Bilingualism A Mental Advantage - 1597 Words

Bilingualism: A Mental Advantage Bilinguals are often praised by employers for their multi-language skills. With the push for children and adults to become bilingual there is an increase of teaching all around the world. While many are raised bilingual there are still some places that lack in the teachings. The advocators for bilingualism show that the teaching is truly worth it because of all of the benefits in becoming bilingual. While it is clear that there are benefits in regards to communication skills those are not the only benefit that can come from a bilingual education. When using the word bilingualism, people primarily think of language, whether it be basic vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, or communication in general. Not only does bilingualism help for communication, and understanding, but it also helps exercise the brain and improve mental skills. Bilingual learners experience many mental benefits over their lifetimes which are not present in their monolingual counterparts. These benefits range from executive control functions, task dominance, and the offset of Alzheimer’s. However, like everything there are a few down sides to a being bilingual while they rarely affect young learners. Nonetheless, bilingualism can help improve brain capacity and skill just by learning another language. The skills gained in bilingualism are pertinent for everyday life and can help improve achievement in daily life, relative to monolinguals. One of the primaryShow MoreRelatedWhy Immigrants Have A Higher Incidence Of Schizophrenia933 Words   |  4 PagesDue to socioeconomic, cultural, and, after the past few election cycles in the United States, political adversity that immigrants have to endure, it is not surprising that some immigrant populations, namely the working poor, manifest various mental health issues at higher rates than the rest of the population. According to much research, evidence is overwhelming that certain immigrant groups. . . suffer a greater incidence of schizophrenia also noting that the risk increases with length of residenceRead MoreBilingualism And Bilingualism1307 Words   |  6 Pagesthe United States, where English is pre-dominantly used as a single language, a large number of people using non-English languages at home have increased by 140% since 1980. Thus, bilingualism is an extensive cultural, linguistic, and cognitive phenomenon that is extensively carried out in modern society. 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While manyRead MoreThe Effects Of Bilingualism On The Brain1041 Words   |  5 PagesThe benefits of bilingualism is something that is well understood in the literature spawning the term, â€Å"the bilingual advantage,† which is supposed to encompass enhanced performance control as well as overall mental flexibility culminating in an overall slower decline in executive function as aging continues. Such claims are well supported by evidence from young to old in a multitude of studies spanning decades. What is just as well understood and researched but less often talked about are theRead MoreBilingualism As A Negative Attribute935 Words   |  4 PagesBilingualism was once seen as a negative attribute. Experts such as doctors, psychologists, teachers, and more were firm believers in that bilingualism was capable of causing more bad than good in the minds of multicultural people, and especially children (Arsenian 1945). It was once believed that having knowledge of two distinct languages in one brain could lead to â€Å"mental confusion, inadequate mastery of either language, and cultural up rootedness† (Arsenian 1945: 69-70). According to the articleRead MoreThe Importance Of A Bilingual Advantage For Terms Of Enhanced Executive Control Essay1536 Words   |  7 PagesCraik, and Luk (2012) investigated the growing body of evidence examining the presence of a bilingual advantage in terms of enhanced executive control: the group of cognitive skills involved in language switching, working memory and inhibition. Furthermore, the researchers examined evidence supporting the notion that differences in brain structure and function helped to explain the bilingual advantage (Bialystok et al., 2012). 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This is referred to as simultaneous bilingualism (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2004). There are many misconceptions about simultaneous bilingualism that are believed to be persistent in society, even within professional groups including teachers, doctors and speech-language therapists (Hamers Blanc, 2000; King Fogle, 2006). ThisRead Moreintend to expose in their studies how Educational Neuroscience can reshape educational policies and1500 Words   |  6 Pagesactivation. This findings implicate a new approach in teaching language and reading in that it shows the impact of bilingual language exposure in children’s ability to achieve linguistic mastery and fluency and reading. Garbing and company proposed that bilingualism has a positive effect on executive controls. Since little is known about the effects of using two languages on an everyday basis; they intended to correlate it to executive functions through task based fMRIs, in which monolingual and bilingualRead MoreBilingual Educatio1291 Words   |  6 Pagesis a form of subtractive bilingual system. Factors that influence subtractive bilingualism include; failure to value home language, early exposure to English speaking environments and loss of interest in speaking native language. Proponents suggest that, focus should be on a bilingual model that additive rather than subtractive. The bilingual education is categorized into two; dual bilingualism and immersion bilingualism. Immersion bilingual education system is developed to add another language to