EFFECTS OF BILINGUALISM

TO LANGUAGE LEARNERS

BY: ROUSHIELL FRANCE S. LONDON

 WHO IS A BILINGUAL?
Alberto, who grew up in a San Diego exposed to Spanish at home and
English in the wider community, considers himself fully bilingual. He lacks strong
literacy skills in Spanish due to decreasing exposure to Spanish throughout his
early education, but he easily switches back and forth between his two
languages in daily conversations.
Similarly, Walid, who grew up using Arabic at home and during heritage
language classes at a community college in Dearbon, Michigan, but went
to school entirely in English, refers to himself as bilingual.
 Mila, learned English throughout her numerous years of residence in the US
hesitates to label herself as “bilingual”. In her mind, a bilingual is a person
with fluent verbal skills in two languages and since her English is strongly
accented and she sometimes stumbles over words and phrases, she doesn’t
consider herself bilingual.
 WHAT IS BILINGUALISM?

BILINGUALISM is the ability to

communicate fluently in a language
other than your native language.
 WHAT LEADS TO BILINGUALISM?

The mixing of cultures leads to bilingualism.

Ex. States that are closer to Mexico have

increased Spanish- English bilingual population than
states farther from Mexico.
About two-thirds of the children in the world
are brought up in a bilingual atmosphere
(Crystal,2001)
 Many studies have shown that bilingual
children have an intellectual advantage to
monolingual children.
 Bilingualism is a phenomenon affecting
practically every country on earth (Shreuder
&Weltens, 2007)
 THE THEORY OF BIALYSTOK
(2001) ABOUT BILINGUALISM
Found a correlation between bilingualism and cognitive
abilities.
o This study was supported by Wilson & Trainin (2007) that first
grade students with early literacy skills displayed increased levels of
motivation to achieve academically, which lead to an increased
likelihood of academic success in the future.
 Bilinguals also have an easier time concentrating without getting
distracted.
 “As the world becomes more interconnected, it is increasingly
apparent that bilingualism is the rule and not the exception.”