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Bilingualism refers to the ability to use two languages in everyday life. It is common and is on the rise in many parts of the world with perhaps one in three people being bilingual or multilingual (Wei,2000.) Bilingualism is flexible especially regardless of age. Bilingual adults experience certain advantages as compared to their monolingual counter paths. They have a higher chance of slowing the development of mental illnesses like Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. Likewise, bilingualism in early childhood is also beneficial to a child because it improves their social understanding, concentration and memory, problem solving skills and communication skill thus improving their overall learning capacity.
As was previously mentioned, social understanding helps bilingual children improve their overall learning capabilities since they can understand different cultures and customs. Unlike monolinguals, these children develop a certain level of appreciation and acceptance of another culture from an early age which, as a result, opens up their minds to view the world from a larger perspective rather than one of a “tunnel vision.” Due to this expanded yet still juvenile worldview or societal outlook, bilingual children tend to cooperate more thus enhancing their learning.
Secondly, a child’s enhanced concentration and memory also aids in improving their ability to learn not only at school but daily life because of their ability to multitask. Bilingual children appear to perform better than monolinguals on tasks that involve switching between activities and inhibiting previously learned responses (Bialystok, Craik, Luk, 2008.) This task switching improves focus giving bilingual children the ability to concentrate on one subject while ignoring irrelevant information.
In continuing, problem solving skills are also critical in a child’s ability to learn better. Due to the constant code switching, bilingual children are better suited to think quickly and derive a suitable solution to a problem. The ability to adapt to ongoing hcanges and process information efficiently and adaptively is known as mental flexibility (Stern Y, 2002.) Improved problem solving skills is a result of a bilingual’s mental flexibility. This enhances their learning capabilities as children, regardless of age, face daily issues throughout their childhood just as adults. As such, the ability for a child to be aware of a problem and respond suitably is an important lifestyle habit to develop when they become adults.
Lastly, bilingual children benefit from better communication skills in early childhood because it enhances sensitivity to certain features of communication skill such as tone of voice (Yow & Markman, 2011.) In comparison to monolingual children, early childhood bilinguals quicker understand and react to changes in one’s tone. Between the two languages being spoken, they are able to understand communication patters and develop and expand their lexical intake (expansion of vocabulary). This helps their learning as they can express themselves and efficiently understand those around them especially within an educational environment.
The attaining of another language while still mastering one’s mother tongue becomes difficult as humanity ages. To avoid this, bilingualism should be promoted throughout pre-schools, at home or even within society. Would it not be beneficial to be able to communicate with eighty percent of the world?
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