Effects of Bilingualism at Early Development Phase in Children

Background research/ Why is this study important? There are limited sources that contain bilingualism information, especially about childhood development; these studies talk a bit about the effect of bilingualism in cognitive development. (Byers-Heinlein & Lew-Williams 2013) Children who learn a second language at a young age tend to demonstrate more cognitive as compared to children who learn only one language They also tend to be better in learning new things and solving creativity related issues. (Jernigan, 2015) Some researchers have actually associated bilingual kids with being more intelligent as compared to monolingual kids Responding to the raising concerns about the effects of bilingualism has been problematic due to culture and community diversity. There are many pending questions in regards to studying bilingual children compared to monolingual in academic performance. This study will be a good start to defend the benefits of bilingualism and improve the ability of young children to learn more than one language. I am fluent in 3 languages, so for me, it would be very interesting to see how my brain developed when I learned more than one language when younger.

Research question How does learning two languages affect the developing brain/academic performance and social aspects of a child’s life? Can bilingualism be considered an advantage to have in early school age children, and will this help them in their future life?

Methods/PROCEDURE Focus will be on English, Spanish/Portuguese speaking children. 60 kids will be taken randomly from grades 1,2,3. (30 monolingual, 30 bilingual) 1-6-7 years old 2 – 7-8 years old 3 – 8-9 years old Academic performance/school history will also be analyzed. MRI Scans will also be used to measure/analyze brain development in the monolingual and bilingual children; during the interview portion. First kids will be presented with reading response, answering questions on paper and then listening to different audio messages. Monolinguals – English Bilinguals – English/Spanish/Portuguese After a non formal interview with questions will be performed. These interview questions will be based on each child’s age and grade and ability to respond in each language learned. (Either L1 or L2). (Questions will be based on everyday things).

Projected results/IMPACT The hypothesis is that bilingualism has more positive impacts on brain development as compared to monolingualism. It is expected that children with the ability to speak more than one language does better in academics in relation to school history and answers to interview questions. This is due to the fact that learning another language is an exercise to the brain – it’s huge performance improver. Bilingual kids are better at multitasking than monolinguals. The MRI results will show that the brain structures of bilingual students are more developed. The brain of a bilingual child is expected to be more developed since it has been exposed to early cognitive, reasoning and intellectual behavior. Research has also associated bilingualism with higher IQ. Indeed, most children who have been classified as genius reportedly speak more than one language.

Influence of results The proposed research will provide theoretical and practical knowledge on the effect of bilingualism in children development. Findings of the research will help parents and teachers to stop misinterpretation and believing in myths in regards to their child learning a second language. The ability of a child to process two languages is a sign of intelligence

References Grosjean, F. (2012). Bilinguals in the United States. Psychology Today, 20. Jernigan, C. (2015). Family language learning: learn another language, raise bilingual children (Vol. 19). Multilingual Matters. Merino, N. (Ed.). (2016). Bilingual education. Greenhaven Publishing LLC. Shin, S. J. (2017). Bilingualism in schools and society: Language, identity, and policy. Routledge. Wallner, K. (2016). The effects of bilingualism on language development of children. Byers-Heinlein, K., & Lew-Williams, C. (2013). Bilingualism in the early years: What the science says. LEARNing landscapes, 7(1), 95.