How speaking 2 languages can make your kid’s brain better, and help yours last longer!
It’s generally accepted that when we’re talking about languages, two is better than one. But what are the real positives that bilingualism can bring to those who are lucky enough to speak more than one language? Let’s find out!
At a very fundamental level, kids benefit from being bilingual by understanding that language is merely a tool for representing the real world. They are more aware than mono-linguists that when they communicate with language, they are using a tool. Mono-linguists, or speakers of one language only, tend not to have this awareness. A good question to ask might be: does this awareness give bilingual children an advantage over their mono peers?
Are there any language advantages? Yes!
This is where the benefits most obviously occur. Bilingual kids are better at understanding grammar and sentence structure, at correcting language errors of grammar and structure, and at using grammar in their own language learning. There is also strong evidence that bilingual children have more word power than children who speak one language. Bilingual children have the ability to define words more accurately than their peers, and to understand the arbitrariness of words as they relate to the objects they represent in the real world. This has benefits related to creativity and verbal expressiveness, and helps bilingual children to perform better on tasks that require mental or symbolic flexibility.
Researchers have found that the benefits of being bilingual can be gained very quickly and at a very young age, even in kindergarten kids after just 6 months of instruction in the second language for 1 hour per week. It seems that language skills gained in a child’s first language can be immediately applied to the next language they try to learn. Phonetics skills (the ability to produce the sounds required by the language) are essentially elastic for kids, and once learned in their mother tongue can be applied to any language the child learns in the future. Since phonetics are directly related to reading skills, the bilingual child gains an advantage in reading skill over their mono-lingual friends. As far as second language learning is concerned, the younger the better!
When choosing a second language for their kids to learn, parents might like to be aware that the benefit is greatest where the first and second languages are phonetically similar, in that they use a similar alphabet. So for example, kids whose first language is Spanish will be able to apply the phonetic skills of their first language better to a similar language like French or Italian or English, than to a language with a very different phonetic construct like Korean or Chinese.
Are there any other benefits of being bilingual, apart from those associated with learning languages? Yes!
Only 100 years ago, psychologists believed that the brain effort required to produce two languages for communication was detrimental to children’s learning in non-language related areas. Serious flaws in the research has led current psychologists and linguist to cast doubt on these findings. More current research has shown that bilinguals have superior performance in non-verbal tasks that require mental flexibility, compared to monolinguals. We now know that when children become fluent in two languages, they also improve their brain functioning for tasks that are unrelated to language. Practicing more than one language seems to train the brain up, to give it a general workout that benefits the owner of that brain in many ways! And interestingly, the more proficient a learner becomes at their second language, the better their brains perform at the tasks that are not related to language. So it’s seems like a good idea to get your child more interested in learning a second language.
Interestingly, bilingual people are better at focusing their attention on one particular thing at a time, and at holding their attention on that thing for longer periods of time, than non-bilingual people. In the age of seemingly non-stop stimuli vying for our attention and the increasing problem of attention-related disorders like ADD, the ability to control our attention might be a legitimate superpower!
Another benefit of bilingualism is that it seems to delay the negative cognitive effects of aging. It keeps your brain feeling and acting young in a similar way to how exercise keeps the physical body in good condition for longer. If you think about how the muscles grow stronger with repeated heavy lifting, we can imagine how the brain can grow more competent by performing the extra tasks required by learning and speaking two languages, such as the repeated requirement for searching for and using the correct word when the speaker has two or more options to choose from. The benefits of helping and encouraging children to be bilingual can lead them to have healthy and active brains far into their futures!
So, let’s have a quick look at a list of the advantages of being bilingual that I’ve outlined above, and add a few more for good measure!
1. Increased brain power.
2. It can give children an academic advantage.
3. Increased awareness of other cultures.
4. It can make travel easier and more enjoyable.
5. Improved competitiveness in the job market.
6. Bilinguals can find it easier to learn a third language.
7. Stay mentally stronger for longer.
8. Improved social life – talk to more people!
9. It can make you more attractive!
Takeaway:
Language is closely related to intellectual ability, and developing language skills improves general intelligence, literacy and mental function. Children benefit immensely from learning new languages, and bilingualism can be an important tool in helping them improve their overall attentiveness and intellectual development. The sooner we start learning new languages, the earlier the benefits start to build up!