Essay on Bilingual Language Learning Development in Infants

Bilingual infants are children who speak two languages, having learnt both simultaneously. They learn the languages within one year after birth. Some parents worry that teaching their infant children two languages simultaneously may strain their minds. Others wonder whether infants can get confused if they start learning two different languages immediately after birth. It is worthy looking at language development in both bilingual and monolingual children. This research paper looks at whether bilingual infants can learn a language faster than monolingual infants.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Researchers from the National University of Singapores psychology department carried out a study to clarify this matter. This study explored the learning of Mandarin and English, two of the most commonly spoken languages in Singapore. The researchers conducted the study despite the fact that these two languages are quite different from one another. While tones do not alter the meaning of English words, they do in Mandarin. Such a difference is likely to cause conflict in bilingual learners. The researchers studied 72 infants aged between 12 and 13 months just when they were beginning to learn new words. They went on to compare the babies ability to figure out that tone alters the meaning of a Mandarin word; something that does not apply to English words.

In the course of the experiments, English-Mandarin bilingual babies ignored tone when spoken to in English and when learning new words. However, they responded to changes in tone when spoken to in Mandarin and when learning new words of the language. On the other hand, monolingual Mandarin babies failed to exhibit any knowledge of the Mandarin tone structure until they were spoken to in the language six months later. This was when they were between 18 and 19 months old. These results give the impression that the bilingual infants already had developed proficiency in the Mandarin tone structure, something that the monolinguals had not.

According to results of the study, learning a couple of languages from the beginning helps infants master the dialects and rules of each language much quicker. As a matter of fact, learning Mandarin and English simultaneously fast track the learning of the former. When the vocabularies of the bilingual children were given new words, the infants surpassed their monolingual counterparts since they were capable of learning the words of each language more effectively. Hence, the study rubbishes a commonly held belief that bilingual infants are slower in learning words due to the fact that they are processing a couple of languages at the same time.

The researchers also found some interesting facts to do with language skills development in infants. Researchers figured out that, despite the babies not yet conversing in words, they already knew much about words in every one of their languages in case they were bilingual. This finding indicates that infants are capable of navigating any languages rules, even if these rules are in conflict with one another. Also, they can make use of this information to learn two different languages by the time they reach the age of 12 months. The findings suggest that more exposure to a single language is not necessarily favorable for infants. Better performance in mastering the Mandarin language resulted from the babies being raised bilingually. It involved getting exposed to both Mandarin and English as opposed to just Mandarin. This happens to be a unique finding and the first-ever known study that proves bilingual babies have fast tracked word learning. It also strongly implies that infants are not implied in any way by having to learn two different languages at the same time.

There is a reason why the brain of a baby is able to master two different languages at the same time. As an adult, learning a foreign language is quite confusing and difficult. In fact, the best possible age to learn a different language is during early childhood. Children who are exposed to a couple of languages from the time they are born typically tend to eventually become native speakers of the two. In contrast, adults will always struggle when learning a second language and seldom attain fluency associated with native speakers. According to research, babies start learning language sounds long before they are even born. While an unborn child is still in the womb, the mothers voice is among the most prominent sounds he or she hears. By the time of birth, a newborn can distinguish his or her mothers language from another language. In addition, they can differentiate between different languages.

Mastering languages depends on how sounds are processed. When all the languages in the world are put together, they make up a total of roughly 800 sounds. Every language utilizes only about 40 phonemes, or language sounds, which differentiate one language from the other. During birth, a babys brain possesses a unique gift in that it can distinguish between all the 800 sounds. Hence, at this stage, newborns can master any language that they get exposed to. Then, they gradually find out the sounds that they hear the most. Infants aged between 6 and 12 months growing up in a monolingual setting adopt more specialization in sounds subsets in their mother tongue. This means they become specialists in their native language. By the time monolingual reach their first birthday, they start losing their ability to differentiate between sounds of foreign languages.

Knowing how an infants brain masters a language or two is crucial for understanding his or her developmental milestones with respect to learning how to speak. For instance, people who have bilingual infants often wonder what to and what not to expect, or how different their child will be from those learning just one language. Researchers carried out a study on how the brain processes various language sounds. It involved carrying out experiments on 11-month-old babies from bilingual (Spanish-English) and monolingual (English only) homes. The researchers used a totally non-invasive technology known as MEG (magnetoencephalography) that was able to accurately pinpoint the exact location and timing of brain activity as the infants listened syllables of the two languages. A number of key differences were found between children raised in bilingual homes and those from monolingual homes. The infants were at an age when most of them were just about to speak their first words.

The recording revealed that infants from the English homes are specialized to process the languages sounds, and not those of the other unfamiliar language. On the other hand, babies from bilingual homes are specialized to process both languages sounds. The researchs findings prove that the brains of infants become tuned to any language or languages they hear from those looking after them. The brain of a monolingual child becomes tuned to sounds of a single language while that if a bilingual infant is tuned to two languages sounds. By the time a baby reaches the age of 11, the activity in his or her brains mirrors any language or languages he or she has been exposed to.

The results of the above-mentioned study have notable implications. Parents of both bilingual and monolingual infants always look forward to them speaking their first words. They are always excited to find out what the infant is thinking. All in all, there is a common concern, particularly for parents of bilingual infants, that the child is not learning the two languages fast enough. According to the studys findings, the bilingual infants brains portrayed a similarly strong response to English language sounds as those of their monolingual counterparts. This finding suggests that bilingual infants were mastering the English language at a rate similar to the monolinguals.

Bilinguals parents also worry that their infants may not learn as many words as those raised speaking a single language. In a way, this concern has some validity. The time Bilingual children allocate to learning how to speak is split between two languages, meaning that on average, they get to hear less words of each. All in all, research studies continue to prove that bilingual infants are not left behind when the two languages are put into consideration. Vocabulary sizes of these infants, when put together across both languages, are found to be either equal to or more than those of monolinguals.

Another commonly raised concern is that bilingual infants can at times get confused. Among the things that causes this concern is a speaking behavior known as code switching that causes bilingual infants combine words of the two languages. For instance, a child who speaks Spanish and English can use Spanish endings on English words, and the other way around. According to research studies, such children code switch due to influence from bilingual adults around them. This speaking behavior in bilingual children and adults not haphazard, but rather is rule-governed. Unlike the case of monolingual infants, bilinguals have another language from which they can easily borrow words should they fail to retrieve the apt word in the first language. Researchers have proved that code switching is part of the normal language development of a bilingual infant. It is even likely that it could be the start of what gives these children the additional cognitive prowess referred to as bilingual advantage.

Scientists and researchers continue to find out more about the neurological functioning of the bilingual brain. They have learnt that the ability to speak more than a single language has cognitive advantages that extent even into adulthood. For an individual that speaks several languages, his or her brain may develop some unique advantages over someone who speaks just a single language. Researchers have found that fluency in two or more languages, especially since childhood, enhances someones ability to pay attention and concentrate. It also offers protection against certain age-related cognitive conditions such as dementia. The findings of these researchers have led to a better understanding of the manner in which the brain sets up communication and speech tasks. They have provided more insight into how certain types of brain activities may delay or altogether prevent such cognitive problems. Thanks to the findings, doctors have now come up with better and more effective therapies for assisting bilingual people who have suffered brain damage get back their communication skills.

Being bilingual can give a child an advantage when it comes to academics. Bilingual pre-scholars are known to have better focus on a certain task while filtering distractions than their monolingual counterparts. Also, bilingual adults have been found to have a similar heightened ability to concentrate, especially those who mastered both languages at an early age. This is an indicator of a well-functioning memory. A possible explanation for this is that juggling two languages sharpens the brain and improves its ability to focus on something while doing away with irrelevant information. According to some research, bilingualism can stall the commencement of age-related dementia by about four years. Scientists speculate that speaking two or more languages increases the flow of blood- and hence oxygen-to the brain while at the same time maintaining nerve connections in a healthy state. These factors are believed to stall dementia.

Recently, scientists found out that bilingual grownups have denser grey matter i.e. brain tissue full of nerve fibers and cells that process information. This grey matter is particularly concentrated in the left hemisphere of the brain where a majority of communication skills and language are concentrated. Its effect is felt more...