I met a woman at a friend's house a couple of years ago who told me that she'd hired a French nanny for her three young children so that they could learn French. I liked the idea and wished her well. But as she and her husband were both American, I secretly doubted that the experiment would bear much fruit.
I ran into her again a few weeks ago and we got to talking about her child care situation. She told me that all three kids -- who now range in age from three to seven -- were bilingual and that she had just finished ordering them some new books on Amazon France.
Wow! I thought. Impressive. And then I felt a pang of envy. Both of my kids are learning French in school. But they are a long way from bilingual. And even though the British Education Secretary has proposed that every child in the U.K. learn a foreign language from age five, that may actually be too late.
To wit, five facts about bilingualism:
1. Bilingualism affects brain development from infancy. A fascinating article in The New York Times explains the ways in which the brains of babies in bilingual households develop differently from those raised in a mono-lingual household. Apparently, while bilingual babies take longer to distinguish phonetic sounds in either language, once they do come to recognize them, they can then hear them in both languages, while mono-lingual babies lose this facility by the time they are one. Even in the womb, one study showed that babies born to bilingual mothers not only prefer both of those languages over others -- but are also able to register that the two languages are different. Wow!
2. When learning a foreign language, it's best to start early. Younger learners still have the ability to develop near native-like pronunciation and intonation in a new language. They are also more open and curious (as a rule) to foreign peoples and cultures. There are also cognitive benefits to learning an additional language early. Bilingual children have greater neural activity and denser tissue in the areas of the brain related to memory, attention, and language than monolingual learners. These indicators are associated with long-term positive cognitive outcomes (see below).
3. But you can still learn a foreign language as an adult. While it's true that our ability to hear and understand a second language becomes more difficult with age, the adult brain can be retrained to pick up foreign sounds more easily again. According to a study at University College London, the difficulties that adults have in learning languages are not biological, but perceptual. Thus, given the right stimuli, adult brains can overcome the habits they have developed to effectively crowd out certain sounds and learn new ones. Neat!
4. Bilingual people do better academically. Yet another reason to raise your kids speaking two (or more!) languages is that it enhances academic performance. Students who learn a foreign language out-score their non-foreign language learning peers in the verbal and -- surprisingly, perhaps -- math sections of standardized tests, particularly in the area of problem solving. They do better in school and are also more open to diversity, according to François Thibaut, who runs The Language Workshop for Children, which has nine schools around the East Coast of the United States.
5. Bilingual people also do better in other areas of cognitive functioning. In addition to their double vocabularies, bilingual children have stronger and more flexible cognitive abilities. Mastering two or more languages helps them solve logic problems and handle multi-tasking, skills that are often considered part of the brain's so-called executive function.
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I agree we need math, science and gym class in school but we MUST prepare our kids for the global marketplace as well and another language will help. English matters and with only 9% Americans bilingual, and the rest of the world 50%, we have to take this seriously: http://youtu.be/Y4tKZ1hUOoU
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4. Bilingual people do better academically.
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I live in El Paso, Texas, which is has a very large Latino population. Almost all of the Latino, children are bilingual; while most of the other population is not.
The Latino children have the highest dropout rates, and other similar statistics.
Thank you for your reply.
1) addressing #5 was a careless error on my part,
I JUST WENT BACK AND EDITED THAT PART OUT OF MY POST
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2) Point #4 about bilingualism, stands.
The author(s) are presenting unsubstantiated highly-general opinions rather than serious evidence in the second link.
In the first link, I don't even see it addressed at all, if it is, then again, it is just personal opinion, rather than solid evidence.
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The obvious evidence of Hispanic academic achievement, actually the lack of it, is widely on display. We could argue, that it would be worse without bilingual efforts.
UNFORTUNATELY, I don't believe it is possible to correctly study this. because it would be impossible to do appropriate and valid random-sample double-blind studies.
=============MY "OWN" TAKE
1) We are harming those children in terms of academic achievement, when we dump another social-engineering agenda into their schoolday- because it NECESSARIALY displaces other academic instruction
SOME MIGHT ARGUE, that the goal/aim of this Social-Engineering is so valuable, that it is worth the tradeoff.
2) My own, personal observations lead me to speculate on another problem here.
IT APPEARS TO ME, that the Hispanic societal/cultural orientation places a very high value on symbolic, ceremonial aspects of education, ie graduation-events, acquiring a peice of paper, diploma- MUCH MORE THAN actual real academic achievement.
This is just my overall, single-person observation, and many differences abound.
In addition to the cognitive and benefits mentioned in this article, the social and future economic benefits of bi (or multi) lingualism cannot be overstated. Frankly, the typical American school system fails its students miserably in the area of language education. My first language class when I was in school (back in the 80s) was in 7th Grade. This school has since moved language classes up to 3rd Grade, but that's still way too late, particularly compared to kids in other countries.
I would suggest that your daughter's achievements are due to your influence and your family having a very-strong pro-education environment.
Your daughter's bilingualism is, and will be extremely helpful, as you will probably move back to Germany at some point.
Your daughter's immaculate fluency in both languages is due to YOUR impact, not her schools. The schools don't have enough time to deliver those results- absent your reinforcement at home.
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OUR KIDS HERE IN THE US, are falling too far behind in basic education to throw another social-engineering agenda into their schoolday.
As a former teacher, I would not believe, that an extra hour per day thrown into their school day at the expense of existing instruction would pass a cost / benefit analysis.
OUR HIGH-ACHIEVING STUDENTS are a whole different case. BUT unfortunately, most of our kids cannot be classified as high-achieving, and no amount of 'magical-thinking" or self-esteem training will change that.
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IF WE REALLY WANT TO IMPROVE OUR KIDS EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
. . . the first thing we have to do
is stop doing what doesn't work == mostly what we are doing right now
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Zip_Zinzel/obama-no-child-left-behind-waivers_n_976796_109376283.html
And you are exposed to greater diversity in culture and attitudes.
Not to mention in some places, it is a plus for job hunting.
I would love to see a second language taught from 1st grade (or even kindergarten).
I am talking about it being voluntary, but I would bet most parents would sign up their kids.
In later grades, due to teaching manpower issues, the pioneer class of the immersion program rejoined the mainstream for advanced academic courses like math, science and also English. The English award at graduation was shared by two students from the immersion program, who had been 'deprived' of one full year (out of four) of English Language Arts instruction.