Bilingual Education: Different Types Of Bilingual Education. Different types of bi- or multilingual education*Bilingual education: Information is presented to the students in more than one language. Many educational systems and programs are bilingual in some sense, but the degree to which the two (or more) instructional languages are utilized and the structure of the programs differ greatly. *Submersion: Student is placed in an English-speaking classroom with native English speakers, regardless of the student’s level of proficiency in English.
The student is expected to learn the content of the material taught in English, even though he or she may still be learning the language. This is not technically ‘bilingual education’, as the material is presented in only one language (English). *Two-way bilingual education: Fluent or native speakers of both English and another language are placed in the same classroom and instructed in both languages alternately. *Immersion: Students are instructed in a foreign language for entire school day. The Evidence Speaks Well of Bilingualism's Effect on Kids - latimes. Kids who grow up in bilingual homes may be slower to speak than other kids, but once they've learned both languages they appear to have a number of intellectual advantages. People who speak two languages early in life quickly learn that names of objects are arbitrary, said Suzanne Flynn, a professor of linguistics and second-language acquisition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"So they deal with a level of abstraction very early. " Also, bilingual kids become exceptionally good at learning to ignore "misleading information," said Ellen Bialystok, professor of psychology at York University in Toronto. Bialystok tests bilingual and monolingual 4-year-olds with what she calls the "tower game," which involves building towers with either Lego or Duplo blocks. "By age 5, monolingual children can do this," said Bialystok, but bilingual kids can do it at 4. In bilingualism, said Diamond, "you are constantly having to exercise inhibition because otherwise one language would intrude. Speaking in tongues: the many benefits of bilingualism.
We live in a world of great linguistic diversity. More than half of the world’s population grows up with more than one language. There are, on the other hand, language communities that are monolingual, typically some parts of the English-speaking world. In this case, bilingualism or multilingualism can be seen as an extraordinary situation – a source of admiration and worry at the same time. But there are communities where bilingualism or multilingualism are the norm – for example in regions of Africa. A Cameroonian, for example, could speak Limbum and Sari, both indigenous languages, plus Ewondo, a lingua franca, plus English or French, the official languages, plus Camfranglais, a further lingua franca used between anglophone and francophone Cameroonians. On a smaller scale, we all know families where bilingualism or multilingualism are the norm, because the parents speak different languages or because the family uses a language different from that of the community around them.
Want to learn faster? Stop multitasking and start daydreaming. Information is being created and disseminated faster than any of us can absorb it. Google estimates that humans have created more information in the past five years than in all of human history - 300 exabytes of information (300,000,000,000,000,000,000) to be precise. If all that information were written on 3x5 index cards, your personal share of it would wrap around the earth twice. The pile of cards would reach to the moon three times. Social media, emails, texts, WhatsApp messsages and phone calls take up an increasing amount of time. Research by Earl Miller of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and others however shows that multitasking doesn’t work - simply because the brain doesn’t work that way. To make matters worse, learning information while multitasking causes the new information to go to the wrong part of the brain, as shown by Russ Poldrack of Stanford.
Make time to let your mind wander Create a ‘no fly zone’ Slowly take back the power. Bilingualism is good for the brain, neuroscience researchers say - latimes. Does being bilingual give young children a mental edge, or does it delay their learning? It depends on who you ask. Bilingual education is regarded by some in education policy circles as little more than a half-baked technique of teaching students whose native language is not English. Though it takes many forms, bilingual education programs usually involve teaching students in both their native languages and in English.
How much each language is used, and in which academic contexts, varies by program. But neuroscience researchers are increasingly coming to a consensus that bilingualism has many positive consequences for the brain. . • Bilingual children are more effective at multi-tasking. • Adults who speak more than one language do a better job prioritizing information in potentially confusing situations. • Being bilingual helps ward off early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in the elderly. Bilingual speakers rarely use the wrong language with a monolingual speaker.
Amina.khan@latimes.com.