Bilingual Children obviously have an advantage when it comes to learning their first and second languages, but recent studies show that they actually have an advantage learning future languages as well.
Earlier studies have shown that a child’s ability to learn a second language starts to diminish at around age one. Bilingual children, at that point, will already have a solid base in two languages, however, according to the prior studies, that would be the point where their abilities to learn a third language would start to diminish.
Bilingual traffic sign… bilingualism all over!
What does the most recent research say about bilingual children learning a third language?
The most recent research indicates that for bilingual children that window of opportunity is
extended. In hopes of learning a better way for adults to become bilingual, scientists studied bilingual children and how their brains differ with regards to learning languages.
“The bilingual brain is fascinating because it reflects
humans’ abilities for flexible thinking – bilingual babies learn that objects
and events in the world have two names,” study co-author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, said.
In the article above, it also states that children raised in bilingual households can prolong the time in which they are sensitive to learning another language.
How do we know bilingual children are better at learning a third language?
A research study was conducted by the University of Haifa in Israel. This study took 6th grade children who were in an English class (their foreign language). The children consisted of two different groups: native Hebrew-only speaking children and children who had spoken Hebrew and Russian from early on.
So…Does being bilingual help?
Yes! The study found that in English classes there, the third language for the bilinguals and second language for the native Hebrew-only speakers, the bilingual Russian/Hebrew students outperformed the Hebrew-only students by a significant margin.
”Gaining command of a number of languages improves proficiency in native languages. This is because languages reinforce one another, and provide tools to strengthen [language] skills,” researcher Professor Salim Abu-Rabia said in a University of Haifa news release.
Bilingual children, and even those learning a third language, actually gain a better command of their native language?
Language learning is a fairly methodical process whether it’s done that way or not. The great news is, that it is a similar process among the majority of languages. Almost all languages have nouns, verbs, prepositions (well, sort of), and other common aspects of grammar. Additionally, Latin-based languages share all sorts of common words as well as languages from other language families. Therefore, to a certain degree, bilingual children learning a third language will have more vocabulary to draw from and a better understanding of grammar and how it all works together; which helps improve their native language as well! The process works backwards as well as forwards.
What can we glean from this study?
Language skills, and overall communication skills, are essential in today’s world. From business to the arts, language skills are what separate the good from the great. I’m not talking about foreign language skills as in how-many-languages-do-you-speak. I’m talking about ones ability to express themselves, communicate effectively, and create clear and concise stories; verbally or written. These are all aspects of communication, which according to this article, is enhanced exponentially through bilingualism!
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