Just
like a fabric which is interwoven with intricate designs and vibrant
colours so is our society made up of peoples from many cultures and
languages. Our world has changed dramatically over the last
few decades and is becoming fully interconnected. Succeeding in the
21st century will require new ways of thinking, strong language
skills and an open mind. Bilingualism carries concrete advantages and
improves abilities for children who grow up speaking a second
language.
More and more
parents are eager to raise their children to be bilingual. They know
what an important asset this ability will be for their children down
the road—opening doors in higher education, the business world,
politics, science, the arts and many other fields. In a world
that is only getting "smaller" or "flatter" as
technology bridges nations, learning another language will give the
children of today the preparation and the broader outlook they will
need tomorrow.
Learning
two languages
There are many
reasons to teach children multiple languages when they’re young:
- Young children can pick up a new language faster and more easily than a teenager or an adult.
- A second language is a skill that allows a child to explore other cultures and communicate with more people – at home and abroad.
- The ability
to speak more than one language can create broader opportunities for
employment in the future.
But as the number
of bilingual children has grown, so have the myths about how learning
two languages affects children. Have you ever heard that bilingual
children are more prone to using the wrong word? Or that bilingual
children have trouble communicating in both languages? Do bilingual
kids struggle more with reading and writing? Here are the facts:
- Research clearly shows from time to time, children might use a word from one language while speaking in another. But these moments of ‘language switching’ disappear after a few years, usually by age seven.
- Children can master more than one language at a time – it might just take a little longer. Learning one language is a big challenge for everyone. Learning a second set of words and grammar takes even more effort. The more children hear and use a language, the faster they’ll learn it.
- Exposure to more than one language at an early age doesn’t make it harder to read and write later. In fact, there’s some evidence that shows the opposite is true – that learning to read in one language helps a child learn to read in another.
- There’s
another benefit to teaching children to speak more than one language
at an early age. Some studies suggest that bilingualism
might help children develop certain attention skills sooner.
‘Selective attention’ is the ability to focus on important
details while ignoring distracting and misleading information. It’s
something bilingual children do a lot as they learn to filter out
words from one language when speaking in another.
- Bilingualism
increases mental flexibility for
children. Bilinguals will have two or more words for a single
object, concept or idea.
- Bilingual
children are more willing
and able to learn a third language, and show an increased analytical
orientation to language.
- Children
who study a second language score higher on verbal standardized
tests conducted in English. Bilingual children also perform better
in math and logic skills than children with just one language.
- Learning
a second language helps children build self-esteem, creativity,
problem-solving skills, and math ability. Bilingual children
maintain a strong sense of their own identity while
developing sensitivity
towards other people and cultures.
- Since
bilinguals need to be aware of which language to speak in which
situation, a bilingual
child is more aware of the needs of the listener.
- In order to reap the full benefit of bilingualism, exposure to the second language should begin as early as possible. The chances of achieving full fluency in another language are much higher if study is begun during early childhood, since the human brain is wired to learn language during this critical period. There’s growing agreement among researchers that learning two or more languages – while adding some specific challenges – doesn’t hurt a child’s development. In fact, it might help develop important mental skills and open up a world of opportunities later in life.
Overcoming challenges of learning two languages
As already
mentioned, learning two languages requires more practice than
learning one. And that leads to some potential challenges for
children in bilingual households.
The first is that
it might take more time to develop a large vocabulary in each of the
languages. Studies have shown that bilingual children tend to have
somewhat smaller vocabularies in each language than classmates who
speak only one language. But the reason is simple – they need to
learn new words in both languages, instead of just one. That doesn’t
mean they know fewer words.
Some
studies suggest that bilingual children actually have a larger
overall vocabulary if you count the words they know in both
languages. Over time, bilingual children catch up to their
single-language peers, and most differences disappear by grade five.
Children are
naturally open to language in a way that often amazes their parents.
Less self-conscious and less anxious, they see a new language as a
wide open field to do the things they already love to do—rhyme,
make up words, create imaginary friends, try out funny sounds. We all
could take a page from a child's ready sense of wonder and
adventurousness. Praising the child when they hear the child speaking
the second language may do wonders for the child's language ego.
At what age should children start?
Experts say that
children should begin to learn a foreign language from a young age;
the younger, the better. "A child is born with the ability to
learn any language in the world," or "The older the child
gets, certain windows close in terms of language acquisition, but so
long as the child learns the language before puberty [age 12 or 13],
the child should be able to speak with a native accent."
Helpful tips
Are you wondering
how to help your child learn two languages? Here are some ideas to
keep in mind.
- Give your child plenty of practice in both languages. Children need to hear and speak each language often to learn the words and grammar of both.
- CDs and DVDs don’t work as well as a real person using language in everyday situations such as playing, shopping or just talking. Hire bilingual child carer.
- Don’t be surprised if one language becomes stronger than the other. It’s common for one to become dominant, and it’s usually the one the child hears and uses most.
- Have
patience with mistakes or language switching. This is a normal part
of learning two languages. With more practice, these mistakes will
fade.
Not only that
people who speak a foreign language often enjoy better career
prospects and higher standards of living but there are even health
benefits -- recent research suggests that a second language also
helps prevent dementia later in life.
A
cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years
learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news:
among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to
delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. There’s a system
in your brain, the executive control system. It’s a general
manager. Its job is to keep you focused on what is relevant, while
ignoring distractions. It’s what makes it possible for you to hold
two different things in your mind at one time and switch between
them. It is brain exercise.
If you have two
languages and you use them regularly, the way the brain’s networks
work is that every time you speak, both languages pop up and the
executive control system has to sort through everything and attend to
what’s relevant in the moment. Therefore the bilinguals use that
system more, and it’s that regular use that makes that system more
efficient.
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