Spanglish, Chinglish, Konglish? Is speaking multiple languages, one at school and others at home, hurting students more than helping them? Will toddlers get confused upon being shuffled into an all-English pre-school after speaking only Russian or Hindi at home?
Nonsense, experts say. Check out this story on NPR about the benefits of bilingualism for kids, which sustain bilingual and trilingual people well through their lifetimes:
After all, two-thirds of the world's children grow up speaking multiple languages, and one in five of American students speak one language at school, and a different language at home. What are we so afraid of? Parents who fear that their multilingual children suffer from stunted development should rethink their parenting strategies. Bilingual individuals are forced to keep multiple areas of the brain activated at the same time - even though they are speaking one language, the others are still present in their cognitive activity. As a result, studies have shown that bilingual individuals are less likely to suffer from cognitive disorders such as dementia later in life. Rock on, language learners!
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1 comment:
I had to take ESL to learn English when I was in Kindergarten, but very few people can tell now that I am not a native English speaker. Knowing another language has helped me so much in just learning how to communicate with people that may not know English. I think it is just easier to relate. We should encourage multi-lingual children!
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