Watch Your Language Blog

Being bilingual

Did you know that, according the 2001 U.S. Census, almost 20% of Americans speak a second language in addition to English? And are you aware of the fact that there are around 300 different languages spoken in this country, placing the U.S.'s "language diversity index" well ahead of the majority of European countries, like France or Greece?

In fact, bilingualism (speaking two languages) and multilingualism (speaking three or more languages) are perfectly natural conditions for the majority of citizens in the world, and the norm in places like India, for example.

Furthermore, we can expect that the number of bilinguals will continue to grow in the future as our world becomes more or more interconnected. Many of them will be adding skills in English, or a different, more local "lingua franca," to their communications toolbox.

But if you already speak a global "lingua franca" as your native tongue, you may wonder why you or your child would need to put the effort into learning a second language. And if you already think that the effort is worthwhile, whatever the reasons, you probably want to know how difficult is it for your child to become bilingual.

While working on our new parenting guide, Raising a Bilingual Child, we spent a lot of time looking at these issues. The book itself provides lots of fun, and much more detailed, answers to both of those questions, plus case studies and personal testimonials, but here is a brief look.

Some basic answers to the first question include things like enhanced cultural understanding, or the ability to feel at ease around and communicate well with people who appear different from you, as well as greater and exciting job opportunities. But there are also other very real benefits, supported by lots of research, that apply even if your child isn't showing the behavioral characteristics of a multinational corporation's future CEO.

For instance, in comparison to monolinguals, bilingual children grasp sooner how language actually works. They figure out earlier that words can be divided into sounds - a seemingly simple, yet essential piece of knowledge when it comes to learning to read and write.

Bilingual children have also been shown to have increased mental flexibility and focus. Tests prove that they can come up with more solutions for the same problem (a skill called "divergent thinking") and that they are able to focus better on the task at hand by identifying and ignoring irrelevant information (a skill called "selective attention").

Regarding the second question, there are probably two major points to take home: First, start your child on the second language early on, but don't just assume the child will "soak up language like a sponge," without actually being immersed in the pool. So, second, make sure your provide him or her with good reasons to learn, and most importantly, with lots of language to draw from. Remember, it's exposure, exposure, exposure!

Tags: bilingual, multilingual, newsletter, parenting
May 21, 2008