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Ianco-Worrell (1972), for example, found that children who are exposed to a bilingual environment from an early age are more skilled at learning new words and their meanings in their first language.
Of course, there are other ways to help children increase their vocabulary in their first language. However, those other methods do not also bestow the many other benefits of bilingualism. And while there are additional costs to bilingual classrooms, proficiency in a second language helps students gain admission to universities as well as to be more competitive in the job market.
Students who become bilingual early on in school will bring those skills to the workplace and improve workplace productivity. Speaking multiple languages offers a competitive edge in the job market and provides a cultural bridge for successful workplace relations. Because of this, demand for bilingual speakers in the workplace is increasing and bilingual communication skills increase economic competitiveness for the individual, the company, and the nation. When Jennings (1987) wrote that bilingualism had become -- already a generation ago -- as important and math and analytic skills, he was writing presciently of needs that would only grow. While those skills too remain important, as the world grows more inter-related, language skills have become increasingly important, a fact reflected by the push that other nations are making to teach their students foreign languages.
Finally, bilingualism allows for peaceful conflict resolution. Being able to communicate in another person's native language increases clear communication and facilitates conflict resolution and...
While many workplace environments have resources specifically for effective conflict resolution these can always be effectively supplemented and expanded through bilingualism. Research demonstrates that while some bilingual skills tend to improve productivity, full bilingualism can make workplaces fundamentally more conflict free, with benefits for both individuals and the company as a whole (Padilla 2002).
Works Cited
Baker, Colin. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. (4th ed.) Multingual Matters: Buffalo. 2006.
The author provides a broad overview of the complexities involving teaching students in two languages at once and various possible ways to go about doing this. He also touches on the important issue of how to maintain the viability of minority languages.
Bilingual Education. Bilingual education. Retrieved from
An overview of the reasons why bilingual skills are important at work and as a citizen. Includes a history of bilingual education and competence in the United States.
Ianco-Worrell, Anita. Bilingualism and Cognitive Development. Child Development Vol. 43, No. 44. 1972.
The author found that children exposed to bilingualism at an early age can learn new vocabulary in their first language more easily. The specific mechanism involved is the fact that these children are better able to understand that the way a word sounds has nothing to do with what it means.
Jennings, John. The Sputnik of the Eighties.The Phi Delta Kappan,
Vol. 69, No. 2, pp. 104-109. 1987.
The author believes that the world will become more and more connected, a contention that has since been proved. In such a globalized world, there will be a distinct economic advantage for the bilingual individual as well as for countries that promote language skills.
Padilla, Amado. Rewarding Workplace Bilingualism. Language Magazine. 2002.
The author argues that there are numerous benefits to the workplace that encourages bilingualism. These include higher productivity as well as better workplace relationships.
Walton, Beth. More children learn more than one language. Retrieved from, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-09-language-children_x.htm>
A news story on the growing trend of parents enrolling their very young children in schools that teach multilingualism.
Works Cited
Baker, Colin. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. (4th ed.) Multingual Matters: Buffalo. 2006.
The author provides a broad overview of the complexities involving teaching students in two languages at once and various possible ways to go about doing this. He also touches on the important issue of how to maintain the viability of minority languages.
Bilingual Education. Bilingual education. Retrieved from <http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1788/Bilingual-Education.html#ixzz1HiHsNZuI>
An overview of the reasons why bilingual skills are important at work and as a citizen. Includes a history of bilingual education and competence in the United States.
Walton, Beth. More children learn more than one language. Retrieved from, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-09-language-children_x.htm>
Bilingual Education Predicting the effect of bilingual education on student outcomes with the work done by Huddy and Sears, "Opposition to Bilingual Education: Prejudice or the Defense of Realistic Interests?" is problematical. The authors investigated the bases for parental prejudice against bilingual education; they did not investigate in any detail what the educational outcomes might be for the children involved. They made only incidental reference to the possibility that Latino, African-American
Bilingual Education The first federal Bilingual Education Act (BEA) was signed into law in 1968. This study sought to determine what effects the BEA had on local and state school districts in California, some who had previously initiated programs to address the Limited English Speaking (LES) students who were becoming an integrated part of the educational system in California. The study is important to the proposed paper in that it shows
Bilingual Education in Los Angeles According to the Los Angeles Times articles, "Hundreds Wait for Bilingual Education," by Louis Sahagun and Nick Anderson (October 23, 1998), there are hundreds of students awaiting arrangements for bilingual classes; these students' parents have petitioned the Los Angeles (LA) school system to provide the resources and facilities their children need to learn the English language outside of total immersion classrooms. This article examines the impact
Bilingual Education America is a land of immigrants and has, therefore, always required bilingual education programs in some form or the other. In fact, bilingual education programs have existed in America since the late eighteenth century, when European immigrant children received educational instruction in their native languages. Recently, however, the issue of bilingual education appears to have grown somewhat contentious. This is evident by the initiatives taken by the States of
The factors affecting cost are numerous and not always easily identifiable; in addition to the purchasing of bilingual textbooks and other instructional supplies, there is often a perception that bilingual instruction leads to a greatly increased workload and number of class hours, and therefore a greater overall strain on the often-tight budgets of public education institutions and districts (Mora 2006). It is primarily the transitional costs, however, that many
In terms of efficacy, Krashen addresses the position that bilingual education is not as effective as suggested by its proponents. The evidence presented by this position is however not sufficiently convincing to make a substantial case for immersion programs as being superior to bilingual curricula. Krashen admits that there are still a number of problems associated with bilingual education that need to be addressed. The largest of these is the accessibility