children in the same or similar conditions. Multilingual skills have been seen to improve the way a child’s cognitive functions are developed. The skills needed to switch from one language to the other can be very helpful in making sure that that the child can be able to do this in other areas. Studies in the past, as in the above mentioned studies, have shown that multilingual students are able to have better executive functions than monolingual students. Esposito and Ward (2013) also identifies that these variances in the way a child cognitive functions made are independent of socioeconomic issues. As they found out, regardless of class, children of the same age and same or similar educational environment are likely to develop their executive functions in a different way. Those having multilingual skills are likely to have better change to develop their executive functions faster and earlier in life. Methods After the right ages of the pupils to participate in the study were determined, potential pupils were selected based on social economic criteria which would make sure that every participants had equally. All the potential candidate’s parents were contacted and asked to give their consent. The pupils were also given an explanation of what they would be doing in order to make sure that there were no confusions. Two groups of young students of ages between 3 and 6 were studied by first placing them into two groups. Each group consisted of 50% bilingual and 50% monolingual students. While choosing the potential candidates of each of the students, social economic factors were considered in order to make sure that these factors did not interfere with the results. The intension of the study was to try to find out how each of these children was able to respond to cognitive tests. Several tests were given to the task in order to test their cognitive functions and their executive functions. The reason for using a number of tests was the fact that these would most likely produce more reliable results. Data from each test for each student would be merged with data from other tests and an analysis would be done. These tests were as follows; Behavior Rating Index of Executive Function (BRIEF) – this test was used to test the executive functionality of the children. Each child in the each of the two groups was tested and a score kept. The average scores of each of the students in each groups was then analyzed and the two groups were compared. Cognitive Assessment System – this testing was also done on each of the students. The scores from this and the Behavior Rating Index of Executive Function (BRIEF) were aggregated for analysis. Childrens Category Test – this test as Hoff (2013) says is useful in testing the child’s ability to categorize things and thus test the child’s cognitive functionality. In this research, this test was used as a way to reinforce the data achieved from the other tests. Discussion The many research projects which have been done out on the issue of multilingualism seem to have one central agreement that multilingualism has advantages over monolinguals. For instance, as Kroll (2012) says, there is clear indication that students who speak two or more languages end up scoring higher in executive functionality tests. This study’s findings were seconded by Esposito and Ward (2013) who also identified that there is a correlation between higher cognitive abilities in the bilingual students. Pascale and colleagues (2012) in fact took the study of multilingualism further than most researchers have. Their research was not designed to investigate the impact of bilingualism on the cognitive development in children, it was designed to investigate how socioeconomic factors affect the way the benefits of multilingual skills affect the development of a child’s development functions. This means that Pascale (2012) and his research partners had already established that multilingualism has a fundamental impact on the development of cognitive functions in the people. As Esposito and Ward (2013) have discussed in their report, higher scores in the executive functions in children are a better indication of how the child will develop. As their study reports, better scores in the test for executive functions in a child may be more preferable instead of better scores in IQ tests. These studies were all intended to create an understanding the role of multilingualism in the development of a child. This particular study was geared towards making sure investigating the positive role of multilingualism in the development of a child. However, as pointed out, Pascales and his colleagues, while investigating issues of multilingualism, was geared towards understanding other aspects of multilingualism. However, all these studies lead to the same conclusions about multilingualism. Strengths and issues of the study One of the main advantages that this study had was the fact that there is a lot of background research that has been done in this area. The issue was also easy to investigate due to the fact that there are various ways to achieve this. Due to easily available data, the study was able to sue a simple but effective study design which was them effective in delivering the required results. However, there were some issues which should be resolved in future studies. For instance, while there was easily available data, there is an evident need for a longitudinal study which would be necessary in order to investigating some issues such as the long term effects of bilingual children. This need for a longitudinal study could not be met in this study and future studies should consider it carefully. Recommendation for future research The research on multilingualism and its impact one cognitive development is far from being over. There are still various factors which have not been resolves and are still far from being resolved. In this sense, future research should seek to close the many gaps which still linger in the understanding of bilingualism. For instance, there is a need for longitudinal studies which will identify the way the benefits reaped from multilingualism are reaped in the long run. Similarly, there is a need to identify how the chosen language of instruction in school affects the cognitive development of the students. The strong evidence for the favorable impact of bilingualism on the cognitive development in children is an indication that this issue should be taken in a more crucial manner. Not only are bilingual students more likely to develop better, faster and earlier, they are also likely to sustain these benefits in much later years of their lives. Apart from that, students thought in a language that this not their first languages are more likely to develop better cognitive functions than those taught in their first language. These issues are important and must be incorporated in the future of policy development. References Pascale, M et al. (2012). Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children. Psychological Science 23 (11) , PP. 1364– 1371. Bialystok, et al. (2010). Journal of Cognition and Development. Journal Of Cognition And Development, Vol 11(4) , PP. 485–508. Esposito, A.G & Ward, L.B. (2013). Dual-Language Education for Low-Income Children: Preliminary Evidence of Benefits for Executive Function. Bilingual Research Journal, 36: , pp. 295–310. Hoff, E. (2013). Language Development. London, UK: Cengage Learning. Kroll, J. (2012). Bilingualism and cognitive control. London, UK: Frontiers E-books. Rodriguez, D. (2014). The Bilingual Advantage: Promoting Academic Development, Biliteracy, and Native Language in the Classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Press,. Read More