... 02/23/2012 How does bilingualism influence our world? The 15th Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau said, “A bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one – and it is a richer state” which analogues that bilingualism is a premium appliance that is transfiguring our world. Furthermore, being bilingual will provide the aptitude of conversing with foreign peers and traveling in diverse countries, upsurge various career contingency that will enhance our financial system, and improved at multitasking and have less possibility to build up Alzheimer. Moreover, President Barack Obama mentioned in Georgia that bilingualism is a “powerful tool” and "We should have every child speaking more than one language"(Bellantoni C. 2008). Bilingualism will allow any American child to converse in another language and expose himself/herself to the world. By being bilingual, it will amplify his/her desire to take the risk of traveling in other countries. For instance, numerous Europeans speak English, French, and German. These people will most likely visit countries that have these languages as their natal languages. These tourists will not be afraid to expose themselves to a diverse country and sundry culture because they have a “richer state.” On the other hand, bilingualism will thrive the tourism economy over the world. In addition, bilingualism will expand diverse vocation possibilities that will augment the financial...
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...Running Head: BILINGUALISM 1 Simultaneous Versus Sequential Bilingualism BILINGUALISM 2 Bilingualism is the ability to speak and communicate in two languages. Bilingualism can be acquired in two different ways. Children usually acquire bilingualism from being exposed to two separate languages from a parent, nanny, or caregiver. Simultaneous bilingualism occurs when a child acquires two languages at the same time (simultaneously), before the age of three (Otto and Hall, 2010). Ideally, the child will have equal experiences with each language. Sequential bilingualism is when a child has had sufficient exposure, usually after the age of three and after the first language is mastered. (asha.org, 2004). Sequential bilingualism is when the child acquires their second language after they have mastered a primary language. This usually occurs when they have parents who speak a different language from that of the community. When they enter school, they are introduced to their second language. There are two main hypotheses that explain how children acquire secondary language. They are the unitary system hypothesis and the separate system hypothesis. In the unitary system hypothesis, it is the belief that children fuse together words from both languages into one lexicon. After around three years of age, they will start to split the words into two separate lexicons, but use the one set of grammar rules. In the separate system hypothesis, it is believed...
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...Portugal Sistema de Información Científica Miranda Montenegro, Iván Ricardo Insights on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: A Sociolinguistic Perspective Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, vol. 17, núm. 3, septiembre-diciembre, 2012, pp. 263-272 Universidad de Antioquia Medellín, Colombia Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=255025411004 Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, ISSN (Printed Version): 0123-3432 ikala@quimbaya.udea.edu.co Universidad de Antioquia Colombia How to cite Complete issue More information about this article Journal's homepage www.redalyc.org Non-Profit Academic Project, developed under the Open Acces Initiative InsIghts on BIlIngualIsm and BIlIngual EducatIon: a socIolInguIstIc PErsPEctIvE [Percepciones sobre el bilingüismo y la educación bilingüe: una perspectiva sociolingüística] Iván Ricardo Miranda Montenegro holds a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics to EFL Teaching from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Colombia. He currently works as assistant professor at Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia. Mailing address: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Instituto Internacional de Idiomas, Calle 4 sur No 15-134 Sogamoso, Boyacá, Colombia. E-mail: ivan.miranda@uptc.edu.co Abstract This paper is primarily intended to present some major considerations about bilingualism and bilingual education from a sociolinguistic perspective. In the first instance and due to...
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...response to one author in particular who is considered to be very well educated but not well versed in being an educator. While the author is in support of bilingual education his theories and ideas of how to get there are filled with a lot of “fluff” or unattainable options. He is somewhat of a political figure and tends to ride the fence on what might be considered controversial from someone of his stature. 3. This article is about bilingualism in politics. In this article the author writes about and teenage boy who was suspended from school for speaking Spanish. The author argues that the issue isn’t at all about language, but about immigration and issue the U.S. has with Mexico and its southern border. She thinks that language concerns have been a major issue for the political movement to reduce immigration. The boy who was suspended from school represents to many the loss of jobs, lower standards of living, lack of healthcare and anything else one can think of in the author’s eyes. 4. This article is about bilingualism in the...
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...Bilingualism – Education aspect Twisted Tongues: The Failure of Bilingual Education This article talks about the failure of bilingual education in the United States. Part of the article gives personal experiences from people who have dealt with bilingual education, in which they have bad experiences. Most of the them say that they feel like their children are discriminated against because of their last name or ethnicity. For example, in one experience the parent says that their child was shy during his kindergarten examine and did not talk and the administrator put him as bilingual even though he wouldn’t speak, then assumed the child did not understand. The article goes on to talk about different problems within the education system, how parents feel about it, what is being done to help the situations and the emphasis being taken on bilingual education (Porter, 1998). Bilingualism in Education This article talks about the advantages of bilingual education in the United States. The author feels that if a student learns another language throughout their schooling that they have a better chance of possible even picking up on a third language. Additionally, the author feels that it would benefit them to learn other languages so that it is easier to adapt to different cultures, especially if they were to travel around the world. It would open up many opportunities for them and teach them more grammar as well as heritage of their culture (Wordpress). Bilingualism – Politics...
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...Reed 1 Christina Reed Professor Wilkinson English 100 05 May 2015 Bilingualism One in seven or 31.8 million people speak a language other than English in their home, according to the United States Census. (United States Census, 2009). People use this term in different ways. For some, bilingualism means an equal ability to communicate in two languages. For others, bilingualism means the ability to communicate in two languages but with the possibility of greater skills in one language. There is a lot of criteria that goes along with bilingualism. For this research paper, the criteria I focused on were: The history of bilingualism laws in the United States, pros/cons of bilingual education in America’s school system, who benefits the most from bilingual education programs; youths in elementary or the youths in high school, bilingualism in the labor market, and bilingualism in the media. In the society that we live in today, Bilingualism has become just as it is important to learn as to learn the language from the country of a person’s ethnical background. Bilingualism has come a far way in the last 20 years to where it is today. Whether we notice it or not bilingualism plays a part in every person’s day to day life. Bilingualism is highly researchable subject is given a lot of political, as well as ethical attention. Twenty years ago in the school system bilingual education programs were almost never heard of much in elementary schools for English speaking students to...
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...March 1, 2012 Week 7 Checkpoint Summary 2 Bilingualism in Politics In the article A Critical Mass Model of Bilingualism among U.S. Born Hispanics, written by April Linton, which talks about how government reacts bilingualism and rather than find a solution to the problem they tend to go the opposite way. “The government makes choices about what language or languages they (minorities) will communicate in” (Linton, 2004). The government has passed laws that only made it acceptable to speak English and disregard any other language in the schools, citizenships and government. For example, the author writes about in 1906, if you wanted to become a citizen you need to know English (Linton, 2004). There were also many laws that were passed that supported bilingualism. For example, the author writes about 1968 Congress passed The Bilingual Education Act, which wanted to “improve the poor school performances of immigrant children by providing fund for “transitional” programs to help children of limited English speaking the ability to learn English before transition into regular classroom (Linton, 2004). The article also discusses assimilation and how not speaking English can make people not feel wanted or at home. By saying that everyone in the U.S needs to speak English is singling out everyone who doesn’t speak it, which isn’t fair. If the tables were turned around and the majority of the language was Spanish and the minority was English, would it then be fair to prohibit the...
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...[pic] University of the East Manila College of Arts and Sciences Topic: “Children and Bilingualism” EN221 – 1M - Language in Culture Submitted by: Virgino, Clarisse Yvette P. Submitted to: Dr. Deborah Javier I. Introduction What is a Bilingual? A Bilingual person is someone who can speak or write in more than one language. A person who can speak/write in more than two languages is considered to be a multilingual. Bilingualism and multilingualism isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s the norm for most of the world’s societies. It is possible for a person to know more than one or two languages, most especially when the country is not in the western part of the globe, usually, people can speak two languages—that is, their L1 and L2, which, in this context, L2 is usually the English language. People become bilingual when they learn two languages at the same time, or, they learn the second language sometime after they acquired their L1. But then, it is more possible for a person to learn a second language sometime after he has acquired his L1. The problem is, the older you get, the harder it is to learn to speak a new language as well as a native speaker. Many linguists believe that there is a so-called “critical period” wherein the child can easily acquire any language that he or she is regularly exposed to. Under this belief, the structure of the brain changes...
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...EDPROFST 226: Introduction to Bilingualism and Bilingual Immersion Education Assignment One: In his book, Language, Power and Pedagogy: bilingual children in the crossfire, Cummins (2000) tells a story of a bilingual Mexican mother who was ordered by a judge to stop speaking Spanish to her daughter during a custody dispute with her husband. The judge’s view was that the mother was ‘abusing’ her daughter by speaking Spanish in their home (p.13). Unfortunately the judge is not alone in his opinion in regards to second language acquisition and bilingualism. Nor is the context of America and the minority language of Spanish different from the New Zealand context in the way that minority languages are viewed ‘ongoing bilingualism in a so-called minority, indigenous or community language is still regarded by many as an educational, and wider social impediment” (May, Hill, Tiakiwai, 2004, p.8). Cummins asks some important questions in regards to bilingual education in both homes and schools including, ‘To what extent is it child abuse to send new teachers into classrooms (in multilingual cities such as Toronto, London, or New York) with minimal or no preparation on how to teach academic content to students who are in the process of learning English and whose cultural background differs significantly from that assumed by all of the structures of schooling (e.g. curriculum, assessment, and teacher preparation)?’ (Cummins, 2000, p.14) New Zealand is a rich, diverse multicultural...
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...According to Haspelmath, one of the most visible sociolinguistics factors that have the biggest influence on the borrowing of words is called widespread bilingualism, which is also referred to as intensity of contact (2008: 10). Following Thomason and Kaufman, Haspelmath provides scale of intensity contact which can be divided into five groups: (1): casual contact, (2): slightly more intense contact, (3): more intense contact, (4): strong cultural pressure, (5): very strong cultural pressure). The study of Brown on intensity of language contact reveals the fact that for Native Americans borrowed more words from Spanish language rather than from English or French. This happens because users of Native American languages were exposed to Spanish more often and sooner than other languages. This contact somehow forced native societies to acquire other language in order to communicate and...
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...Obviously language plays a huge factor in bringing out a person’s individuality, as the way they use language allows them to socialize and build relationships in their community. For someone who is either a bilingual or multilingual, they are able do these functions using a phenomena called code switching or translanguaging. Code-switching takes place when a bilingual person begins an utterance in one language and then switches to the other language (De Jong, 2011;60). On a broader scale, this type of practice falls under the term translanguage because of its unique meaning-making dimension. It needs to be mentioned that code-switching isn’t a characteristic of bilingualism that’s done for convenience. It is also really beneficial in the classroom. It aids in both learning the English language and speaking it proficiently. Research shows that teachers who use code-switching as a way of establishing relations and affirming students identities (De Jong, 2011:61). Often when bilingual students get stuck trying to articulate an idea, they would switch to the native language and clear up any problems. Along with problem solving, code-switching functions aids in a way that helps students complete tasks efficiently. At the beginning of this chapter, Francois Grosjean states that “Bilinguals are not two monolinguals in one person. (De Jong, 2011;48)” I took this to mean that a bilingual person combines two languages in a very unique way. They are able to articulate the two languages...
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...1.In S.I. Hayakawa’s essay ethos are applied numerously through out. Through out S.I’s essay he refers to his own experience about being an American immigrant along with the interest group he created that gives his credibility. For example, S.I. explained to the audience “several years ago, I helped to establish U.S. English, a Washington D.C.- based public interest group that seeks an amendment to the U.S. constitution declaring English our official language…” (paragraph 3). S.I. also specifies about his own experience of being a Japanese immigrant and knowing the important that learning English is. He mentions “I am keenly aware of the things that blind us as Americans…” (paragraph 4). Also, S.I. states “As a former U.S. senator from California…” (paragraph 17) The usage of his experiences, explaining to the audience the interest group, and referring to his previous senator position gives S.I. his credibility. Ethos are particularly important when writing about this subject because if S.I. didn’t have credibility no one wouldn’t consider his point of view. Having credibility is about the subject connects the audience to the author and gives the reader a sense of understanding. 2. S.I starts his argument by relating back to to World War II when immigrants had trouble interacting with English speakers. He then follows up with his argument about making English the official language and why English should be. Also, tells the problem of why students aren’t learning English...
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...to bilinguals in terms of communication with people of other cultures, cognitive abilities, and health due to their lack of capability to speak a language other than English. Being bilingual comes with the most well-known advantage, the ability to communicate with people from different cultures. ¨It [bilingualism]...
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...Did you know that being proficient in more than one language could help a person focus? Neuroscience has been able to show that learning more than one language can give a person various advantages over people who are only proficient in one language. Studies have shown that people who are proficient in a second language have an increased amount of gray matter in specific areas of the brain associated with language and communication skills (Mechelli, et al., 2004). The brain is made up of white and gray matter, two types of tissues that are visible to the human eye. White matter is made up of fibers that function to facilitate communication between the body and gray matter. White matter gets its name from the myelin, a white, fatty substance that acts as an insulator, surrounding each axon. Gray matter is made up of cell bodies which function to send sensory and motor information to the Central Nervous System to create a response to a stimulus. Research and experiments done by a group of scientists test the density of gray matter in different individuals. Their experiment was conducted on eighty three people: twenty five were monolinguals, twenty five became bilingual at an early age, and thirty three became bilingual between the ages of ten and fifteen and have practiced the language regularly for at least five years. The scientists used voxel-based morphometry to record the differences between the brains of each individual. A voxel is a three-dimensional equivalent to a pixel...
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...Los beneficios de educación bilingüe Sami Harris University of Illinois Hay una niña guatemalteca. Acaba de llegar a los estados unidos y está en el quinto grado. Ella es muy lista—cuando está aprendiendo en el español, pero aquí en los estados unidos no hay muchos programas de educación bilingüe excepto de en lugares con mucho gente que no habla inglés. A su escuela ahora está en un tipo de programa bilingüe. La maestra ensena a los estudiantes en inglés y si tiene problemas de comprensión, explica más en español. Esto programa termina al quinto grado y ella acaba de llegar. ¿Cómo es posible aprender inglés solo en un año? Hay muchos casos como esto en los estados unidos. Por esta razón necesitamos volver a visitar las leyes de educación bilingüe. Aunque las leyes de educación bilingüe se opusieron en el pasado, tienen que ser reescrito porque los programas de educación bilingüe son beneficiosos no sólo para los estudiantes del idioma inglés, pero hablantes nativos de inglés también. Thomas Doluisio es un superintendente de las escuelas en el distrito en Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. En 1992 Doluisio se dio cuenta de que sus programas de educación bilingüe no estaban trabajando. Los estudiantes se suponían que debían pasar tres años en los programas bilingües y entonces entrarían clases normales. En estas escuelas, aunque, los estudiantes toman siete años a entra clases normales (Miller 1996). Doluisio pasó los siguientes años reforma al programa de educación bilingüe en...
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