“Only 9 percent of adults in the US are fluent in more than one language. In Europe that figure is closer to 50 percent.”¹
There seems to be this false belief, most dominant in the US, that teaching a child a second language early on, while they are still mastering their first, will confuse the child.
It’s a sad myth because the exact opposite seems to be true. In the last few years, most studies have found being raised bilingual actually enhances a child’s ability to develop certain cognitive skills. Learning a second language has shown to affect certain parts of the brain, positively influencing areas of development such as working memory, abstract thinking, and mental flexibility.
A study by Adi-Japha (2010) found that bilingual children were more creative in a task asked of them to draw a house or flower. “The monolingual children tended to draw flowers with missing petals or leaves, whereas the bilingual children drew imaginary hybrids, such as ‘kite-flower and a ‘robot-house,’ indicating a superior ability to grasp abstract concepts.”²
As South Asian immigrant families, it’s probably a good idea to encourage bilingual education for your children; not only will it benefit their cognitive skills, but also their cultural ones.
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Notes:
¹,² Westly, Erica. ”The Bilingual Advantage”. Scientific American Mind. July/August 2011
