Five REAL Reasons to Raise your Children Bilingually

It seems as if in the past months bilingual education is only discussed in connection to the Arizona immigration laws. However, there are many reasons why one should try to stay focused on the real issues of bilingualism, and not get discouraged by wrapping it up in a flag of panicky paranoia. I like to break into two groups the benefits of being raised bilingual: the cultural and the phisiological. Many people like to discuss and debate the pros and cons of being raised not only bilingually but bi-culturally by either throwing roses on what a beautiful multicultural experience being bilingual is, or by expressing their fears and doubts of losing a certain cultural identity by having to make room for another. Less complicated to debate are the phisiological and neurological effects that bilingualism has on children and their developing brains. This is almost the most exciting aspect of second language aqcuisition, as it is not weighted down with politics or social pressures, and the brain of a child is almost always outdoing itself and our own expectations. For those of you bogged down by the recent heated debates about bilingual education, here are some simple reminders to why being raised bilingual is worthy of our struggle.

1. Codifying phonemes. Many times in our effort to assess second language acquisition we only concentrate on the verbal output of our children or students. In this we are missing out on half the fun! Remember that a baby probably begins to codify the phonemes he hears in human speech from the moment of birth, some even think it begins inside the womb. From as early as four months old, and surely by eight months old, a baby has already codified all of the phonemes in his or her "native language" and can at least recognize it as such. I have done the test, feeding my nephews baby food as they sit and drool and gurgle at me. Knowing that they had not heard any other language than English, I began to coo and baby talk to them in Spanish. You would have thought that I had sprouted elephant ears with the way they stopped eating, letting the mush fall from their chin-dropped mouths, the way they stared at me, and more intensely, at my mouth. These babies obviously were noticing a strong change in their world, and their brains were already hard at work recognizing and classifying these new sounds. How amazing! Bilingual children who have always had two -- or three, or five or seven -- languages spoken to them have been codifying the different phonemes all along, each connected to their distinct language, and have no trouble recognizing the languages as their own.

2. Developing speech muscles. It may seem easy to speak a second language, no matter what age, but only children will develop the correct muscles for pronunciation. There are many exercizes that adults con do to be able to pronounce the Spanish "R" or the French "R", but children don't even have to think. As mentioned above, the brain of a child is so amply equipped for language learning, that it is a shame not to be putting it to use, and having them later struggle through pronunciation exercizes. And it's not just the hard sounding consanants that give people a problem. Distinguishing the slight difference between a short vowel and a long vowel can be excruciating for adult language learners. And many times it is impossible for them to even be able to utter the sound "uh" because of two tiny muscles at the top of their throat that have never been used. A child raised with multiple languages develops more of these muscles at the right age, and no longer has to worry about it.

3. Selective hearing. We complain a lot that children have selective hearing, and only hear us when we ask "Who wants more ice cream?" instead of "Who wants to make their bed?" However, I find that children in general, when they begin to interact with language, depend deeply on selective listening. Baby talk is discouraged because a child is just as capable of understanding, "Daddy's gone to work now" even if his way of expressing it is "Dada go bye-bye." If children had to stop everytime there was a word uttered in a sentence that they did not understand, their progress would be much slower. But children's ears skip over the "speech-bumps" in the road to get a whole global understanding of what is being said. This is another talent that children have that adults do not. That's why it is so hard for adults to learn a second language. When they try to understand a sentence, they stop at the first word that they do not control. Compared to a child, an adult is incredibly impaired int this way. I find that children who have been raised bilingually do not have this same ailment. Their brains have been raised to selectively listen to language and work out the kinks as they go along. Adjectives may appear before or after the nouns, there could be gender details imbedded in nouns and articles. Morphemes may be larger than they appear.

4. Overall brain stimulation. There are a number of studies relating bilingual education to further academic success. I am not promising that bilingual children will be better students. However, at a time when parents are taking their toddlers to special classes for early stimulation of the senses, a second language only proves to be a stimulation well worth the effort. The organizational skills involved in the codifying and classifying of structures and mechanics is applicable to math skills. The manipulation of both sets of codes and grammar helps in overall expression and maturity. Parents should be weary of signing their babies up for any activity with the sole purpose of turning them into a Superbaby. However, with the studies all showing that early stimulation has positive effects on the brain development and its achievements throughout life, bilingualism seems to be a gift we can give our children, seeing that they are already equipped to use it to their advantage. How many times have I had a kindergartener with a real flair for English as a second language, and almost on the verge of declaring the child a genius, there always comes out a detail of a bilingual past. "No, we lived in Ibiza until he was three and they spoke the dialect at his preschool. But he wasn't at a speaking age yet. Since we moved away before he could talk, we didn't think anything really stuck." So a child who was exposed to another language, even at short intervals, now is appearing to be a genius compared to his classmates.


5. Cultural Awareness. There is much debate about culture and ethnicity and the topics are far too long and drawn out to be covered completely. However, I do believe that the best way to know yourself is by comparing yourself to others and noticing similarities and differences. Growing up with two languages gives a child an opportunity of developing a more in-depth study of himself or herself. Whether they be fully aware that different languages are connected to different cultures or not, they will begin to develop different sides to their personalities depending on what language they are speaking. Some people find themselves to be more dramatic and theatrical with a second language, depending greater on non-verbal communication to fill in the gaps when necessary. Others find they count better in one language, tell jokes better in another, speak one more often when they are angry, etc. Monolinguals do not have the chance to get into the same depth.

Bilingualism is not the answer to every child's future success. However, it is also not worthy of being in the eye of the hurricane, as it seems to be in light of our current economic crisis and anti-immigration laws. If for nothing more than the pure joy of seeing the human brain functioning on its highest level, in the minds of children as they acquire language, bilingualism should be promoted and supported.