Bilingual Brain Boost : The Cognitive Benefits Of Learning A Second Language Essay

Having the ability to speak more than one language influences one’ life deeply. Speaking two or more languages can affect someone from being infants to old age. Bhattacharjee continues with, “The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there

Jenny Hope the writer of the article” Being bilingual could slow down dementia and have a better effect that strong drugs. “Explains the benefits of being bilingual. Jenny Hopes uses specific examples of research done on people who are monolingual and people who are bilingual to explain the importance at the elderly stage. A study suggests being bilingual exercises the mind, so it has greater reserves when disease takes hold. Her examples have been selected to motivate the reader to study another language since

While some may think that this is not certain studies have proven otherwise. In The Power of a Bilingual Brain, Jeffery Kluger states that, “Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who know two or more languages….. Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(1) Clearly, a bilingual education places students a step ahead not only in their education careers but, as well as in their daily life’s outside school. Jeffery Kluger discusses how a bilingual brain is not necessarily smarter brain, but is a more flexible and practical brain. Evidently, demonstrating to us one of the many benefits of a bilingual

“Cognitive functions can be defined as cerebral activities that lead to knowledge, encompass reasoning, memory, attention, and language that leads directly to the attainment of information and, thus, knowledge” (What are cognitive functions). Many students at Doulos are unaware of the benefits of knowing two languages. Ironically students also don’t know that their own brain and its skills are improving because of their second language. Doulos teaches classes throughout the whole day in both English and Spanish. Students are regularly changing between languages and their brain is always active with both languages. “This constant practice strengthens the control mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). People who are bilingual are capable of switching between tasks more efficiently. “For example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape, they do so more rapidly than monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when changing strategies on the fly” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). Students’ cognitive and sensory process skills are more developed due to being bilingual (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). These improvements allow students to better process and understand information in different environments, thus leading to better

It is common in the United States to see DLL preschoolers who attend English dominant ECE programs tend to quickly show a preference towards English and tend to use their home language less and less (Espinosa, 2015, p. 46). Young language learners often experience first language loss, which is when DLLs become more proficient in the English language while their exposure to their native language takes a back seat. It is imperative that attention must be given to both English language development along-side the native language in order to facilitate the cognitive, social, and linguistic benefits of early bilingualism, while encouraging learning readiness goals (p. 46). Learning a second language during early childhood within the United States should not disable the development of the native

Well, it turns out, Omniglot was right! Dr. Thomas Eskin agrees. She said, “...Our study shows that bilingualism, even when acquired in adulthood, may benefit the aging brain.” Being bilingual will help in the delaying of brain diseases such as Alzheimer and Dementia Omniglot.com also says. The brain’s learning abilities are increased. “I don’t have time for another language!” is the most common excuse. Well, author H. Jackson Brown Jr. said on Lingaholic.com, “Don’t say you don’t have enough time, you have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert

It is important in the United States to have a competitive workforce, and a great way to do that is to have a society of learners that can communicate with people of other cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Although there are efforts for teaching school children other languages, most programs are primitive at best, left to be forgotten before the skills reach the point of relevancy. Dual language programs should be established in the US wherever feasible to give parents, at the very least, the choice to expand the minds of their children. Recent years have seen the inclusion of voluntary language immersion programs in places such as Athens, Georgia, in which students are taught from Kindergarten in two languages. These are steps in the right

The study also showed that the brains of elders who were bilingual worked similarly to young adults. Literacy does not play a role in the effects of bilingualism on the brain (Alban). Some studies have shown that simply attempting to learn a language is enough to have an effect on delaying Alzheimer’s or dementia. The delay in Alzheimer’s and dementia is not due to a good memory, but the ability to focus on the details of a language (Delistraty). Scientists are working on finding out whether being multilingual has even more benefits.

New research has shown that being bilingual slows the growth of the Alzheimer's disease. This study was lead by Jubin Abutalebi of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan. It was said that bilingual people form stronger connections in their brains than those who only speak 1 language. Having these stronger networks

What do we know about the effects bilingualism has on cognitive development? Our world is becoming progressively bilingual; in the US 21% of school age children between the ages of 5-17 years old can speak other than English at home and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. On top of social reasons, the positive effects to the cognitive development of the brain when introduced to a second language are of many. The age of acquisition is vital due to the plasticity of the brain, which according to the critical period hypothesis, begins to level after five years of age. In addition to plasticity, bilingual speakers are more capable of focusing their attention to solve complex problems compared to monolingual speakers.

Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.

In today’s day and age, English has become the go-to language above all others as the preferred form of communication around the world. As a second generation American, growing up with a primarily Anglophone population and peer group, I was not able to practice my second language as much as my parents would have liked. Since English was all I used in school for reading, writing, and communicating, my knowledge of the Spanish language began to wither throughout my school career. Unfortunately, the school systems in the United States prioritize “core” classes (such as math and sciences) over foreign language classes—they’re not seen as essential, but certainly nice to have around. According to current research, students are being taught foreign languages at the wrong time, if at all, by schools in the United States. This causes students to not reap in the benefits of knowing a second language earlier in life that extend beyond communication itself. Being bilingual is associated with numerous advantages and immeasurable benefits that affect all aspects of life, including: improved cognitive function, tolerance, open-mindedness, etc., which proves that acquiring a second language through learning should be implemented earlier on in life, when learning is at its peak due to brain plasticity.

Dual Language education is increasing throughout the United States giving students at a young age an advantage over their monolingual peers. Different research studies resulted in a major success by proving that "bilingual children outperform monolinguals in a wide array of cognitive and language-based tasks" (Wallstrum 16). Dual language immersion is defined as fifty percent of the non-English is used for the instructional part of the day, and the other fifty percent is spoken in English. The purpose of these immersion schools is to promote fluency in the foreign language while also performing at their grade level in that language.

Researchers are continuously investigating methods of advancing human development. Many studies have explored the world of bilingualism and found a few surprising results. The skill of knowing two or more languages has been linked to a variety of cognitive benefits. Knowing more than one language has been proven to impact more than just the linguistic system of cognitive development. This essay will review the positive effects bilinguals experience through early and middle childhood along with adulthood. In addition, with a few of my personal believes and experiences.

For English language learners there are two approaches to learning a new language, bilingual education where the student is first taught in their native language before transitioning to the new language and immersion where a student is taught completely in the new language. There are benefits to both approaches. The bilingual method has more flexibility for the learner and brings aspects of the first language into the learning process. The learner is better able to relate the new language to his or her first language. An environment of multi culturalism is created making the learning environment more comfortable to the new learner. An immersion method to learning a new language is one where the learner is only exposed to