...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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...Does Bilingualism improve brain functioning? Although it is believed by many that it is impossible for children to master two different languages simultaneously, children who are bilingual are more effective learners because the children can benefit from bilingualism in their cognitive development and help to progress their mental health. This paper will examine Jean Paget’s and Lev Vygotsky’s Theories of Cognitive Development, and B.F. Skinner’s and Noam Chomsky’s Language Development Theories, describing relevant terminology, and addressing how the theory assists in the understanding of issues involved in the selected topic. Identify and describe at least two domains of human development (physical, biological emotional, cognitive, and/or social) and how they are impacted by the topic does bilingualism improve brain functioning. Identify and describe the stages of development that are affected by the topic does bilingualism improve brain functioning. Describe the cultural and historical perspectives of the chosen topic, demonstrating an understanding of how the topic has been perceived over time and by other cultures. Cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence (wikipedia.com, 2014). When bilingualism is defined in the first way, as the characteristic of an individual who possesses two linguistic systems - we call it cognitive bilingualism (Hukuta and others, 1978). Bilingualism defined in the second...
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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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...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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...How Important is Bilingualism? According to the Atlantic, only one percent of the adult population in America, whose native language is English, is proficient in a foreign language—in Europe, the average is 56 percent. This discrepancy is partly due to the globalization of English, which encourages non-native English speakers to learn English, while native English speakers do not have this same cultural influence to learn another language. However, that is no excuse for native English speakers. For the 2014-2015 school year, the high school graduation rate reached 83%, as surveyed by npr.org. 83% of students from that year attended schooling regularly for twelve years and graduated, meeting the requirements of a variety of standardized testing...
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...actually mandate how bilingualism is taught in the public school districts. It is a very long and drawn out article that states what bilingualism is about and how it benefits the students that use it. The article also describes what the author knows about bilingualism and how statistics show that Latino scores are improved by taking these classes. http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/pop_billing.html The next article that I have found is one that also is for bilingualism in public school. It states the statistics of how and why children improve scores and grades form taking another language in college, not high school. It says that when children take these classes in high school, they do not get enough of it to learn as much as they could. http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/riehl/article_41791d70-d500-5746-90a5-9f39e9953be9.html This article is against bilingualism in politics because it is said that it is dangerous because maybe people will forget where they are form if they speak another language. I do not think this is the case but Newt Gingrich does. It is also said that English is what holds us all together and that if we stray to another language it would not be beneficial to us as Americans, again I do not agree. http://articles.latimes.com/1995-10-31/news/mn-63269_1_official-language This article talks about our President Barack Obama and how bilingualism played a huge role in how he was elected, because he supports bilingualism in politics. The article...
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...abolishes spaces.” (Benjamin, 2002). Critiques of bilingual education continually claim that children can only learn one language at a time after which they are taught a second language (Krashen, 2000). They assert that bilingual education cause confusion among children and limit their intelligence capabilities; they argue that real bilinguals cannot combine their language. Advocates of bilingual education present arguments on its benefits, they suggest that, for many children the process of being literate and studying a new language simultaneously is overwhelming and that the bilingual process assist them to develop their native language first which results to a smooth transition to English. The main aim of the bilingual program was to promote the prominent language to issue instructions and at the same time enhance the development of the second language. Some define it in aspects of its capability to enhance cognitive and effective development while others view that it should focus on cultural enrichment and linguistic development. However, in some bilingual programs, instructions are issued through the use of the second language especially in cases where the first language erodes over time. (Baez, 2002) As the child proficiency in English increases he or she loses grasp of the native language, this is a form of subtractive bilingual system. Factors that influence subtractive bilingualism include; failure to value home language, early exposure to English speaking environments...
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...He who knows one, Knows none. By Max Muller Bilingualism is the ability to speak or write more fluently in 2 languages. In Canada this term has particular meaning it means the ability to communicate in both Canada’s official language i.e. English and French. Official language act it declares the equality of status, for English and French, for all government and federal departments. According to linguistic census there were almost five million Canadians who speak their mother tongue other than English and the number has risen since then. There are almost 338000 students who study in school based French immersion program and almost 1.5 million students are taking core courses in other languages. Each province has increased their enrollment in immersion program by 1 to 5 percent since 2000 but eastern Canada has shown the maximum progress, British Columbia has their policy of first come served signup, which delayed their growth in bilingualism. Status of bilingualism showed a decline growth over past few years due to rise of other multicultural groups in Canada. Given the rise of different language group over the last years there is growing movement toward creating Canada as a multilingual nation. I totally support bilingualism, English and French school in Canada but I feel that there should be more options for other language as second language education. Metropolitan cities school has more options of second language courses. Courses like Spanish, Mandarin or...
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...• If one defines fluency as the ability to speak, understand, read, and write well , no 2nd generation group was fluent in the mother tongue by the age of 17 • English-Spanish bilingualism was the most common, but 65% lost their parental language • 90% of children lacked fluency Is Complete Language Assimilation Desirable? • These trends raise the question of whether complete language assimilation (acquisition of fluent English and abandonment of native languages) is desirable • Madorah Smith declared bilingualism to be a hardship devoid of any advantage • Study did not distinguish between fluent bilinguals and limited bilinguals whose command of one language or the other was poor Are Bilingual Students Better? • Bilinguals outperformed their monolingual counterparts in almost all cognitive tests • Bilingualism at an early age influenced subsequent cognitive development • Bilinguals’ enhanced cognitive performance is explained by their having more than one conception for a concrete thing Greater Self-Esteem • Positive association between bilingualism and better academic performance • Children who were fluent bilinguals had significantly higher educational aspirations and self esteem • Retaining the parental tongue allows children to better understand their cultural origins • Bilingualism also increases communication...
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...there are many more bilingual or multilingual individuals around the world than there are monolingual (Tucker, 1999). It is estimated, that there are many more children...
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...Bilingualism in Canada: Good or Bad? I believe that bilingualism is central to Canada’s identity, as well as other languages. Pierre Elliott Trudeau has said that, “Bilingualism unites people; dualism divides them. Bilingualism means you can speak to the other; duality means you live in one language and the rest of Canada will live in another language”. Bilingualism is an essential part of Canadian nature and in the Canadian policy it promotes individuals to study a different language so you can be able to have mutual understanding with others. One thing to define being a Canadian is living in a country with two official languages, but doesn’t mean that living in a bilingual city you have to know French and English. A bilingual country, people or even ethnicity is a benefit to the citizens and society. A research in psychology proves that learning a second language increases reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Canadian children who are bilingual appreciate cultural differences and have the ability to communicate better. Being bilingual is makes you more open and flexible to critical understanding and appreciating different ways of problem solving and more inspired to becoming involved. The openness of bilingualism is reflected towards society that may direct at the political rank to a better firmness. Bilingual workers have a greater chance of getting large income benefit over workers...
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...1980s, it was widely believed that bilingualism was associated with lower cognitive function (Hakuta et al., 1987). Some researchers believed that bilingual children suffer from linguistic, intellectual and academic retardation in relation to their monolingual peers (Tucker & d’Anglejan,1971). Researchers have also shown the negative effects of bilingualism on cognitive abilities. Our brain is like the banking system in order to draw new information it had to eradicate old information such as first language to store second language (Freire 2000) so bilingualism is verbal disadvantage and bilingual perform poor in verbal-fluency tasks (Gollan & Brown, 2006, (Rosselli et al., 2000), bilinguals have disadvantages in speaking (Gollan et al) due...
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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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...other to communicate with others outside the community who isn’t deaf. I liked how they said Deafness is not a disability but a subculture. This statement really signifies there union as a community and culture. The significance between the terms “deaf” and “Deaf” is that the upper case D is significant that the “deaf share a culture rather than merely a medical condition.” In the article it states many deaf parents cheer on having a deaf child just like any hearing parent would cheer on having a hearing child. The Deaf society have a strong pride in themselves and being deaf and do not want to change that feature about them ever even if there was a procedure. That is why many Deaf people get frustrated with hearing parents who have deaf children when they first go see doctors and audiologists before actually trying to talk with a Deaf person who will be more understanding a willing to help there child be a part of the community. Some differences between deaf minorities and other cultural minorities is that deaf minorities choose not to change who they are because they see themselves as not having a disability, while other cultural minorities might want to change either through medical procedures like blind people wanting to be able to see or racial minorities wish they were more favorable in society. Mainstreaming is when they throw someone with special needs into a “regular” class and are taught with others who don’t share the same need as them. The Deaf communities have a...
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...people who are bilingual are smarter. The profound effect of bilingualism improves cognitive skills not related to language and helps prevent against dementia in old age. Bilingualism was considered an interference that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development. The interference happens because the brain activates both languages so they obstruct each other. However, this interference is in fact a blessing in disguise because it actually forces the brain to resolve internal conflicts which gives the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. Some instances were bilinguals surpass monolinguals in intelligence are at solving certain types of mental puzzles. The article explains a 2004 study conducted by psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee were “bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins. 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.”(nytimes.com) The article continued to explain the Bilingualism improves the brain’s executive function which is the command...
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