Growing Up Bilingual

 

Language is around us nearly every instant. We use language to communicate our thoughts, to pretend and dream, to connect with others, and to learn about our world and beyond. For some, these linguistic attributes are doubled or even tripled. In fact, most people around the globe are bilingual or multilingual, making up 60% of the world’s population.[1] In other countries that percentage is magnified— 99% of people in Luxembourg and 95% of people in Latvia speak more than one language.[2] Even in the United States, which is commonly considered to be a monolingual country, one-fifth of children over the age of five speak a language other than English at home.[3]

But are the effects of growing up bilingual or multilingual negative or positive?  There are arguments on both sides of this issue. Studies in the earlier half of the 20^th century have indicated that bilingualism negatively affects intellectual, educational, and emotional development.[4] Specifically, that knowing one language restricts the possibility for learning another language given that proficiency in one language reduces the skills in the other.[5] Under this theory, bilingualism has a negative effect on personality development and linguistic skills because human beings have a limited potential capacity for learning – there is only so much the brain can absorb.[6] This opinion was the bedrock of 1930s Nazi ideology sustaining that the ‘purity’ of a nation is foundational, noting that the ‘purity’ of a nation had a strong relationship between a people and the language.[7] An early supporter of this idea was Karl Alexander von Müller who claimed that the Polish German population of Upper Silesia were mentally inferior to other Nazi Germans as a result of their bilingualism.[8] Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist, also expressed a negative opinion about the effects of bilingualism on children’s learning abilities.[9] His research indicated adverse effects of bilingualism on the retention or understanding of subjects like vocabulary, spelling, history, and geography.[10]

However, empirical studies also suggest that bilingualism has a positive effect on the brain, specifically the cognitive creativity of children and heightened development of divergent thinking later on.[11] Peering deeper into the brain to investigate how bilingualism interacts with cognitive and neurological systems, researchers have found that when a bilingual person uses one language, the other language is involuntarily activated at the same time.[12] In other words, when a person hears a word, the brain begins to guess what that word might be before it is finished by accessing one’s personal word bank to find a match for that sound. [13] For instance, when one hears “more,” their brain’s language system will likely activate words like “morning” and “mortgage”. For those who are bilingual or multilingual, this activation is not limited to a single language, triggering other words no matter the language to which they belong.[14] For instance, a Romanian bilingual may subconsciously think of words like “morcovi” and “mormînt” in addition to words like “morning” and “mortgage” when they hear the word “more”.[15] Thus, a bilingual child may be notably better at concept formation and pattern recognition than a monolingual child because of early exposure to a more complex associative environment by virtue of their two languages.

In contrast to earlier research, Barry McLaughlin argues that the negative effects on personality and academic performance are not caused by bilingualism, but by the complications that arise from one’s bicultural status, particularly having to adjust constantly to two ways of life and expression.[16] These social and cultural conflicts are heightened and truly affect child development when members of a minority group are subjected to discrimination and come from a low socioeconomic background.[17] Because their language and cultural values are not appreciated by society at large, they are seen as “otherable.”[18] Under McLaughlin’s theory, this is the main isolated phenomenon that negatively impacts intellectual and behavioral development when it comes to bilingual children.[19]

The United States often labels itself a “nation of immigrants,” yet the slightest echo of a foreign language in a room often sparks tension. Social media videos featuring people being told to “speak English” or to “go back to wherever the f— you come from” go viral regularly on Facebook and Instagram.[20] As a nation, we have had a troubled history dealing with non-English speakers. During the Civil Rights Movement, Congress enacted the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 (BEA).[21] Intended as a way to assist immigrant communities following the 1965 repeal of the “national-origin system,” the legislation acted as a guide for state and local policymakers to assist language minority students with limited English speaking ability.[22] Congress has amended this act numerous times ultimately absorbing it into the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).[23] The NCLB alters the government’s approach to bilingual students’ education. The NCLB’s primarily emphasizes standardized testing as a measure to determine performance, and because many bilingual students take the same standardized tests as other students, school districts with many immigrant families face a disadvantage [24], especially when considering McLaughlin’s research.

Is speaking more than one language problematic for children? It turns out the answer to this question is not simple. It is wrapped up in complicated psychological, social, policy, and legislative concerns. However, with the right understanding and policy implementations, bilingualism or multilingualism can favorably contribute to the future of child development and education.

 

[1] “Multilingual People.” Language Learning, ILanguages, 2016, ilanguages.org/bilingual.php.

[2] Europeans and Their Languages, European Commission, Feb. 2006, ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf.

[3] Heller, M. (1990). Bilingualism – R. Appel and P. Muysken, Language contact and bilingualism. London and Baltimore, MD: Edward Arnold, 1987. Pp. 213. Language in Society, 19(3), 403-406.

[4] Al-Amri, Majid N. “Effects of Bilingualism on Personality, Cognitive and Educational Developments: A Historical Perspective.” Www.aasrc.org/Aasrj , American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal , Jan. 2013, naturalspublishing.com/files/published/2e8998va7c28ik.pdf.

[5] Id.

[6] Heller, M. (1990). Bilingualism – R. Appel and P. Muysken, Language contact and bilingualism. London and Baltimore, MD: Edward Arnold, 1987. Pp. 213. Language in Society, 19(3), 403-406.

[7] Al-Amri, Majid N. “Effects of Bilingualism on Personality, Cognitive and Educational Developments: A Historical Perspective.” Www.aasrc.org/Aasrj , American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal , Jan. 2013, naturalspublishing.com/files/published/2e8998va7c28ik.pdf.

[8]  Id.

[9]  Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook. “The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual.” Cerebrum: the Dana Forum on Brain Science 2012 (2012): 13. Print.

[13] Marian, V & Spivey, M 2003, ‘Bilingual and monolingual processing of competing lexical items’ Applied Psycholinguistics, vol 24, no. 2, pp. 173-193.

[14]  Id.

[15]  Id.

[16] Wagner, D. (1980). B. McLaughlin, Second language acquisition in childhood. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978. Pp. 239. Language in Society, 9(1), 135-137.

[17]  Id.

[18]  Id.

[19]  Id.

[20] Bever, Lindsey. “’Tell Them to Go Back Where They Belong’: J.C. Penney Customer’s Racist Tirade Caught on Video.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Dec. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/22/tell-them-to-go-back-where-they-belong-j-c-penney-customers-racist-tirade-caught-on-video/?utm_term=.12d4b71eb84d.

[21] Klein, Alyson. “No Child Left Behind Overview: Definitions, Requirements, Criticisms, and More.” Education Week, Editorial Project in Education, 20 Apr. 2018, www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-child-left-behind-overview-definition-summary.html.

[22] Id.

[23] “No Child Left Behind and Bilingual Education.” Findlaw, education.findlaw.com/curriculum-standards-school-funding/no-child-left-behind-and-bilingual-education.html.

[24] Id.