importance of bilingual education essay

The Benefits of Bilingual Education and Its Impact on Student Learning and Growth

Approximately 5 million students in the United States are English language learners, and the number of English language learners (ELLs) in the US public school system continues to rise steadily, especially in more urbanized school districts.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), students who speak English as a second language are more likely to struggle with academics, and only about 67 percent will graduate from public high school in four years—whereas the average for all students is 84 percent. ELL students can better develop their English proficiency and close the gap in achievement by participating in language assistance programs or bilingual education programs, the NCES explains.

The benefits of bilingual education can begin with students in elementary school and follow them throughout their lives. Education’s impact can lead to a variety of outcomes depending on whether ELL students learn English in a monolingual or bilingual environment. Educators in diverse classrooms or working as school leaders should consider the benefits of bilingual education when creating curricula and establishing desired student learning outcomes.

What Is Bilingual Education?

While bilingual education can take many forms, it strives to incorporate multiple languages into the process of teaching. For example, since there is such a large Spanish-speaking population in the United States, many primary and secondary school students can benefit from educational environments where they are learning in both English and Spanish.

Bilingual education can often be the most effective when children are beginning preschool or elementary school. If children grow up speaking Spanish as their primary language, it can be difficult for them to be placed in English-speaking elementary schools and be expected to understand their teachers and classmates. In a bilingual classroom, however, young students can further establish their foundation of Spanish as well as English, better preparing them for the rest of their education.

Of course, this works for students who begin school speaking any language as their primary language. Children whose parents have come to the United States from another country may have limited English skills when they first begin elementary school. Teachers working in bilingual education classrooms will balance their use of two languages when teaching math, science, history, and other subjects to help these students develop a stronger foundation of their first language as well as English as their second language.

Academic Benefits

Students can benefit in many ways from participating in bilingual education programs or classrooms. Some of the benefits of bilingual education relate to intellect. For example, research has shown that students who can speak and write in multiple languages have cognitive advantages over their monolingual peers. Those who learn a second or third language from a young age are able to develop communication skills and a higher degree of literacy. Children who grow up in bilingual environments develop a keen awareness of how language works and have a stronger foundation for learning additional languages in the future.

Students can also benefit academically from bilingual education. Students who pursue higher education are typically required to take a foreign language at the collegiate level, so those who have been exposed to bilingual educational environments before college—and speak two or more languages—have an advantage over their peers. They can advance in their studies and feel comfortable with multiple communities of students on their campuses.

Students who are exposed to multiple languages throughout high school and college can also have long-term career benefits. Their proficiency in multiple languages is an advantage when they graduate and enter the workplace as professionals. Every industry has a need for effective communicators who can speak multiple languages to meet the needs of the growing number of English language learners in the United States. International operations also have a great need for professionals who can speak multiple languages and represent US-based organizations and companies.

Growth beyond Academics

While there are many benefits of bilingual education related to school and work, bilingual education programs also have a huge impact on students’ cultural and social growth. Children who grow up speaking English as a second language often come from culturally diverse backgrounds. Incorporating cultural education in the classroom can help create enriching academic experiences for all students.

Exploring multiple languages in the classroom provides a foundation for cultural education that allows students to learn and grow alongside classmates from a different cultural background. As a result, students learn to become more adaptable and more aware of the world around them.

To encourage the academic and cultural development of students in bilingual education settings, teachers should have a strong foundation in education and leadership. They should demonstrate a passion for teaching as well as an understanding of how language and culture work together in their students’ academic journeys. Educators should be aware of the role that policies play in the educational environments they cultivate and have an understanding of how to best represent their students’ cultural backgrounds.

Pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching or Master of Education in Education Policy and Leadership

To implement the best teaching practices in bilingual education classrooms, teachers should be equipped with a foundation in transformational leadership and cultural awareness. To that end, teachers looking to have a meaningful impact on the lives of their students can further their own education and pursue an advanced degree in education policy and leadership. Through programs like American University’s Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Education in Education Policy and Leadership , educators can broaden their worldviews, engaging in topics such as education law and policy, quantitative research in education, and educational leadership and organizational change.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies: Importance, Benefits & Tips

EdD vs. PhD in Education: Requirements, Career Outlook, and Salary

Transformational Leadership in Education

Bilingual Kidspot, “5 Amazing Benefits of a Bilingual Education”

Learning English, “Number of English Learners in US Schools Keeps Rising”

National Center for Education Statistics, “Digest of Education Statistics”

National Center for Education Statistics, “English Language Learners in Public Schools”

Pew Research Center, “6 Facts About English Language Learners in U.S. Public Schools”

USA Today, “More US Schools Teach in English and Spanish, But Not Enough to Help Latino Kids”

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5 Million Voices

6 potential brain benefits of bilingual education.

Anya Kamenetz

Part of our ongoing series exploring how the U.S. can educate the nearly 5 million students who are learning English.

Brains, brains, brains. One thing we've learned at NPR Ed is that people are fascinated by brain research. And yet it can be hard to point to places where our education system is really making use of the latest neuroscience findings.

But there is one happy nexus where research is meeting practice: bilingual education. "In the last 20 years or so, there's been a virtual explosion of research on bilingualism," says Judith Kroll, a professor at the University of California, Riverside.

Again and again, researchers have found, "bilingualism is an experience that shapes our brain for a lifetime," in the words of Gigi Luk, an associate professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

At the same time, one of the hottest trends in public schooling is what's often called dual-language or two-way immersion programs.

How We Teach English Learners: 3 Basic Approaches

Traditional programs for English-language learners, or ELLs, focus on assimilating students into English as quickly as possible. Dual-language classrooms, by contrast, provide instruction across subjects to both English natives and English learners, in both English and in a target language.

The goal is functional bilingualism and biliteracy for all students by middle school.

New York City, North Carolina, Delaware, Utah, Oregon and Washington state are among the places expanding dual-language classrooms.

The trend flies in the face of some of the culture wars of two decades ago, when advocates insisted on "English first" education. Most famously, California passed Proposition 227 in 1998. It was intended to sharply reduce the amount of time that English-language learners spent in bilingual settings.

Proposition 58 , passed by California voters on Nov. 8, largely reversed that decision, paving the way for a huge expansion of bilingual education in the state that has the largest population of English-language learners.

Bilingual Education Returns To California. Now What?

Some of the insistence on English-first was founded in research produced decades ago, in which bilingual students underperformed monolingual English speakers and had lower IQ scores.

Today's scholars, like Ellen Bialystok at York University in Toronto, now say that research was "deeply flawed."

"Earlier research looked at socially disadvantaged groups," agrees Antonella Sorace at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. "This has been completely contradicted by recent research" that compares more similar groups to each other.

So what does recent research say about the potential benefits of bilingual education? NPR Ed called up seven researchers in three countries — Sorace, Bialystok, Luk, Kroll, Jennifer Steele, and the team of Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier — to find out.

It turns out that, in many ways, the real trick to speaking two languages consists in managing not to speak one of those languages at a given moment — which is fundamentally a feat of paying attention.

Saying "Goodbye" to mom and then " Guten tag " to your teacher, or managing to ask for a crayola roja instead of a red crayon, requires skills called "inhibition" and "task switching." These skills are subsets of an ability called executive function.

People who speak two languages often outperform monolinguals on general measures of executive function. "[Bilinguals] can pay focused attention without being distracted and also improve in the ability to switch from one task to another," says Sorace.

Do these same advantages accrue to a child who begins learning a second language in kindergarten instead of as a baby? We don't yet know. Patterns of language learning and language use are complex. But Gigi Luk at Harvard cites at least one brain-imaging study on adolescents that shows similar changes in brain structure when compared with those who are bilingual from birth, even when they didn't begin practicing a second language in earnest before late childhood.

Young children being raised bilingual have to follow social cues to figure out which language to use with which person and in what setting. As a result, says Sorace, bilingual children as young as age 3 have demonstrated a head start on tests of perspective-taking and theory of mind — both of which are fundamental social and emotional skills.

Reading (English)

About 10 percent of students in the Portland, Ore., public schools are assigned by lottery to dual-language classrooms that offer instruction in Spanish, Japanese or Mandarin, alongside English.

Jennifer Steele at American University conducted a four-year, randomized trial and found that these dual-language students outperformed their peers in English-reading skills by a full school year's worth of learning by the end of middle school.

Such a large effect in a study this size is unusual, and Steele is currently conducting a flurry of follow-up studies to tease out the causality: Is this about a special program that attracted families who were more engaged? Or about the dual-language instruction itself?

"If it's just about moving the kids around," Steele says, "that's not as exciting as if it's a way of teaching that makes you smarter."

'Invisible' Children: Raised In The U.S., Now Struggling In Mexico

Steele suspects the latter. Because the effects are found in reading, not in math or science where there were few differences, she suggests that learning two languages makes students more aware of how language works in general, aka "metalinguistic awareness."

The research of Gigi Luk at Harvard offers a slightly different explanation. She has recently done a small study looking at a group of 100 fourth-graders in Massachusetts who had similar reading scores on a standard test, but very different language experiences.

Some were foreign-language dominant and others were English natives. Here's what's interesting. The students who were dominant in a foreign language weren't yet comfortably bilingual; they were just starting to learn English. Therefore, by definition, they had much weaker English vocabularies than the native speakers.

Yet they were just as good at decoding a text.

"This is very surprising," Luk says. "You would expect the reading comprehension performance to mirror vocabulary — it's a cornerstone of comprehension."

How did the foreign-language dominant speakers manage this feat? Well, Luk found, they also scored higher on tests of executive functioning. So, even though they didn't have huge mental dictionaries to draw on, they may have been great puzzle-solvers, taking into account higher-level concepts such as whether a single sentence made sense within an overall story line.

They got to the same results as the monolinguals, by a different path.

School performance and engagement.

Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier, a husband and wife team of professors emeritus at George Mason University in Virginia, have spent the past 30 years collecting evidence on the benefits of bilingual education.

"Wayne came to our research with skepticism, thinking students ought to get instruction all day in English," says Virginia Collier. "Eight million student records later, we're convinced," Wayne Thomas chimes in.

In studies covering six states and 37 districts, they have found that, compared with students in English-only classrooms or in one-way immersion, dual-language students have somewhat higher test scores and also seem to be happier in school. Attendance is better, behavioral problems fewer, parent involvement higher.

Diversity and integration.

American public school classrooms as a whole are becoming more segregated by race and class. Dual-language programs can be an exception. Because they are composed of native English speakers deliberately placed together with recent immigrants, they tend to be more ethnically and socioeconomically balanced. And there is some evidence that this helps kids of all backgrounds gain comfort with diversity and different cultures.

Several of the researchers I talked with also pointed out that, in bilingual education, non-English-dominant students and their families tend to feel that their home language is heard and valued, compared with a classroom where the home language is left at the door in favor of English.

This can improve students' sense of belonging and increase parent involvement in their children's education, including behaviors like reading to children.

"Many parents fear their language is an obstacle, a problem, and if they abandon it their child will integrate better," says Antonella Sorace of the University of Edinburgh. "We tell them they're not doing their child a favor by giving up their language."

Protection against cognitive decline and dementia.

File this away as a very, very long-range payoff. Researchers have found that actively using two languages seems to have a protective effect against age-related dementia — perhaps relating to the changes in brain structure we talked about earlier.

Specifically, among patients with Alzheimer's in a Canadian study, a group of bilingual adults performed on par with a group of monolingual adults in terms of cognitive tests and daily functioning. But when researchers looked at the two groups' brains, they found evidence of brain atrophy that was five to seven years more advanced in the bilingual group. In other words, the adults who spoke two languages were carrying on longer at a higher level despite greater degrees of damage.

The coda, and a caution

One theme that was striking in speaking to all these researchers was just how strongly they advocated for dual-language classrooms.

Thomas and Collier have advised many school systems on how to expand their dual-language programs, and Sorace runs " Bilingualism Matters ," an international network of researchers who promote bilingual education projects.

This type of advocacy among scientists is unusual; even more so because the "bilingual advantage hypothesis" is being challenged once again. A review of studies published last year found that cognitive advantages failed to appear in 83 percent of published studies, though in a separate meta-analysis, the sum of effects was still significantly positive.

One potential explanation offered by the researchers I spoke with is that advantages that are measurable in the very young and very old tend to fade when testing young adults at the peak of their cognitive powers.

And, they countered that no negative effects of bilingual education have been found. So, they argue that even if the advantages are small, they are still worth it.

Not to mention one obvious, outstanding fact underlined by many of these researchers: "Bilingual children can speak two languages! That's amazing," says Bialystok.

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Highlighting the Benefits of Being Bilingual 

By pointing out the benefits of bilingualism, teachers can give students learning English a boost in confidence.

Three years ago, I had a hardworking student in my class whom I’ll call Jose. As I connected with him, I was glad to learn more about his past and found out that he had immigrated with his family to the United States from Mexico a couple of years prior. At parents’ night, Jose’s mother spoke to him in Spanish, which surprised me as he never spoke Spanish at school and had previously told me that he only spoke English.

The next day, I pulled Jose aside and asked him about his speaking Spanish with his mother. With his head hung low, he explained that he was ashamed of speaking Spanish because he wanted to be “more American.” My heart broke for him, and throughout the course of that year, it became one of my teacher missions to show Jose that the ability to speak two languages is a great asset.

Sadly, Jose’s story is not unique. As educators, it’s our responsibility to show bilingual students that the ability to speak two languages is a great gift. Bilingualism is an incredible skill—it can lead to stronger brain functioning, higher incomes, and positive health impacts. In many ways, bilingualism is a superpower. There’s so much research showing the significant benefits of speaking two languages, and it’s important to empower students by sharing this information with them.

Benefits of Bilingualism

Bilingualism makes executive functioning skills stronger. Researchers at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan studied brain scans of bilingual and monolingual individuals. They found that people who are bilingual have significantly more gray matter in the portion of their brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC is one of the portions of the brain involved in executive functioning. 

People who are bilingual are consistently switching between languages and interpreting which language needs to be used at which time; this is brain exercise, which leads to the strengthening of this portion of the brain muscle. Researchers conclude that by having more gray matter in this portion of the brain, people who are bilingual may have an easier time with executive functions, including decision-making, motivation, and emotional regulation . 

Bilingualism makes people better at multitasking. People who are bilingual are multitasking without thinking about it. As a person’s brain transitions from one language to another, they are processing information and shifting between languages at the same time. 

Research shows that the ability to multitask linguistically translates to an ability to multitask in other areas of a person’s life because it strengthens the executive functioning skills in the brain. Researchers conducted a study looking at whether or not elementary school students could multitask; in this study, researchers had students perform multiple different types of tasks, and they found that bilingual students outperformed monolingual students on tasks that required students to multitask.

Bilingualism can increase math and reading performance. Several studies have shown a correlation between bilingualism and stronger mathematical abilities in students. In a large study of pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade students, bilingual students outperformed monolingual students in mathematical reasoning, mathematical skills on word problems, and early number awareness skills. 

Along with increased math performance, there is also conjecture that bilingualism can increase students’ reading abilities. 

American University conducted a four-year study of Portland Public School students, comparing the academics of students enrolled in dual-language programs with those of students enrolled in traditional public schools. Students were enrolled into these two types of programs at random, and it was found that by the end of middle school, students in dual-language programs were performing one grade level higher on reading assessments than their peers who were not enrolled in these programs. 

Bilingualism increases earning potential and job opportunities. Research shows that employers from all career fields prefer to hire bilingual employees . Research also shows that among the millennial generation, bilingual employees earn more on average than their monolingual counterparts. It’s been reported that bilingual employees earn on average between 5 percent and 20 percent more than their monolingual peers .

Bilingualism can prevent negative effects of disease and brain injury. In recent years, a number of studies have been published looking at the impacts of bilingualism on human health. Many of these studies have surprising results showing the protection that bilingualism can provide to the brain. 

A study from York University found that people who are bilingual have delayed symptoms after a diagnosis of dementia; while bilingualism didn’t stop a person’s dementia, people who were bilingual exhibited symptoms approximately four years later than people who were monolingual with the same disease pathology. Another study that specifically looked at the impact of bilingualism on Alzheimer’s disease found that bilingual people with the disease had symptom onset four to five years later than people who were monolingual.

Another research study examined stroke patients and looked at the different outcomes for bilingual and monolingual patients. The study found that people who were bilingual were more than twice as likely to recover their cognitive functioning skills as people who spoke only one language.

In these studies, researchers concluded that people who are bilingual have a larger cognitive reserve than people who are monolingual due to the more advanced executive functioning skills in their brains that result from continual language switching. Researchers believe that this cognitive reserve allows bilingual individuals a greater ability to compensate in the case of brain injury or illness.

Three weeks ago, I saw Jose in the hallway at school. He was giving a campus tour to a new student who had just immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico. Jose was speaking with the other student in Spanish as he explained where the new student’s classrooms were located. I am proud to share that today he’s embracing his Spanish language skills and serves as a mentor for others. He now knows that bilingualism is one of his many superpowers.

Multilingual education: A key to quality and inclusive learning

Language is more than a tool for communication; it’s a very specific human cognitive faculty and the foundation of our shared humanity. It enables the transmission of experiences, traditions, knowledge and identities across generations.

Languages play a crucial role in promoting peace, fostering intercultural dialogue and driving sustainable development. They permeate every facet of our lives—from family and work to education, politics, media, justice, research and technology. Our values, beliefs, knowledge, identities and worldviews are intricately shaped by language, reflecting the richness of the human experience.

Languages are at risk and must be championed

But languages are under significant threat. UNESCO data indicates that around 600 languages have disappeared in the last century. If current trends continue, up to 90 per cent of the world’s languages may become extinct by the end of this century.

International Mother Language Day, observed annually on 21 February, underscores the urgent need to champion linguistic diversity and multilingual education rooted in mother tongues.

For more than seven decades, UNESCO has promoted mother language-based and multilingual education as fundamental to achieving quality, inclusive learning.

Why multilingual education matters

Enhanced learning.  First, and most obviously, students learn best in a language they understand. Yet UNESCO data shows that 40 per cent of the world’s population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. Our research documents the benefits of being taught in learners’ native languages: in upper-middle- and high-income countries, children who speak the language they are taught in are 14 per cent more likely to read with understanding at the end of primary, compared to those who do not.

In France, children who speak French at home are 28 per cent more likely to be able to read with understanding at the end of primary than children who do not. This share rises to over 60 per cent more likely in countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, Slovakia, South Africa and Türkiye.

At the end of lower secondary, adolescents speaking the language of instruction are over 40 per cent more likely to be able to read with understanding compared to those who did not. This ranges from a 4 per cent gap in Canada to around 40 per cent in Germany and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and over 60 per cent in Thailand.

Improved access and inclusivity through mother tongue education.  Adopting a mother language-based, multilingual education improves access to and inclusion in education, particularly for population groups that speak non-dominant, minority and indigenous languages. Studies have shown that such approaches can boost classroom participation, improve retention rates and encourage family and community involvement in education. They also play a vital role in mitigating the challenges faced by migrant and refugee learners, promoting a sense of safety and resilience. Yet—at a time of record displacement—over 31 million young people who have fled war or crisis situations are learning in a language that differs from the official language of their country of origin.

Contributing to peace and sustainable development.  The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is intricately linked to linguistic diversity and multilingualism. The  Global Action Plan of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032) , spearheaded by UNESCO, underscores the importance of language choice for human dignity, peaceful coexistence and sustainable development. Commitment to these ideals drives UNESCO support for building inclusive and equitable, quality education opportunities in indigenous languages in both formal, non-formal and informal educational settings.

Helping mother language education thrive

The potential of multilingual education is enormous, but realizing its full benefits requires a commitment to lifelong learning and a deeper appreciation of the value of linguistic diversity.

To foster thriving multilingual education, we need robust policy support, advocacy and innovation. This includes adopting policies that promote mother language education from early childhood, as seen in diverse countries such as Ghana, Peru, Singapore and South Africa. It also involves recruiting and training teachers and community members competent in learners’ mother tongues, as well as exploring innovative solutions, such as partnerships with digital platforms, to meet diverse language needs.

Partnerships and cooperation at all levels, including across universities, academic centres and institutions that support language development, can also enhance capacity, and expand access to teaching and learning materials in local languages in both print and digital forms. This must be accompanied by formative and summative assessments that are appropriately designed to monitor the learning outcomes of multilingual learners.

Mother language-based, multilingual education must be part of our efforts to address the learning crisis and learning poverty facing many countries around the world.

In an increasingly globalized world, UNESCO remains committed to promoting multilingual education and cultural and linguistic diversity as cornerstones for the sustainability of our societies.

This article by UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Stefania Giannini, was originally  published in the UN Chronicle on 20 February 2024, ahead of International Mother Language Day. 

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Why Bilingual Education is Important to Me

• IDRA Newsletter • August 1995

Each of these essays was among the top three winners in the 1994 National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) nationwide writing contest for bilingual students, sponsored by Coca-Cola USA and Apple Computer, Inc.

By Serana Demientieff Grade 8 Kasigluk, Alaska

Bilingual education is important to me so I can be able to speak in English and Yup’ik. Every child should be taught at least some things about what our ancestors did. Elders of the Yup’ik world worry about losing the Yup’ik language. As for myself, I am very proud of myself because I am a bilingual person.

At our school, in Akula, we have a Yup’ik studies program. The Yup’ik studies program is a program where we can learn or at least remember how to make the things which our ancestors did back then. More and more schools are asking for the curriculum which we are using at our school.

How important do you think it is to keep our language alive? I think it is really important because one we lose it we can not find it ever again. For example, the Eyak language is dying because no one has ever been taught how to read and write in the Eyak way. There is only one elder who knows how to speak and read in the language. If no one has been taught, and that elder dies the Eyak language is gone forever. Would you want that to happen? To keep our language alive we have to teach our future children how to speak in the Yup’ik language and also have to teach them the things we were taught.

It is also important to have the English language too. If we know the English language we can have jobs in the future and be able to speak to non-natives. We also have to know the English language to be able to read things at the store and also in the newspapers and count the money you have to spend.

In the future I plan to teach my children to be bilingual. First, I plan to teach them Yup’ik so they can pass the language onto their children and English so they can be able to communicate with non-natives and also to understand English.

By Huy Nguyen Grade 5 Orlando, Florida

“A person who speaks two languages is worth two persons,” says my bilingual teacher. That is reason enough to make bilingual education important to me. I have a treasure that many people do not have – two worlds of languages and cultures. I would not be writing this essay if there was not a bilingual education program at my school.

My family and I came to the United Sates over two years ago. We came from a war-torn Vietnam, a very small country with a musical language and a millenary old culture. I am so happy to be in this country. My younger sister and I are the unique members in a family of 10 who can go to school in this land of opportunity. That means I will be able to fulfill my dream of becoming a medical doctor. I was not always this hopeful.

Soon after we were enrolled in high school, my hope began to fade away. People around me, teachers and students, all spoke some strange language. I felt like I was enclosed in a box or in a house without windows. I was surrounded by people; yet, I was isolated because communication was impossible.

Fortunately, I was transferred to another school that had a bilingual teacher to help me. My whole world turned around. Suddenly, everything made sense to me. It took my bilingual teacher 15 minutes to explain to me a lesson in my native language, while it took my English speaking teacher an hour to do the same task!

I began to make significant progress in learning English and other subjects. My house now has windows to another world – the world in which I am now living. I have a sense of importance because now I am the link between my family and the world outside of my home.

A Vietnamese adage says: Cây có côi, nuoc có nguon [Trees have roots; springs have sources]. An uprooted tree will die. My tree was not uprooted; it was transplanted to another fertile soil. I am lucky to have my tree deeply and firmly rooted in my family, my language and culture. The branches of my tree reach out and capture new nutrients to feed my hunger for more knowledge. My life becomes richer because it feeds on two sources: one is the world of English, the other Vietnamese.

As the world shrinks, an interdependence among nations becomes more evident. People need the bilingual and bicultural skills to communicate and to avoid conflict. I strongly believe that bilingual education can facilitate cultural understanding as it teaches languages. For that reason, all schools should offer bilingual education to their students.

I am proud to be able to communicate in more than one language. I am confident that I will be able to fulfill my dream and my responsibilities to my family and to this country – thanks to my family who supports me and to my teachers who guide me.

By María Luisa Mijes Grade 6 Houston, Texas

In a society where the bright and the not so bright is given the same opportunity, I address myself to you. First of all, I was born in San Antonio, Texas. My parents were both born in Mexico. I am 11 years old now.

Although I came to school knowing only one language, I was able to impact the new world of English with the wealth of my Spanish heritage. My first teachers at home who were my parents sent me to school fully equipped with concrete concepts which I was able to transfer in my bilingual classes.

Bilingual education begun to formulate my new experiences of success in school. There was never a year in which I was not an honor roll student.

It was in kindergarten where I was able to connect my Spanish culture in the Suzuki Violin classes taught to me in school. The music and Spanish language of my ancestors facilitated the rapid progress in the rich multicultural experience. Bilingual education opened a whole new spectrum of light for me. An array of rainbows through music makes me a leader as an ambassador of my culture to the world through television and personal appearances.

I can tell you with great pride that I have sung the songs of my forefathers and serenaded through mariachi music. Presidents, governors, movie stars, and our unforgettable renown Spanish World Comedian. Streams of tears flowed down his face as he heard me sing and play. This experience will forever be imprinted in the profound depths of my soul. My rich heritage leads me through fields of challenging conquests. To be equipped with the wealth of multicultural experiences through music and academic success is an asset. My serenades are a gift for your enjoyment. Your pay is the song of your soul through the simple clapping of your hands. The molding of my life can never be reproduced, sold, nor bought. My authors are unique bilingual teachers, a one of a kind school, my unique parents and home.

This year, bilingual students throughout the country can submit essays on the topic: Why bilingual education is important to me. Essays are grouped into three categories: elementary, grades three through five; middle/jr. high, grades six through eight; and high school, grades nine through 12. The first place winners for each category will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship and an Apple Macintosh color computer. The winners, with their parents and bilingual teachers, will also win a trip to the next annual NABE conference in Orlando, Florida. Each second place winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship, and each third place winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship. The deadline for submission of essays is November 1, 1995. For contest information in English or Spanish call 1-800-GET-COKE or call NABE at 202/898-1829. Essays printed with permission from the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE).

Comments and questions may be directed to IDRA via e-mail at [email protected] .

[©1995, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the August 1995  IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

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Bilingual Education: What the Research Tells Us

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This chapter explores key research findings about bilingual education and the related efficacy of various approaches to teaching bilingual students. Its principal focus is on the research to date on the most common forms of bilingual education. This research consistently supports the efficacy of bilingual education, particularly when it is predicated on additive bilingual principles. Even so, ongoing public opposition to bilingual education, often highly misinformed, remains strong. The chapter also examines recent research around the notions of “dynamic bilingualism” and “translanguaging,” along with their pedagogical implications for existing bilingual programs.

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Not all Indigenous communities accept heritage bilingual programs as an appropriate overarching term – as evident, most clearly, in the rejection of the term by many First Nations peoples in Canada (Cummins, personal communication).

This diagram was developed in conjunction with my colleague, Richard Hill and is loosely based on an earlier diagram by Hornberger ( 1991 ). It was previously published in May ( 2010 ).

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May, S. (2016). Bilingual Education: What the Research Tells Us. In: Garcia, O., Lin, A., May, S. (eds) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_4-1

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Bilingual Education and America’s Future: Evidence and Pathways

This paper looks at the next 25 years of education and policy making regarding students classified as English learners (EL). Given the strong research evidence on the benefits of bilingual education and need to address barriers to opportunity experienced by English learners, this paper strengthens the case for federal, state and local education policy and action that looks toward the implementation of bilingual education as the standard service--rather than exception--for EL-classified students.

The Magic of Bilingual Education

Seven educators and one former student on how learning another language can change lives, 1923: the right to let children learn a foreign language, một kỷ niệm yêu quý khi là giáo viên song ngữ, my favorite memory as a bilingual teacher.

Bilingual education for me has been a validation of my language, culture and identity that I did not receive as a child of public education. I grew up in a time when English was the sole focus of language acquisition. For my students, our school system’s Vietnamese dual-language program opens the door of access for their present and future. Most of the students have been with the program since kindergarten; those now in high school have reached notable achievements that are recognized at the state level and can be put on résumés for work or higher education. A more personal triumph for me is seeing how dual-language education affects students’ present lives. The most impactful memory I carry is the deep gratitude a grandmother once shared at an end-of-year celebration. She thanked me for giving her 7-year-old grandson the ability to communicate with her. It was, she said, the first time that she was able to get to know her grandson.

Tu Dinh is a language learning specialist at the district office of Highline Public Schools in Washington state. He spent five years at White Center Heights Elementary School as the first-grade Vietnamese dual-language teacher and two years as a Vietnamese instructional coach and dual-language facilitator.

Les programmes d’immersion linguistique enseignent bien plus qu’une autre langue

Language immersion programs teach much more than another language.

During my senior year at Spelman College, I applied to become a Peace Corps volunteer. Soon after graduation, I boarded a plane with 35 others for training in Senegal. Most of us only spoke English and had not previously traveled outside the United States. Our training focused on intercultural education, adjusting to different living conditions — and intensive language immersion.

After six weeks, I began my assignment as a high school English teacher in a village in Guinea. Although Guineans speak many languages, French is the national language. My French had to be strong enough to work and survive — sink or swim.

Over my two years in Guinea, I swam and survived. I learned that the ability to communicate in French and other languages enabled me to make genuine connections with my students, colleagues and neighbors. I witnessed my students’ English acquisition make a similar impact. I became a firm believer in the importance of language immersion as a way to better understand others.

After a decade-long career in international development and education policy, I began working for the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School, a 25-year-old language immersion elementary school in Washington (which was founded by my mother and named after my grandmother). It was the first charter school in D.C. to offer Spanish and French immersion. This year I celebrate 20 years of working at the school and 10 years as the head of school. I have seen hundreds of children enter prekindergarten and graduate from the fifth grade with the ability to speak, learn, read, write and communicate in two or more languages.

Pre-pandemic, as a culminating event for their language immersion studies, our graduating students would travel to Panama or Martinique for a week-long international study tour. During their travels, not only would they explore a new country and connect with local students, they also participated in radio interviews in French and presidential palace tours in Spanish. The experience of traveling abroad and communicating in French or Spanish has changed the trajectory of many students’ lives. This school year, we look forward to completing our first international study tour since the pandemic.

Erika Bryant is executive director of the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School.

Apoyemos a todos los niños multilingües a mantener su lengua materna

Let’s support all multilingual children in keeping their home language.

My family immigrated to California from Mexico in 1992 when I was 3 years old. My parents immediately enrolled me in Head Start, where I was lucky to have access to bilingual education, which supported and used my home language (Spanish) to help me develop proficiency and literacy in English. I was enrolled in bilingual classes until second grade, and I credit this experience as the reason I am bilingual and biliterate today. My mom still likes to talk about how I read 500 books in kindergarten in both languages. Bilingual education was crucial to my development and enabled me to communicate with and stay connected to my family both in Mexico and California. In 1998, California eliminated bilingual education, which means that — until 2016 when it was reinstated — generations after me were denied the opportunity to maintain their home language.

Leslie Villegas is a senior policy analyst at New America, where she focuses on improving equity for English learners in pre-K-to-12 education.

Nuwôpanâmun

We are wampanoag.

In our community, the bilingual education that our Weetumuw School students receive is meaningful on a much larger scale. Wôpanâak, the language spoken by the Indigenous people of eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, was a sleeping language for generations, and it is only in the past couple of decades that it has begun to come back to us.

Weetumuw is an independent school founded in 2016 that serves roughly 25 students in Mashpee, Mass. Today, with dedication from teachers, students and their families, as well as linguists who contribute to the school’s language content, we are able to see Wôpanâak reemerge as a language of children. And it is children who give life to the language. It is Wampanoag children who will allow Wôpanâak to thrive as they learn and grow.

With their language learning comes cultural understanding, and with both of these things providing a firm foundation from a young age, we are creating a generation of Wampanoag children who have a steadfast and invaluable sense of pride in their identity.

Nitana Hicks Greendeer is a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. She is the head of the Weetumuw School as well as the mother of five current and former Weetumuw students.

El renacimiento también existe en español

The renaissance exists in spanish too.

My mom grew up in Mexico, my dad in the United States, and this meant I had access to both English and Spanish from childhood. My formal study of Spanish didn’t start until high school, when I learned for the first time to read and write in Spanish and acquired the vocabulary to better get to know some of my family. While I knew I loved Shakespeare early in life, I had no exposure to the Renaissance writers I teach today until I learned about them in college: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, María de Zayas. Teaching and learning Spanish connects me to the rich cultural and political histories of Spanish in the United States, Latin America and Spain, past and present. The most gratifying part of my job is affirming the home languages of my students and advocating for early access to multilingualism and language learning. This means teaching my undergraduates about the value of their language stories, and partnering with local K-12 schools to recognize these biliteracies and strengthen second-language learning for all students.

Margaret Boyle is director of Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx studies and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Bowdoin College. She directs the Multilingual Mainers program for early elementary students and educators.

三者三様-日本語を学ぶ意義とは ～ 公立学校の三人の日本語教師が語る

One school system. three teachers. many reasons to study japanese..

Bilingual education is my passion and life work. In my school’s Japanese immersion program, 90 percent of students’ first language is English, which means they experience what it feels like to be a language minority at a young age. Through struggles and frustration in communicating in another language, they develop empathy for speakers of languages other than English, greater resiliency and a growth mindset. They are supportive of each other and also understanding when I stumble with English. Bilingual education fosters sensitivity to other people’s needs along with language proficiency and cultural competency, and I believe it has a significant impact on creating a caring society.

Noriko Otsuka is a Japanese immersion teacher at Fox Mill Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va.

I began taking Japanese in middle school. Learning the language required me to see beyond the Japanese pop culture I was familiar with and provided opportunities to meet new people and hear new perspectives. I decided that one of the most valuable skills we can learn is how to communicate with more people through languages. Now, as a teacher, I get to see my students learn to appreciate differences and similarities between cultures, and to reserve judgment about practices different from their own. Language learning has expanded my world, and the reason I teach is to pass that opportunity on to my students.

Cynthia Rinehart is a Japanese immersion teacher at Great Falls Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va.

My journey to becoming bilingual started with my daily English lessons in kindergarten in Japan. My father taught Chinese at Japanese colleges, and many international students and professors visited us at our home — giving me the opportunity to try my English. I was timid at first, but the excitement I felt when they understood me is still a precious memory. Learning English taught me important life skills. Communicating in another language is difficult. It requires patience, perseverance and creativity. If one way to express yourself is not effective enough, then you have to try again. As a Japanese immersion teacher, I wish my students a rewarding journey as they become lifelong language learners.

Lili Kennington is a Japanese immersion teacher at Great Falls Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va.

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Cultivating Bilingualism: The Benefits of Multilingual Classrooms

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What slows cognitive decline in old age, increases earning potential throughout adulthood, and is best started in early childhood? Learning a second (or third!) language.

For decades, educators, researchers, and policy makers across the United States engaged in heated debates about how to ensure English proficiency. Some thought that learning two languages was somehow confusing to children and detrimental to their education. Far too often, debaters showed little regard for how a child’s home language tied him to his family, community, and culture.

Thanks to new research on the cognitive, social, and economic benefits of bilingualism, that debate has largely ended. Now we can focus our energy on supporting children whose first language is not English by building on their linguistic strengths—and on harnessing those strengths to help their peers who only speak English learn a second language too.

This issue of  Young Children  takes you inside several multilingual classrooms for in-depth, practical examples of how to enhance social, emotional, scientific, language, and literacy development with children who are learning more than one language.

Because a strong social and emotional foundation supports all other learning, we begin with “ Paired Learning: Strategies for Enhancing Social Competence in Dual Language Classrooms ,” by Iliana Alanís and María G. Arreguín-Anderson. The authors observed teachers in preschool through first grade Spanish-English dual language classrooms; based on their observations, they share detailed accounts of highly effective ways to help children learn to cooperate and collaborate. They emphasize learning in pairs as a way to create many low-pressure opportunities for dual language learners to engage in conversations.

Next, we step inside a dual language Head Start classroom where the teachers alternate the language of instruction (Spanish or English) weekly and offer multilingual supports throughout each day. Wanting to teach more science but not having enough time, the teachers join a professional development collaborative to learn how to incorporate science into their language and literacy activities. The impressive results are captured by Leanne M. Evans in “ The Power of Science: Using Inquiry Thinking to Enhance Learning in a Dual Language Preschool Classroom .” As the teachers’ new lesson plans demonstrate, “science education offers [children] discovery-oriented play, vocabulary-rich content, and abundant opportunities to explore oral and written language.”

Although dual language models are a wonderful way to cultivate bilingualism—along with biliteracy, biculturalism, and a whole new lens on the world—they are not always feasible. Many classrooms are multilingual, so teachers are seeking ways to foster first-, second-, and even third-language development (along with progress in all other domains), even when they don’t speak all of the children’s first languages.

In “ Five Tips for Engaging Multilingual Children in Conversation ,” E. Brook Chapman de Sousa offers research-based and teacher-refined strategies to take on this challenge. With examples from a preschool in which over 30 languages are spoken, Chapman de Sousa demonstrates how children benefit when their teachers “use children’s home languages as a resource; pair conversations with joint activities; coparticipate in activities; use small groups; and respond to children’s contributions.” Active listening and gesturing are key ways teachers can be responsive and communicate caring when they do not speak a child’s first language.

Cristina Gillanders and Lucinda Soltero-González help teachers craft a strengths-based instructional approach in “ Discovering How Writing Works in Different Languages: Lessons from Dual Language Learners .” This article carefully examines children’s emergent writing, with examples from prekindergarten through first grade, asking teachers to consider how a child’s knowledge of and ideas about her first language impact her writing in her second language. Teachers can then build on what the children already know and support children’s progress in both languages.

We close the cluster with “ Can We Talk? Creating Opportunities for Meaningful Academic Discussions with Multilingual Children ,” by Mary E. Bolt, Carmen M. Rodriguez, Christopher J. Wagner, and C. Patrick Proctor. Teachers and researchers together develop a structured approach for building multilingual children’s academic vocabulary, knowledge, oral language skills, and writing as they extend an existing unit on ocean animals to create far more opportunities for meaningful conversations. The authors describe how they helped the children develop the social skills, like turn taking, that are necessary for authentic discussions.

While this cluster focuses on children whose first language is not English, all children benefit from the rich, intentional, language-building instruction described in these articles.

Is your classroom full of children’s artwork? 

To feature it in  Young Children , see the link at the bottom of the page or email  [email protected]  for details.

These masterpieces, inspired by van Gogh’s  Starry Night  and  Sunflowers , were created by first and second graders in Ms. Bridget’s class at Plato Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois.

We’d love to hear from you!

Send your thoughts on this issue, as well as topics you’d like to read about in future issues of  Young Children , to  [email protected] .

Lisa Hansel, EdD, is the editor in chief of NAEYC's peer-reviewed journal, Young Children .

Vol. 74, No. 2

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Bilingualism as a Life Experience

• Posted October 1, 2015
• By Bari Walsh

What do we know about bilingualism? Much of what we once thought we knew — that speaking two languages is confusing for children, that it poses cognitive challenges best avoided — is now known to be inaccurate. Today, bilingualism is often seen as a brain-sharpening benefit, a condition that can protect and preserve cognitive function well into old age. 

Indeed, the very notion of bilingualism is changing; language mastery is no longer seen as an either/or proposition, even though most schools still measure English proficiency as a binary “pass or fail” marker.

A growing body of evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism is associated with the delayed diagnosis of dementia. But the impact of language experience on brain activity has not been well understood.

It turns out that there are many ways to be bilingual, according to HGSE Associate Professor Gigi Luk , who studies the lasting cognitive consequences of speaking multiple languages. “Bilingualism is a complex and multifaceted life experience,” she says; it’s an “interactional experience” that happens within — and in response to — a broader social context.

Usable Knowledge spoke with Luk about her research and its applications.

Bilingualism and executive function

As bilingual children toggle between two languages, they use cognitive resources beyond those required for simple language acquisition, Luk writes in a forthcoming edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development . Recent research has shown that bilingual children outperform monolingual children on tasks that tap into executive function — skills having to do with attention control, reasoning, and flexible problem solving.

Their strength in those tasks likely results from coping with and overcoming the demand of managing two languages. In a bilingual environment, children learn to recognize meaningful speech sounds that belong to two different languages but share similar concepts.

In a paper published earlier this year , she and her colleagues looked at how bilingualism affects verbal fluency — efficiency at retrieving words — in various stages of childhood and adulthood. In one measure of verbal acumen called letter fluency — the ability to list words that begin with the letter F, for instance — bilinguals enjoyed an advantage over monolinguals that began at age 10 and grew robust in adulthood.  

Bilingualism and the aging brain

Luk and her researchers are looking at the neuroscience of bilingualism — at how bilingualism may affect the physical structure of the brain in its different regions.    

What they’ve found so far shows that older adults who are lifelong bilinguals have more white matter in their frontal lobes (important to executive function) than monolinguals, and that their temporal lobes (important to language function) are better preserved. The results support other evidence that persistent bilingual experience shapes brain functions and structures.

A growing body of evidence suggests that lifelong bilingualism is associated with the delayed diagnosis of dementia. But the impact of language experience on brain activity is not well understood, Luk says.

In a 2015 paper, she and her colleagues began to look at functional brain networks in monolingual and bilingual older adults. Their findings support the idea that a language experience begun in childhood and continued throughout adulthood influences brain networks in ways that may provide benefits far later in life.

Who is bilingual?

Monolingualism and bilingualism are not static categories, Luk says, so the question of what it means to be bilingual, and who is bilingual, is nuanced. There are several pathways to bilingualism. A child can become bilingual when parents and caregivers speak both languages frequently, either switching between the two. A child can be bilingual when the language spoken at home differs from a community’s dominant language, which the child is exposed to in schools. Or a child can become bilingual when he or she speaks the community’s dominant language at home but attends an immersion program at school.  

Bilingualism is an experience that accumulates and changes over time, in response to a child’s learning environments, says Luk.

Language diversity in schools

In one of her projects, Luk works with a group of ELL directors to help them understand the diverse needs of their language learners and to find better ways to engage their parents. She’s looking at effective ways to measure bilingualism in schools; at connections between the science of bilingualism and language and literacy outcomes; and at the long-term relationship between academic outcomes and the quality and quantity of bilingual experience in young children.

Part of her goal is to help schools move beyond binary categorizations like “ELL” and “English proficient” and to recognize that language diversity brings challenges but also long-term benefits.

“If we only look at ELL or English proficient, that’s not a representation of the whole spectrum of bilingualism,” she says. “To embrace bilingualism, rather than simply recognizing this phenomenon, we need to consider both the challenges and strengths of children with diverse language backgrounds. We cannot do this by only looking at English proficiency. Other information, such as home language background, will enrich our understanding of bilingual development and learning.”  

Additional Resources

• A Boston community organization that runs a bilingual preschool spoke with Luk about her work and its applications to practice. Read the interview.

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The Advantages of Being Bilingual

Language is one of the defining characteristics of humans. It is an interplay between culture, geography, and biology and is the one thing capable of connecting billions of people. At the time of writing, there are over 6,000 languages spoken across the globe, with English, Mandarin, Hindu, and Spanish being among the most widely spoken .

With such a massive diversity in spoken languages, it quickly becomes apparent why speaking multiple languages can be so advantageous. Geopolitics, education, and businesses rely heavily on efficient communication and minimal instances of misunderstandings. Think of how often simple linguistic misunderstandings cause large disputes and errors, both at the individual and collective level, and you can see why being bilingual is crucial for social activities. Below are some of the advantages of being bilingual

Communication is the key to understanding

One of the best advantages of being bilingual is that it will open up a new avenue for creating connections with others. The United States, for example, is home to 350 languages alone. As a result, it is seen as a melting pot for cultures, but unfortunately, tensions can arise within the country’s smaller communities simply due to language barriers. Having a sizable portion of the population fluent in at least one other language creates bridges between these communities, leading to fewer points of contention.

Teachers are some of the people best positioned to take on the task of fostering new generations of bilingual students. Schools across the U.S. already have foreign language courses integrated into their graduation requirements, but continued education in language studies is often recommended to obtain fluency. For those who never took a foreign language course in school or who wish to piggyback on what they’ve already learned, an online language tutor is arguably the best method toward fluency. There is also an assortment of self-paced online courses and smartphone apps that can supplement this knowledge.

Seeing as English is the most widely spoken language globally, it’s no surprise that it is rigorously instilled into students living in countries outside of the U.S. Learning English gives these students highly sought-after career opportunities in tourism and work abroad. That said, fluent English speakers also have a chance to make money teaching English to students who live in countries where English is not the native language.

Many companies often emphasize hiring people who are fluent in other languages. Knowing multiple languages will increase your odds of being hired, particularly in customer-facing roles. To tap into additional markets, hiring bilingual employees is strategic for businesses to have workers that can communicate with non-native language speaking demographics.

As a traveler, learning the language of the countries you visit opens up a more comprehensive lens into the culture, which has many benefits. For instance, learning Spanish and traveling across Latin America will give you a window into the deeper nuances of specific subcultures. It’ll also make it easier to navigate these countries, lessen the chances of falling for scams, allow getting better deals on consumer goods, and make befriending the locals easier.

All of this is to say that there is a clear incentive for bilingualism among different cultures to bypass language barriers and create a more interconnected, global society.

Exercising your mental faculties

Beyond the unifying nature of language, becoming bilingual has proven cognitive benefits for those who take on the effort. These benefits can be subtle, but ultimately bilingualism can make you a better reader, problem-solver, and general learner.

Whether or not you learned a second language as a child or later in life, studies have shown that being bilingual can help stave off cognitive decline in old age. What’s more, knowing how to switch between two languages has been shown to increase memory and creativity.

Having the ability to read in another language gives bilingual people access to more knowledge resources. For example, novels, news reports, and scientific studies written in another language are now accessible to bilingual people. In addition, increased use of these language skills is continually honed as new words and semantic nuances are discovered within these texts. And in terms of reading news reports, bilingual people can glean more profound insight into events happening across the world, thus making them more worldly people.

And finally, having already mastered another language, especially as a child, gives bilingual people the advantage of learning other skills. Language is a set of systems, much like any other system such as computing languages, scientific disciplines, and music.

So, not only does being bilingual increase your career opportunities, but it also grants learners cognitive abilities that can be applied to just about any other task that living in modern society requires. Moreover, by fostering bilingualism in as many people as possible, the world can become a much more unified and productive place to thrive within.

119 Bilingualism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best bilingualism topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on bilingualism, 🥇 most interesting bilingualism topics to write about, ✅ simple & easy bilingualism essay titles, ❓ questions about bilingualism.

• Bilingualism and Multilingualism However, to discuss the aspects of bilingualism and multilingualism, it is necessary to focus on the factor of the social motivation and psychological peculiarities of the ability to use two or more languages for interactions.
• The Benefits and Issues in Bilingual Education Understanding the term ‘bilingual education’ as a simple educational process would be a mistake because in reality it denotes a complex phenomenon dependent upon a set of variables, including the learners’ native language and the […] We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Bilingualism in Professional Life The importance of bilingualism at the professional level is displayed through the changes in society as a whole and the advantages that are speaking two languages has.
• Bilingual Education: Pros and Cons In this system, English is a secondary language geared to making students catch up with their academics until they can get comfortable enough to join mainstream English classes.’Bilingual education is a step backward in our […]
• Bilingualism in Canada However, the code-switching of language words between English and French have raised concerns of the French standard in Canada, particularly in Quebec. The effectiveness of French speaking programs in Canada is unknown.
• Bilingualism and Multiculturalism Knowledge of languages contributes to the development of flexibility of thinking, attention, and a clearer understanding of the difference of cultures.
• Native Language Loss in Bilinguals The present research aims to analyze the process of native language loss, in particular, the age when bilinguals cease to use their language and when they start to forget it.
• Bilingualism as a National Language Policy The use of the language in formal learning and communication is the key determinant of the importance and effectiveness of a language.
• The Way Bilingual People Perceive Their Cultural Heritage Amy Tan writes in her essay “Mother’s tong” about the memories of her childhood, the inability of her mother to speak English as if it was her native language, and the ways it influenced the […]
• Employee Management: Bilingualism in Organizations Title VII has helped to decrease discrimination in the workplace. Prior to the introduction of the Title VII Act, employers denied women health benefits and incentives during leaves.
• Identifying Language Impairment in Bilingual Children Perhaps, the integration of more items from the Spanish language can equalize the informativeness of the two versions of the assessment tool.
• Bilinguals’ Cognitive-Linguistic Abilities and Alzheimer’s Disease This irregularity is reflected in the preserved linguistic abilities, including code-switching and semantic fluency, and the declined functions in translation, picture naming, and phonemic fluency, calling for improved therapy and testing practices.
• Language Ability Barriers in Bilingual Children Thus, the potential barriers to language ability assessment are the lack of adjustable tests with norms for various bilingual variations and the absence of specific criteria for language acquisition evaluation.
• Bilingual Training Program Interventions Furthermore, the author suggests that language development in bilingual children can progress in both types of training programs, but the use of bilingual programs enables the component of supportive context in family support.
• Treating Bilingual Children With Language Impairment: Nonlinguistic Processing It results in issues with language acquisition and might promote the emergence of primary or specific language impairment. Recent research shows the presence of a subtle weakness in nonlinguistic cognitive processing skills in children characterized […]
• Language Switching in Bilingual Older Adults Bilingualism and multilingualism have been analyzed in terms of the peculiarities of bilinguals’ cognition and perception, as well as language processing, cognitive and perception differences between bilingual and monolingual people, and the characteristics of bilingualism […]
• Bilingual and Immersive Educational Strategies The multinational diversity contained in the territories of the States requires the introduction of the study of several languages in the practice of teaching children.
• The Effect of Childhood Bilingualism on Episodic and Semantic One of the main points of the study work is to implement memory tasks similar in advantage and thematic background for two groups of children living in a multinational society.
• Language Development and Bilingualism in Children Prior to acquiring particular words and phrases, the child must show signs of willingness to interact with another person, which is a leading trait of this phenomenon.
• Bilingual and Immersion Methods of Learning English It was previously believed in the scientific discourse that learning English is best done in the process of immersion in the language environment.
• Bilingualism and Communication: Motivation, Soft Skills and Leadership This essay will focus on the effects of learning a foreign language on communication competency, specifically interpersonal, cultural, and leadership skills. Firstly, one of the essential effects of learning a new language is an increase […]
• Bilingualism Resistance and Receptivity Explained This paper will also seek to explain how social psychology has been a factor in influencing the reception and resistance to bilingualism. This paper has discussed how literacy is vital in determining the resistance or […]
• “Viva Bilingualism” by James Fallows In his article Viva Bilingualism, James Fallows analyzes such issue as bilingualism in the United States, in particular, the author argues that two or even more languages can successfully co-exist in America and it will […]
• History of Singaporean Education: Independence and Bilingualism in Schools The government increased budgetary allocation to the education and primary education received 59% of the budget allocation, whereas 27% and 14% of the budget allocation went to secondary school and higher education respectively.
• Bilingual Education: Benefit in Today’s World In most cases, the language is a part of any culture in the world, and preventing bilingual education can have a negative effect on many cultures in the United States.
• Bilingualism and English Only Laws According to, laws that require English to be the only official language that should be in U. However, supporters of laws that require English to be the only language that should be used in U.
• Bilingual Education: Enhancing Teachers Quality More so, the number of English language learners in the urban classes is increasing in such a rate that the number of bilingual teachers has to be increased in ten fold.
• Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency This research covers the actual practice of translation in relation to the field of lexicology which is “the study of words and their meanings in one language or a group of languages”..
• Bilingualism: Views of Language The degree of development of speech inevitably affects feeling of the child when skill to state the ideas and to understand speech of associates influences their place and a role in a society.
• Bilingual Education in the United States As soon as a flexible approach making the process of code-switching easier for the ELLs is adopted, improvements in bilingual education can be expected.
• Bilingualism and Executive Functions in Children CLS is the only school in Northern California to implement KIP for students in grades K-5, and to increase the parents’ awareness of the true benefits of the program, a study devoted to the advantages […]
• English Vocabulary Acquisition in Bilingual Students The principal emphasis is put on the lexical side of the language; thus, the researchers carry out a detailed analysis of the vocabulary units that the students employ.
• Bilingual Education for Hispanic Americans The right to learn a native language is incorporated as Article 29 of the Convention of Right of a Child in the General assembly of the United Nations in 1989.
• Why Bilinguals Are Smarter? The tasks have led to the assertion that bilingualism has an effect on the brain that leads to improvement of the cognitive skills that are not related to language.
• Bilingual Education Impact on Preschoolers The key questions to be addressed in the literature review are concerned with the understanding of children’s early development in relation to bilingual education: Is dual-language learning beneficial or disadvantageous for small children?
• Parents Challenges: Raising Bilingual Children The problem is significant due to the lack of parents’ knowledge about the importance of language development and the absence of efforts on the part of educators with regards to teaching bilingual children.
• Bilingual and ESL Programs Implementation in Schools As for ESL pull-out programs, they are based on pulling minority students out of the mainstream classroom to provide them with class instruction in English as a second language.
• The Implementation of Bilingual Schools in America This kind of study was due to the demands by the Spanish immigrants in the United States that their children learn the English language as well.
• Bilingual Education for Minority Language Students in the US According to Kim, the aim of the research is to underline the significance of the bilingual approach and determine the trends in this field in American society.
• Bilingual Education Concept One of the reasons as to why there is opposition to bilingual education is the fact that students tend to greatly rely on their native language, keeping them from learning as well as having proficiency […]
• Linguistics: Bilingualism, Multilingualism and Tolerance In my opinion, a person with some understanding of a local language is likely to find some of the social and cultural things in a foreign country awkward or abnormal.
• Education: Bilingual Kindergarten A major problem with bilingualism in kindergartens is that it leads to a lack of mastery in either of the languages.
• The Peculiarities of the Bilingual Education The peculiarities of the bilingual situation in the context of Melbourne, Victoria, with focusing on the usage of the Italian language In relation to the question of using one or more languages, Australia can be […]
• “Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching” Among the benefits of flexible pedagogy and flexible bilingualism identified by the authors are ease of communication and preservation of culture, indiscrimination of a second language and simultaneous ‘literacies’ endorsement as students participating in bilingual […]
• Benefits of Bilingualism Among Kindergarten Children The purpose of this report is to show the benefits of learning more than one language among kindergarten children. The purpose of this report is to analyse the benefits of learning two languages among kindergarten […]
• Bilingual Education: Programmes in Australia In this situation, the English language is the primary language in Australia, and the other languages are discussed as the languages of minorities.
• Paweł Zielinski’s Report on Bilingualism This text aims to find the correct definition of the term ‘bilingual’, by identifying the characteristics that define a bilingual, the distinctions caused by the different times a language is learned, and whether learning a […]
• Bilingualism and the Process of Language Acquisition: Speeding up Cognition and Education Processes When it comes to mentioning the positive aspects of being a bilingual person, the first and the foremost advantage to mention is the ability to convey specific ideas in either of the languages without any […]
• Bilingualism in East Asia Countries In most East Asian countries, multilingualism is restricted to elites; although patterns of language ability differ between the classes multilingualism is the norm at all levels of the society.
• Sociolinguistics: Bilingualism and Education This means that children are forced to acquire the language of majority to be treated in accordance with the same rules and traditions applicable to the monolingual majority.
• Bilingual Development: Second Language Acquisition Successive acquisition is similar to first language acquisition because a child learns the second language through analysis of rules and making errors.
• Bilingual Education: Programs Support On this note, the fact that a vast number of researches support bilingual education efficacy is evident that children exposed to these programs are more successful that those in all-English programs.
• The Benefits of Being Bilingual in a Global Society And, it represents the matter of crucial importance for educators to be able to adopt a proper perspective onto the very essence of bilingualism/multilingualism, as it will increase their ability to design teaching strategies in […]
• Why Is Bilingual Education Important Considering the diversity nature of students in any classroom scenario, it is important for the teaching orientation to adopt a variety of mechanisms, which will ensure there is satisfaction of all learner needs.
• Bilingualism Affects Audio-Visual Phoneme Identification
• Role of Bilingualism and Biculturalism as Assets in Positive Psychology
• The Intellectual Power of Bilingualism
• Bilingualism Impact on Intelligence and Scholastic Achievement
• Why Bilingual Education Is Even More Relevant Today
• The Benefits of Raising a Bilingual Child With Autism
• Perspectives on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education for Deaf Learners
• Bilingualism in the Education of Adolescents
• The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns
• Advantages of Bilingualism and Multilingualism
• The Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism in Autism Spectrum Disorder
• The Bilingual Brain: Language, Culture, and Identity
• Are the Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism Restricted to Language
• Bilingualism and Its Importance in Education
• Executive Function and Bilingualism in Young and Older Adults
• Benefits of Bilingualism in Early Childhood
• Audio-Visual Integration During Bilingual Language Processing
• Economic Advantages of Bilingualism
• Myths & Facts About Bilingual Children
• The Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Development
• Bilingualism and Bilingual Education as a Problem Right and Resource
• Parents’ Attitudes Towards Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
• Structural Brain Changes Related to Bilingualism
• The Effects of Bilingualism on Language Development of Children
• Bilingual Benefits Reach Beyond Communication
• Teacher Candidates’ Beliefs About and Knowledge of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
• Childhood Second Language Learning and Subtractive Bilingualism
• The Effect of Bilingualism and Age on the Subcomponents of Attention
• How Bilingualism Can Affect the Way Individuals Interact
• Foreign Language Acquisition, Bilingualism, and Biculturalism
• The Influence of Bilingualism on Third Language Acquisition
• What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Bilingualism
• Bilingualism and Its Impact on the Development of the World
• Why Bilingual Students Have a Cognitive Advantage for Learning to Read
• Do Bilinguals Have Better Cognitive Control
• Language Lateralization in Adult Bilinguals
• Flexibility in Task Switching by Monolinguals and Bilinguals
• Assessing the Double Phonemic Representation in Bilingual Speakers of Spanish and English
• Benefits of Bilingualism: Why Is Bilingual Education Important
• Bilingual Education Helps to Improve the Intelligence of Children
• Is Bilingualism Important in Today’s Generation?
• How Does Bilingualism Impact an English Language Learner?
• Does Bilingualism Improve Brain Functioning?
• Why Do the Effects of Bilingualism Change Language Acquisition?
• How Can Bilingualism Have a Positive Impact on a Country?
• What Is the Importance of Bilingualism in Globalization?
• How Does Bilingualism Affect the Learning Process of Children?
• Is Bilingualism Growing in the US?
• How Does Bilingualism Increase Brain Power?
• What Factors Influence the Development of Bilingualism?
• Does Bilingualism Among the Native Born Pay?
• How Can Bilingualism Affect Cognitive Functions?
• Why Is Bilingualism Important in the US?
• How Does Bilingualism Improve Your Health?
• What Are the Advantages of Early Bilingualism?
• Does Bilingualism Improve Social Life?
• How Does Bilingualism Affect Society?
• What Are the Benefits of Bilingual Education to the Society?
• Does Bilingualism Affect Cognitive Development?
• How Does Bilingualism Help the Economy?
• Does Bilingualism Affect Culture?
• What Are the Challenges of Bilingualism?
• How Does Bilingualism Impact Language Development?
• What Is the Relationship Between Bilingualism and Cognition?
• How Is Bilingualism Good for a Country?
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The Benefits of Being Bilingual

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The Benefits of Being Bilingual was originally published on Idealist Careers .

Bilingualism, or the ability to speak two or more languages fluently, can be a huge asset for job seekers. As a 2017 report by New American Economy discovered, the need for bilingual workers in the United States more than doubled in the previous five years. This trend is projected to increase, especially for Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic speakers.

But even if you don’t speak one of these languages—or don’t use a second language on the job at all—bilingualism makes you a more adaptable thinker, according to a report by the Language Institute . Quick and flexible thinkers with broad perspectives will benefit any employer.

Here are some of the benefits of being bilingual, from the job hunt to personal and professional development.

The benefits of being bilingual in social-impact careers

The New American Economy report also reveals bilingual jobs are common in fields with a high degree of person-to-person interaction. Employers in fields like education, health care, and social work actively seek bilingual workers. Dozens of languages may be represented among students at a school, clients at a housing or health facility, and residents of a neighborhood—especially in urban areas. A staff member who can serve as an interpreter or translator is invaluable. Language skills are also applicable in many advocacy jobs; immigration lawyers, for instance, often need to communicate with clients who may not speak English.

So where can your language skills be best put to use? The most in-demand bilingual skill depends on where you live. In a place where many people speak a certain language—be it Spanish in Miami, French in Louisiana, or Vietnamese in the Bay Area of California—many jobs strongly encourage bilingual candidates.

Benefits of being bilingual beyond language

Your bilingual skill set can give you an edge whether you speak your second language in the workplace or not. Knowing two languages makes your brain more flexible ; switching between two sets of grammar rules, vocabulary, tones, and nuances is a lot of work! In fact, even if you’re only speaking one language, your brain activates both language systems and requires you to focus on one—making you a natural at complex mental tasks.

This adaptability can make you quicker at thinking on your feet, better at workplace problem solving, and a whiz at multitasking. When it comes to working with people, bilingual thinkers can be more adept at “reading” and communicating with others.

Bilingualism versus biculturalism

Linguistic fluency comes in many varieties. If you learned a second language in school, you’ve probably mastered reading, speaking, and listening. But if you spoke two languages at home or learned a second language specific to your ethnic background, you may also be bicultural—someone with insider knowledge of two different cultures. This includes the dominant culture of the country you’re in; for example, the English-speaking culture in many areas of the United States.

Each culture has its own rituals, values, and behaviors that go far beyond language. A bicultural candidate will be able to navigate between the complex aspects of both cultures. While this perspective is key when working with diverse cultural groups, it also gives you a skill you can apply in any job—the ability to understand and combine multiple perspectives at once, known as integrative complexity. Your aptitudes count as a bonus in many ways, from interpersonal skills like mediation and conflict resolution to brainstorming big ideas for an organizational mission.

Promote your skills

If you’re bilingual, remember that you’re a standout candidate! Mention your second language on your resume , even if you don’t consider yourself fully fluent. A little ability can be just the boost you need to bring something extra to the table.

In an interview , you can emphasize your:

• Ability to understand diverse perspectives;
• Creativity and inventiveness;
• Problem-solving expertise;
• Skill at different modes of communication; and
• Any other benefits you think bilingualism has given you, since each person’s experience will be different.

Ready to start searching? Check out job, internship, and volunteer opportunities requiring or encouraging a specific second language skill .

Bilingual Education Act of 1968

This essay about the 1968 Bilingual Education Act discusses its role in transforming U.S. education policy for linguistically diverse students. It outlines how the Act, part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, shifted from assimilation-focused policies to embracing and supporting multilingualism. The essay highlights the establishment of bilingual programs, the promotion of cultural inclusivity, and the enduring influence of the Act on educational practices and policies aimed at fostering equity and embracing cultural diversity.

How it works

In the pivotal year of 1968, a period marked by intense social change and cultural upheaval, the U.S. Congress enacted the Bilingual Education Act. This landmark legislation, embedded within the broader scope of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, initiated a fundamental shift in the United States’ approach to the education of students from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

This act arose from a growing awareness of the educational inequalities faced by students whose first language was not English. Previously, these students were often marginalized in a system predominantly focused on assimilation, neglecting the rich diversity of languages and cultures that comprise the American demographic fabric.

The Bilingual Education Act broke away from previous assimilation policies by valuing linguistic diversity as a cultural and educational asset. This legislative shift promoted inclusivity, positing that multilingualism should be fostered and celebrated.

At its heart, the act provided federal support for the creation of bilingual programs in public schools. These initiatives were essential in supporting English language learners by offering instruction in both their native languages and English, thereby affirming their cultural identities and enhancing their academic achievements.

Beyond language instruction, the Bilingual Education Act was pivotal for its emphasis on cultural inclusivity within education. It championed the development of teaching materials and curriculums that reflected the diverse heritages of students, thus creating learning environments that were both linguistically appropriate and culturally relevant.

Despite its transformative impact, the act encountered skepticism from some quarters, with critiques focusing on the effectiveness of bilingual education and concerns over the costs of these programs. Nevertheless, these criticisms often overlooked the significant positive impact on students’ lives, enabling them to engage confidently in a globalized world.

Decades later, the ethos of the Bilingual Education Act continues to resonate, influencing educational policy and reinforcing the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity in an increasingly interconnected global community. This legislation remains a cornerstone in the advocacy for educational equity and excellence.

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PapersOwl.com. (2024). Bilingual Education Act Of 1968 . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/bilingual-education-act-of-1968/ [Accessed: 7 May. 2024]

"Bilingual Education Act Of 1968." PapersOwl.com, Apr 29, 2024. Accessed May 7, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/bilingual-education-act-of-1968/

"Bilingual Education Act Of 1968," PapersOwl.com , 29-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/bilingual-education-act-of-1968/. [Accessed: 7-May-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Bilingual Education Act Of 1968 . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/bilingual-education-act-of-1968/ [Accessed: 7-May-2024]

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