Today, in the United States, many children speak other languages other than English. Although bilingual children are very advantaged, they face a lot of challenges in the early years of speech development and require adequate parental guidance and support. The society holds a misconception that bilingual children get confused when learning two languages at the same time. At times, parents get scared and might decide to drop teaching the children the second language. The paper will base the argument on the case of Erin, who is taught English and Spanish language, examining whether the mixing of two languages is brought by confusion. Also, the paper seeks to discuss the impact of age in language development in children. Bilingual children develop their language abilities differently. The mixing of languages shown by Erin does not arise from confusion. Learning more than one language at the same time does not lead to confusion. The mixing of language stems from taking in double vocabulary at once from the two languages. As Erin learns vocabulary from both English and Spanish, they sometimes end up using some words for both languages (Berk, 2013). Also, the mixing of words arises when Erin lacks one word for English and decide to compensate it with a Spanish word. Mixing of such words is one advantage of bilingual children since it aids in explaining self. The introduction of dual-language might affect the academic performance of Erin within the fits a few months as she tries to learn the two languages. Failure of the teacher to understand the bilingualism of Erin might affect her academic performance (Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa & Matera, 2013). If Erin goes to a school where the language is different from what the parents speak, it might reach a period where she stops talking; and this is not as a result of confusion. The performance might go down for a while. During this period of language emersion, Erin focuses on listening and learning from the two languages, and with time, she will begin to speak and catch up quickly. When learning more than one language, the trajectory of language development (phonological, semantic, grammatical, and pragmatic) is different. Language development differs among children and follows a natural progression, which leads to the mastering of skills (Wallner, 2016). Phonology deals with the organization of speech sound, and it differs across languages. According to Wallner (2016), the English language has 43 phonemes, which varies with those of Spanish and other languages. Students thus need to differentiate these different phonemes that create meaning in language. As the language level of bilingual students increases, phonemics skills also increase, leading to improvement in language. Semantic is another trajectory of language development that governs the meaning of words in a language. When learning more than one language, students need to know words and symbols to create sense. Effective pragmatics is essential when more than one language since it deals with the use of language to communicate. Every language has its conversation rules and different discourse that enhance appropriate communication (Hammer, Hoff, Uchikoshi, Gillanders, Castro & Sandilos, 2014)). The student needs to understand different cultures and people when communicating using various languages. Lastly, grammar differs across languages since the structure of sentences is different. Word combinations in English are different from Spanish and other languages; thus, the students need to learn and understand the syntax of various languages. The age at which a child gets introduced into the second language has an impact on language development. Children who are introduced to a second language at a young age of between one to two years adapt faster and have little effect on cognitive development (Hammer et al., 2014). Introducing a second age to children above two years is a bit challenging since the child is in the process of developing a vocabulary explosion of the known language. According to Berk (2013), it is easy and faster to learn the second language at a tender age since it also boosts problem-solving skills and creativity. Besides, the children connect easily with other cultures and become open-minded and tolerant to diversity. Age-related mental illness is common to children who get introduced into the second language at an older age. Also, the learning speed and problem-solving of such children is low. In summary, bilingual children have more advantages than monolingual children since they can use various languages to communicate. The mixing of languages among bilingual children does not mean such children are confused. Phonological, semantic, grammatical, and pragmatic differs across languages hence the need to understand the language rules of different languages. Parents need to introduce children to the second language at an early age of one to two years to boost their cognitive development and intercultural relations. Through the acquisition of the second language, children like Erin become more creative and satisfy their communication desires across different cultures and populations.
References
Berk, L. E. (2013). Development of sex differences and gender roles. Child Development, 9th Edn, ed LE Berk (Boston, MA: Pearson Education), 529-564. Hammer, C. S., Hoff, E., Uchikoshi, Y., Gillanders, C., Castro, D. C., & Sandilos, L. E. (2014). The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(4), 715-733. Magruder, E. S., Hayslip, W. W., Espinosa, L. M., & Matera, C. (2013). Many languages, one teacher: Supporting language and literacy development for preschool dual language learners. Young Children, 68(1), 8-15. Wallner, K. (2016). The effects of bilingualism on the language development of children.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
