Friday, July 24, 2009

Being Bilingual with Benefits

So, you are or aren’t bilingual. What’s the big deal anyway?

Here are a few articles that give some insight into why being bilingual is a good thing, a really good thing.

Bilingualism's Brain Benefits
Bilingual speakers are better able to deal with distractions than those who speak only a single language, and that may help offset age-related declines in mental performance, researchers say. (read more)

The Advantages of Being Bilingual

Most children have the capacity and facility to learn two or more languages. Research suggests there are advantages to being bilingual, such as, linguistic and metalinguistic abilities and cognitive flexibility, such as, concept formation, divergent thinking and general reasoning and verbal abilities. (read more)

The advantages of bilingual education are many.
Knowing another language, and being encouraged to incorporate it, does not mean that the main language needs to suffer. If done in a way that allows for both languages to coexist then the advantages of bilingual education can be acknowledged without the threat that it will take away from learning the dominant language. (read more)
So, do you agree?

posted by Joy Delgado
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