Bilingualism: The Duo Benefit

Bilingualism: The Duo Benefit

It is estimated that twenty one percent of children ages five to seventeen speak a language other than English at home, and this number is expected to rise (Lowry). While bilingualism is nothing new in the United States, or the rest of the world for that matter, recent studies have shown that these bilingual children tend to test better in areas such as problem-solving, creativity, and may even present a lower risk for developing brain related illness in the future, compared to their monolingual peers (Lowry). With these studies constantly showing an advantage for bilingualism in young children, it may be time to reconsider our education system in the United States, by opening up more language immersion schools (public and private), or simply incorporating a second language to children at the elementary level. This would allow children from all socio-economic backgrounds to become bilingual at a very young age, all without additional effort from the parents, or additional costs to put children in private language lessons (if they choose to send their children to a public school). Schools such as these are already present today, such as Milwaukee French Immersion School, an elementary school that not only teaches children French, but teaches only in French for all subjects (math, social studies, art, and science) except English. Milwaukee School of Languages is an integrated middle/high school that allows the children from the three immersion schools in the district (French, Spanish and German immersion) to further their language studies up until the twelfth grade, with a potential of thirteen years of studying a second language. While these schools are uncommon, they are definitely on the rise, and with good reason.

It seems odd that simply knowing a second language can create many advantages, however it becomes less peculiar once we look at the biological aspect of acquiring a second language. Many people like to know exactly how a bilingual child can seem to operate at a higher level in various cognitive abilities than a monolingual child. When we as humans learn something new, we create new neural pathways within our brain. For example, learning a second language involves learning new grammar rules, a completely new lexicon for the new language, and perhaps even new