While in the last century, bilingualism was considered, for the most part, a hindrance to language learning, nowadays, it is more of an advantage. There are different approaches to who is considered a bilingual, but the prevailing view is that two language systems are always active in a bilingual. The fundamental myth about the harm of bilingualism is connected to this. It used to be believed that mastery of one language prevented mastery of another and vice versa. However, this opinion has long been refuted by scientists. Numerous studies conducted on bilinguals and monolinguals show that bilingualism has many advantages. Bilingualism is thought to promote greater mental ability, good memory, resourcefulness, and a greater openness to diverse cultures.
More advanced mental abilities of bilinguals can be explained by the fact that such people are able to maintain the activity of both languages at the same time, that is, to concentrate on two different things at once. A person who is able to focus is less likely to make mistakes and is more likely to achieve their goals. Moreover, bilingualism helps a person develop wit and creative thinking. When people learn two languages, they are trained to find common patterns, which helps them discover cause-and-effect and other connections where others cannot see them.
Learning a foreign language is the best way to train one’s memory. According to the research, monolinguals are able to remember, on average, up to five new words a day, and bilinguals remember twice as many (Bartolotti & Marian, 2017). In addition, it is believed that a person develops their memory just by learning foreign languages (Bartolotti & Marian, 2017). It is worth mentioning that the experience of bilingualism has a beneficial effect on the brain throughout life (Pliatsikas et al., 2020). The higher the degree of bilingualism, the better a person’s command of the language, the greater their resistance to such diseases as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
While being able to speak two languages, bilinguals have more social ties because they essentially combine the characteristics of two different nations. It is easier for them to grasp the subtle shades of meaning of foreign words and to analyze features that are common in one culture and absent in another. Therefore, the communication skills of bilingual people are more developed. By learning a foreign language, people get access to a foreign-language culture with its identity and traditions (Chibaka, 2018). Bilinguals successfully assimilate into both cultures in the course of such exposure, which makes them more tolerant of cultural differences and identities (Chibaka, 2018). They more readily integrate into multicultural groups and are more respectful of national differences.
It would be wrong not to point out a few controversial points about bilingualism. As a rule, they concern those just stepping on the path of bilingualism – children who speak two languages. After observing bilingual children, teachers have come to the conclusion that many of them begin to speak later. It should be noted that the vocabulary of kids accumulates gradually, and it is very difficult for them to learn two languages at once. Moreover, children’s vocabulary is very limited at the beginning of their lives, but parents and teachers enrich it through their efforts. Consequently, bilinguals have the opportunity to surprise people around them with their knowledge of two languages at once.
References
Bartolotti, J., & Marian, V. (2017). Bilinguals’ existing languages benefit vocabulary learning in a third language. Language Learning, 67(1), 110–140.
Chibaka, E. F. (2018). Advantages of bilingualism and multilingualism: Multidimensional research findings. In B. M. Chumbow (Ed.), Multilingualism and bilingualism. IntechOpen.
Pliatsikas, C., Meteyard, L., Veríssimo, J., DeLuca, V., Shattuck, K., & Ullman, M. T. (2020). The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood. Brain Structure and Function, 225, 2131–2152.