To what extent is bilingualism an advantage for language acquisition and development

in children?

According to Cambridge Dictionary (2023), bilingualism is “the fact of using or being able to
speak two languages”. There are Increased exposure to foreign languages makes
bilingualism a striking research topic in cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and cognitive
psychology. Since 2010, different teams of researchers have come to the conclusion that
exposure to a second language does not generate complications, and does not put children at a
disadvantage compared to monolingual children; on the contrary, research shows that
bilingualism allows for a higher level of cognitive control, influencing at a structural and
functional level brain areas involved in cognition and language. (Yoshida Bustillos, 2021)

Throughout this essay, I will analyse the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism in
children beginning to acquire language and compare these findings with the case of
non-bilingual children. I will show how learning two languages at the same time from an
early age helps children's cognitive development.

Speech, accompanied by facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice, is an extraordinarily

effective tool for conveying our ideas and ourselves with them. But what happens when the
child is immersed in a bilingual environment? Does having to decipher two languages ​slow
down language development? Does it hinder other, more complex learning that needs
linguistic support? From now on, I will introduce the advantages that bilingualism brings,
dismantle some myths about it, and mention some disadvantages that may exist to reach a
verdict based on evidence.

Until the 1960s, it was assumed that bilingual subjects performed poorly on various
intellectual tests. For example, Darcy (1953) claimed that research supported the conclusion
that bilinguals suffered from linguistic limitations when tests of verbal intelligence were
used. Bilingualism was supposed to have a negative effect on verbal skills. Other authors
expressed similar views. Despite this, some researchers, even before the 1960s, had
mentioned that bilingualism does not affect intellectual development and performance on
tests of verbal skills.
In 1962, Peal and Lambert published an influential article analysing the relationship between
bilingualism and intelligence. Using French/English bilingual subjects in Canada, they found
that controlling for socio-economic status, true bilingualism (balanced bilingualism) was
associated with higher intelligence scores on various intellectual tests. Over the following
years, other research was published that also showed positive correlations between academic
achievement and bilingualism. (Hakuta & Diaz, 1985)

Over the last few decades, the idea that bilingualism has a number of positive effects on the
performance of different intellectual tasks have become increasingly prevalent. This positive
effect has been reported not only in verbal but also in non-verbal tests.

First of all, we should mention the advantages of bilingualism, which are related to learning
new cognitive strategies, a better understanding of the first language and an increase in
cognitive control.

The learning of new strategies is related to the different levels of language (phonological,
lexical/semantic, grammatical and pragmatic). The advantages, however, may be most
evident at the grammatical and lexical/semantic levels. Grammar represents a kind of "logic",
i.e. how the sequence of ideas is organised, and the lexical/semantic level provides a
classification system, how different elements of the world are grouped and distinguished. A
bilingual person can use two different systems of logical reasoning and an extended
classification system. Moreover, the bilingual subject may have greater phonological
awareness, which is potentially associated with greater phonological awareness and better
auditory discrimination. (Schinke-Llano, 1989)

Pavlenko (2005) considers that bilingualism can contribute significantly to the understanding
of linguistic relativism and the interactions between language and thought. Building on new
interpretations of Sapir and Whorf's hypothesis of linguistic relativism, he examines
linguistic differences in different areas of knowledge (colours, objects and substances,
number systems, space, movement, time, emotions, discourse and autobiographical memory)
to conclude that language can indeed create different worlds for its speakers. Bilinguals use
different conceptual representations when speaking their respective languages. Pavlenko
concludes that "[...] bilingualism can be extremely beneficial in enriching the linguistic
repertoires of its speakers, offering them alternative conceptualisations, basic for critical and
flexible thinking".

Learning a second language can result in a better understanding of the native language
(metalinguistic awareness). Learning a second language may be the most direct method of
understanding that our language represents only a particular way of organizing reality and our
personal experiences, not the only way of conceptualizing the world. Bilingualism is
associated with better metalinguistic and metacognitive abilities (Lombardi, 1986). This
makes children aware from the time they learn two languages ​that there is more than one
perspective, and this opens their minds, helps them empathize more, and improves their
social skills.

In recent years, several studies have been published that examine the question of cognitive
control in bilingual subjects. Bilingualism has been associated with more effective, controlled
processing in children, and it appears that the simultaneous use of two competing languages
​can increase executive functions (Craik & Bialystok, 2005).

Mastering several languages ​in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world in which
communication is essential broadens the sources of information and opens the doors to many
cultural and job opportunities. The child who learns two languages ​at the same time, or a
second language at an early age, knows the world from a more enriching cognitive (and
cultural) perspective, the one that each of the languages ​they use gives them. Bilingual
children are more creative and can better pose and solve complex problems (Antoniou, 2019).

Controlling two languages ​and having to change from one to the other favours other
non-linguistic learning by training attentional control. It makes it easier for the child to focus
on important tasks and ignore irrelevant stimuli. It has also been seen that in certain areas of
the bilingual brain, the cerebral cortex is larger and has more connections, thus increasing the
cognitive reserve in old age. It does not protect against degenerative diseases, but it improves
their prognosis. If you suffer a cerebrovascular accident as an adult, it is more likely that one
of the two languages ​will be better preserved (Antoniou, 2019).

As I have mentioned before, bilingualism has not always been considered a good thing for
children. In fact, there are endless myths about bilingualism that today are known to be false
statements but have always been considered true, and certain uninformed people even today
believe that they are true.

For example, mixing languages ​has always been thought to be a sign of vagueness in
bilingual children. This is not true since the mixture of languages, like code-switching and
borrowing, is very common in people's behaviour as bilinguals with other bilinguals. The
dual language repertoire is available in a bilingual situation and can be used if desired. Many
expressions and words can be said better in one or another language; so the mixture allows
you to use a correct voice without using translation, which can simply not justify the idea that
you want to express. That being said, in other situations, bilingual people know that they
cannot mix their languages ​(for example, when speaking with monolinguals) and they stick to
one language (Genesee, 2015).

Another quite famous myth is that bilingualism can slow language learning in children. It is a
myth that became very popular in the mid-20th century. Since then, many investigations have
demonstrated that bilingual children do not have a delay in learning the language. Saying this,
it must be taken into account that bilingual children who have to carry two or more languages
​are different in some ways from monolingual children, but not at the learning level. For
bilingual children with language problems (for example, dyslexia), proportionally, they are
not more numerous than monolingual children with the same problem (Genesee, 2015).

The claim that bilingual children will always mix their languages ​is also false. If a bilingual
child interacts in both bilingual and monolingual situations, then they learn to mix languages
​only at certain times. When they are with monolinguals (for example, a grandmother who
does not speak English), they quickly learn to speak only one language (otherwise
communication breaks down). It is important that the situation is truly monolingual (and not
"pretended," in which bilingual parents pretend not to know another language); children will
make an effort to only speak a language if they feel it is vital for communication. Therefore,
caregivers will want to create a natural, monolingual environment where children will need
and therefore use only one language (Genesee, 2015).

Just as there are many advantages of bilingualism, there are also some disadvantages of
bilingualism during language development, and as is only fair, I will mention these as well. It
can be assumed that the disadvantages of bilingualism relate to increased language
difficulties in children with language problems, and decreased verbal fluency.

In a retrospective study, Cheuk, Wong and Leung (2005) selected 326 children with a specific
language disorder. The children were exposed to one or more languages at home. A
multivariate linear regression analysis was applied to examine the effect of covariates on
language comprehension and expression. A significant relationship was found with the
number of languages to which the child was exposed. Male gender, positive family history,
and low parental educational level were also risk factors for specific language impairment.
The authors suggest that although exposure to multiple languages is not responsible for
language impairment, it may represent an additional burden on those children who have such
difficulty, interfering with their learning.

Rosselli et al. (2000) observed similar performance between monolingual and bilingual
Spanish/English speakers in different verbal fluency tasks, except that the semantic verbal
fluency condition: saying names of animals in one minute (semantic verbal fluency task), in
bilingual subjects, was found to be similarly impaired for both languages relative to
monolingual participants. Similar results were found by Gollan, Montoya and Werner (2002).
The latter authors selected Spanish/English bilinguals and English monolinguals to complete
different verbal fluency tasks. Fluency was found to be impaired in bilingual subjects in all
tasks, particularly in semantic tasks. It could be concluded that semantic verbal fluency may
be found to be decreased in bilingual individuals, possibly due to the extra time required to
select the language and/or decide whether a particular noun belongs to one or the other
language.

To conclude, and after having analysed in detail the advantages and disadvantages of
bilingualism and how it affects language acquisition and development, as well as having
debunked some myths, I consider that, on balance, the advantages of being bilingual for
children outweigh the disadvantages. These advantages have already been studied and
proven, with the result that many Nordic European countries have decided to make bilingual
education compulsory from an early age for their pupils, to guarantee their rights to these
cognitive, cultural and social advantages and thus enrich education and learning in general.
My opinion, which I have held since the beginning of this essay, is that learning more than
one language from the time a child begins to acquire language and during language
development is crucial for the acquisition of the above-mentioned advantages, and is
demonstrated by sufficient evidence that it should be guaranteed from school onwards in
early education.
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