Language Development in Bilingual Children

Abstract 

Bilingualism among children traces back to their backgrounds and surrounding back at home. The factors that could lead to bilingualism are differences in the languages that parents use to communicate or impacts of immigration. The primary purpose of this research is to assess language development in bilingual children at preschool age of between five and seven years. The literature review assesses the mixed reactions of bilingualism at an early age and whether it is beneficial or has negative impacts on the child. The method for research that will involve recruiting participants at preschool age ensures that the researcher gets firsthand information on the impacts of bilingualism on language development in children. The results of the researcheither agree or disagree with previous studies and the implications for the study in the field provides that teachers and parents should learn how to appreciate the dissimilarities between monolingual and bilingual children. 

Introduction 

Currently, the world has become culturally diverse, and this has led to a growth in bilingualism. Bilingualism refers to the ability of an individual to speak more than one language. There are those children who are taught two languages from an early age and there are those who learn to speak a different language other than that of the country they live. While some parents consider bilingualism to be advantageous, others claim that it causes confusion among children. If parents eliminate first language alongside socio-cultural values, kids are more likely to become victims of confusion and uncertainty, and this makes them show fallbacks in two languages. Teachers who teach immigrant children in kindergartens have a task of teaching the bilingual students official language, and this means that they must understand how to handle them. Therefore, there is a need to determine whether there are any differences in language development between monolingual and bilingual children. 

Background (Literature Review) 

Bilingualism among children could be as a result of having parents who use different languages to communicate. Also, they could be an immigrant family where the language that they speak in their home country is different from that of the host nation ( Hoff, 2018) . In both situations, the child is considered to be bilingual even though they use one language or does not know both languages well. Research has shown that bilingualism can be an advantage and parents who are aware of this take their children to bilingual schools or one where they can learn a different language when they are still young ( Barac, Moreno & Bialystok, 2016) . Thus, the ability of a child to learn two languages at an early age could be an advantage to them as they grow and go to school. 

For over a long time, there were negative reactions towards bilingualism as some believed that it caused confusion or learning delays in languages ( Ramirez & Kuhl, 2017) . As a result, most immigrant families resorted to speaking the language of the adoptive country because they believed that mother tongue would make it a challenge for children to learn faster. However, recent studies have shown that the beliefs are superstitions and that bilingualism has nothing to do with language development among children. In fact, this is beneficial because the children will end up speaking two languages without mixing them ( Barac, Moreno & Bialystok, 2016) . As they grow up to become adults, they will be in a position to use the same language to communicate easily. Therefore, contrary to the superstition that bilingualism can be confusing to children, it can be advantageous to them at an older age because they will communicate easily using both languages that they learned when they were young. 

However, other researchers have determined that there are some instances where bilingualism has less favorable effects. One is that there is a possibility of children who speak their parents’ language to face language difficulties at school, and this could affect their academics ( Bialystok, 2018) . As a result, they could fail in their studies because of lack of comprehension during their lessons. In some situations, children denied the opportunity to learn the language of their parents may feel that they do not get a chance to learn their original culture and forced to replace it with an adoptive one. The issue will be evident through a shock in the linguistic development of a child. However, if families appreciate bilingualism, their kids will not deny both cultures that they are part of, and this will have positive benefits on language development ( Bialystok, 2018) . In the end, the second language will be a source of additional thinking and progress for the child. Therefore, the extent of appreciation of bilingualism among families could impact language development among children either positively or negatively. 

In the past years, studies involving bilingualism have showed significant differences between linguistic and cognitive abilities of bilingual children in comparison to monolingual ones. Even though monolingual and bilingual children produce words at approximately the same time at preschool age, bilingual kids have poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary ( Altman, Goldstein & Armon-Lotem, 2018) . However, as they grow to an advanced age, the differences begin to balance out. Other studies have shown that bilingual children have more developed cognitive skills, moreso in the comprehension of the structure and features of language. Other scholars have shown that as early as the age of 3, bilingual children also have a better chance of developing abilities such as attention selectiveness and cognitive flexibility which are no related to language unlike monolingual children ( Crivello et al. 2016 ). The best possible explanation for this variation is that acquiring a second language at an early age enables kids to practice the abilities which are not related to the language. They have to learn to select what to grasp and what to ignore as they grow. Therefore, studies have shown that bilingualism does not only affect language development of a child, but other aspects in their lives. 

Method 

3.1 Participants 

A total number of 30 preschool-aged children aged between 5 and 7 participated in the study. Out of the thirty students, 17 were monolingual having acquired English as their native language and 13 were bilingual having acquired Spanish or German alongside English. Sex distribution was uniform as 15 subjects were boys and the other 15 were girls. 

Procedure 

The method of assessing verbal language development was language tests that involved phonological processing and instruction comprehension features. The procedure is appropriate for the age of 5-7 because it accesses all of a child’s abilities: emotional, social, temperament, autonomy and school readiness. 

3.3 Analysis 

The purpose of phonological processing tests was to evaluate phonetic processing: basic and complex. Basic processing involved assessing the ability of participants to identify words in word segments whereas complex processing involved an evaluation of phonological segmentation in word fragments and sounds of letters. On the other hand, the instruction comprehension tests evaluated the ability of a child to process and respond fast to complex verbal instructions. This part assessed how the participants demonstrated receptive language comprehension by how they responded to various sizes, colors, and facial expressions. The children were also asked to point target objects as per their color, positions, and relation to other to demonstrate verbal instructions. 

3.4 Results 

The performance of monolingual participants in instruction comprehension was greater than that of bilingual subjects. However, phonological processing task showed a reverse relationship between the participants whereas bilingual subjects were better than monolingual ones. The results demonstrated that the acquisition of a second language provides an opportunity for children to understand and process phonologic as in the case of English speaking children. However, there is a possibility that assessing more participants would show significant differences. Also, monolingual preschoolers were better at comprehension of instructions, unlike their bilingual counterparts. The results vary because the study involved an evaluation of basic and complex processes of language development among monolingual and bilingual students. 

Discussion 

4.1 Main findings 

Monolingual and bilingual children produce words at the same time at the preschool age of 5 to 7 years. Bilingual kids had poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary compared to monolingual children with better performance. As a result, there were slight differences in their academic performance. 

4.2 Implications for the field 

Teachers and parents should not undermine the importance of mother tongue in academic performance and correct linguistic development. Educators should appreciate the differences in the language development of bilingual children so that they can learn how to deal with them. They should understand that there are other underlying factors that could affect a child’s ability to learn a language faster than others. Thus, parents and teachers should be constantly involved in the lives of bilingual children to ensure that they have a better language development, academic performance, as well as other aspects such as social and cultural issues. 

4.3 Limitations of this study 

The scope of the study involved only children within a range of 5 to 7 years, and this means that there was no consideration of the effects of bilingualism on children at an older age. The study did not include parents, teachers, or specialists who play a significant role in the development of kids. Also, the period at which the research was conducted was short; hence there was no assessment of language development at a deeper level. As a result, the findings could be biased, and this made it challenging to learn the outcomes of bilingualism. Thus, there is a need for researchers to consider investigating language development in bilingual children at an advanced age and in the long-run. 

Conclusion 

Language development among bilingual children has received mixed reactions over the past years. While others suggest that it could be advantageous, some oppose this saying that bilingualism could cause confusion among children; hence affecting their academic performance and other aspects of their lives. Even though monolingual and bilingual children develop words at approximate the same preschool age, there are differences in their reception and processing of vocabulary. Parents and educators should understand the variations in the language development of children because this will enable them to ensure that they succeed in all aspects of their lives as they grow. 

Acknowledgments 

First, my appreciation goes to the Almighty for the divine protection and guidance that He gave me until I completed this project. Secondly, I extend my gratitude to my supervisor, classmates, and family members for their support throughout the time I spend in the field. I sincerely thank the kindergarten institution for the support they gave me while I was at their organization. First, they gave me the opportunity to assess children at their school and provided me with invaluable support and guidance throughout the time I was there.Finally, my gratitude goes to the entire department and staff who agreed to lead me to ensure that this research paper was a success despite their tight schedules and duties. 

References 

Altman, C., Goldstein, T., & Armon-Lotem, S. (2018). Vocabulary, metalinguistic awareness and language dominance among bilingual‎ preschool children. Frontiers in psychology , 9 , 1953. 

Barac, R., Moreno, S., & Bialystok, E. (2016). Behavioral and electrophysiological differences in executive control between monolingual and bilingual children. Child development , 87 (4), 1277-1290. 

Bialystok, E. (2018). Bilingual education for young children: review of the effects and consequences. International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism , 21 (6), 666-679. 

Crivello, C., Kuzyk, O., Rodrigues, M., Friend, M., Zesiger, P., & Poulin-Dubois, D. (2016). The effects of bilingual growth on toddlers’ executive function. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 141 , 121-132. 

Hoff, E. (2018). Bilingual development in children of immigrant families. Child development perspectives , 12 (2), 80-86. 

Ramirez, N. F., & Kuhl, P. (2017). The brain science of bilingualism. YC Young Children , 72 (2), 38-44.