They found clear bilingual/monolingual differences. More Reasons for Bilingual EducationĪccording to a study from the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, brain scans support the observation that bilinguals find it easier to learn additional languages compared to monolinguals. No need to speak the language meant no urgency or desire to learn it. Since everyone in our house spoke English, there was never a need to speak Mandarin. If there is no need to speak the language, they will be less motivated to learn the language. Their attention to learning is also affected by the needs from their environment. “The bilingual child, like the bilingual adult, will develop competencies in each language ‘to the extent required by his or her needs and those of the environment.'” – Erika Hoff, Ph.D., psychology professor and director of the Language Development Laboratory in FAU’s Charles E. I guess that explains why I have always struggled to teach the boys Mandarin – there was too little exposure at home and I could barely pronounce the words myself. Ideally, they need to hear both languages regularly and spoken by a proficient speaker. How well children are able to learn each language is dependent on the quality and quantity of language input.
However, according to the Millennium Cohort Study, even though children who are educated in their second language may initially lag behind around three, four and five years old, they soon catch up and outperform their peers by age seven. As a result, bilingual children develop each language at a slower pace because their learning is spread across two languages. – Montreal Children’s Hospital The Downside of Learning Two Languages from BirthĪre there any downsides for children learning two languages at the same time? According to the research from Florida Atlantic University, they do take longer to learn both languages:īecause bilingual children’s input is divided between two languages, on average, they receive less input in each language compared to children who receive all of their input in just one language. They begin to start talking and say their first words or first sentences within the same time frame. According to research, children who learn two languages simultaneously go through the same processes and progress at the same rate as children who learn only one language. No scientific study has ever shown that a young child’s brain is wired to learn only one language. Fortunately, research does not support this idea. Image Source: Participate Myth: Babies Learning Two Languages at Once Get Confusedįor a period of time, we believed that letting babies learn more than one language at a time would confuse them and make it harder for them to learn either language well. delayed onset of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.The Health Benefits of a Bilingual Brainīeing bilingual can also confer health benefits, such as:
There is also some evidence to suggest that bilingualism could enhance working memory and make you more open-minded by changing your perspective on the world.
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