Learning a second language at a young age has several educational and cognitive advantages, which is verified by the research of several researchers at the university. And yet even as the immigrant population increases in the U.S., our country remains divided on the issue of bilingual education.
Recent elections have demonstrated this divide. Measures that limit bilingual education in public schools have passed in California, Arizona and Massachusetts, while Colorado and Oregon have voted down such measures. Beyond the political issues raised by the debate over bilingual education, the science behind language acquisition has been wrongly used to support measures limiting bilingualism.
Supporters of Oregon’s recently failed measure to limit bilingual education claimed that learning a second language can impair a child’s English skills. But there is no evidence to support the idea of language interference, according to Jeffrey Lidz, a university linguistics professor who studies language acquisition.
First, one needs to understand a bit about how children learn languages. To anyone who has struggled through a foreign language class, it seems like young children soak up new languages like sponges. Preschool-aged children who do not speak a word of English upon entry to school in the fall can understand and speak English by winter break, according to Francine Favretto, director of the university’s Center for Young Children.
Two theories address why children learn languages so much more quickly than adults. The first theory is the critical period hypothesis, which claims children can learn languages easily until about puberty. “The idea is that there is a biological maturation,” said Lidz. “When you get to a certain age, your ability to learn languages turns off.”
The second theory deals with the cognitive habits that form as people age. “You learn so much about your own language that it makes it hard to learn anything about a new language,” Lidz explained.
New languages rarely interfere or get mixed up with old ones, added Lidz, as is claimed by some who support reducing bilingual education. “People are very good at keeping languages separate,” Lidz said. “There are subtle phonetic and visual properties which even babies can tune in to, which enables them to separate two languages from one another.”
Mouth shape is an example of a “visual property” of a language mentioned by Lidz. In general, speakers of French talk with more rounded lips than English speakers. Young French-English bilinguals can tell from a speaking face which language the person is speaking without hearing a word.
“There are a vast number of advantages that have nothing to do with language that come with being bilingual,” said Lidz. “All evidence suggests that being bilingual is a tremendous cognitive advantage and that there are no disadvantages to bilingualism.”
Bilingual children have better executive skills, which include planning, abstract thinking and the ability to switch tasks or even multitask, according to Ellen Bialystok of York University. Also, research has shown that lifelong bilinguals have decreased levels of dementia after the age of 60.
“The cognitive advantages of bilingualism tend to be for people who are relatively balanced bilinguals, and so the more you can promote that, the better,” Lidz said. In other words, people who don’t maintain their bilingualism throughout their lives lose out on those advantages. Reducing bilingual education could close off a language to children and therefore close off mental flexibility.
“The notion that there is a naturalness to being monolingual is false. Most of the world outside of the U.S. is bi- or even trilingual,” Lidz said. “I can’t emphasize enough what a bad idea that is.”
Linda Cendes is a graduate student in the Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics program. She can be reached at lcendes@umd.edu.
