Children Being Bilingual: The Pros and Cons

To count, I do not know how many times friends of mine, especially those who also major in English Literature, have stated that if one day they become parents, they would teach their children English early in addition to the native language Bahasa Indonesia. English is now indubitably ubiquitous. It is largely and commonly used in international and national media, press, and broadcasting—hence, Crystal (2003) stated that English is now regarded as lingua franca. Still in the same wavelength with Crystal, Doms (2013) also explained that English plays an important role by serving as a second language in many countries. As of 2015, moreover, English is the second biggest spoken language after Chinese; with a total number around 1200 million of speakers all over the world, both in non- and English-speaking countries (Lewis et al, 2015). Therefore, it makes sense that some people, particularly who are aware of the importance of speaking English and are fortunate enough to be exposed to it, want to teach their future children English—making them bilinguals. In this case, however, children being bilingual are like a two-sided coin: on one side it is very beneficial for their cognitive and academic development; and yet on the other side, there are also some drawbacks such as the incapability of being fluent in both languages and a risk of being isolated by society.

First, being a bilingual is beneficial in two aspects: cognitively and academically. The cognitive development covers linguistics and non-linguistics comprehension, multi-tasking skills, better memorizing, and making decisions. When people are learning two languages, higher language processing demands occur and it leads to the increasing level of brain activity in five left-hemisphere managing language processing: dorsal precentral gyrus, pars triangularis, pars opercularis, superior temporal gyrus and planum temporal (Costa and Sebastián-Gallés, 2014). The intense level of brain activities influences and enhances the process of language acquisition in terms of comprehension and word retrieval. As bilinguals are accustomed to learning two things at once, they can also flexibly switch between tasks due to the enhanced brains’ executive control system (Dreifus, 2011; Bialystok and Craik, 2012; Costa and Sebastián-Gallés, 2014). Furthermore, it has been proven that bilinguals can focus on many things simultaneously; thus, suppose they are assigned many tasks, they will experience less troubles and interferences. Keysar et al. (2012) also stated that thinking in second language helps prevent from biases in making any decisions as their brains work in a more systematic way due to the perpetual language learning. Given these facts, it is possible that bilinguals can outperform monolinguals in academic performance i.e. in classroom. However, do take a note that in many cases, people who learn their second language at the same time with the mother language (or called simultaneous bilinguals) are more likely to be better in those aforementioned aspects than successive bilinguals—those who learn their second language after acquiring the first one (Costa and Sebastián-Gallés, 2014). Birdsong (2006) also added that late start of learning second language i.e. in early adulthood, meanwhile, is considerably ineffective as one’s working memory and speed of language processing have already slowed down. Therefore, it can be implied that the level of language acquisition depends on the age; and thus, the benefits can be fully acquired if people start to learn their second language since childhood.

Nevertheless, there is also a cost of being bilinguals as there is a possibility that children will not be able to fully master two languages equally. Costa and Sebastián-Gallés (2014) explained that the level of proficiency acquired during the learning differs from one to another: some may be equally proficient in both, while others may not. Although bilingual children may use their second language in daily basis, their verbal skills are apparently weaker than monolinguals; and there is a tendency to be lack of vocabularies than monolinguals (Bialystok and Craik, 2012). In a study conducted by Michael and Gollan (2005) as cited in Bialystok and Craik (2012) also added that bilingual children have a slight difficulty to speak fluently and choose the appropriate words and phrases to use; make many errors in naming pictures; and experience more slip of tongues in their first language.  The problem probably lies in the failure of differentiating linguistically the two languages which they are exposed to (Costa and Sebastián-Gallés, 2014). Another problem that rises is that if the children are too habituated to speaking in their second language, they may experience a hard time to socialize with their monolingual peers. There is a risk that they will be teased for using their second language often—and it might result in low self-esteem due to the miscommunication when conveying their ideas to monolinguals.

To conclude, the idea of turning children into successive bilinguals does sound compelling. Parents, however, need to consider all the above-mentioned advantages and the drawbacks of being bilingual children. Furthermore, it is imperative that parents balance the learning of the first and second language; so that in the future, children would not experience the disadvantages of being bilinguals.

Annisa Lista Sari

Discussion Academic Essay

References

Bialystok, E and Craik, E.M. Fergus. 2012. Cognitive and Linguistic Processing in the Bilingual Mind. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/19_1_inpress/Bialystok_final.pdf

Birdsong, D. 2006. Age and Second Language Acquisition: A Selective Overview.

Crystal, D. 2003. English as a Global Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.  

Costa, A and Sebastián-Gallés, N. 2014. How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain?. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2014 May; 15(5): 336–345. doi:10.1038/nrn3709.

Dreifus, C. 2011, May 30. The bilingual advantage. Interview with Ellen Bialystok. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31conversation.html?_r=1

Keysar, B, Hayakawa, L. Sayuri, An, G. Sun. The Foreign Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Bias. Psychological Science 2012 23: 661 originally published online 18 April 2012. doi:10.1177/0956797611432178.

Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.