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  • Essay / Bilingualism in the classroom - 1048

    “It’s never too early to start. » This phrase may sound familiar, uttered by parents when encouraging their children to start piano lessons or attend junior basketball camps. Whatever the situation, it seems that starting to learn early gives a child some sort of advantage. We can most likely assume that this quasi-proverb also translates to language: a language learned and used regularly from an early age is probably better ingrained in the mind of its user than a language learned late and used sporadically. Bilingualism has been shown through research by Bialystok, Craik and Luk to have immense neurological benefits. Furthermore, as Martha Nussbaum stated, mastery of more than one language offers new cultural perspectives, which can be important for the progress of society as a whole. Therefore, a student should start learning a second language right from the start of their studies, not only for its incomparable cognitive benefits, but also for its cultural exposure and societal benefits. Being bilingual has many cognitive advantages. Because language use is mentally taxing, bilingualism has been shown to improve executive control (Bialystok et al., 2007). Bialystok and his co-researchers go on to argue that having two lexicons “makes ordinary linguistic processing more demanding for bilinguals than for monolinguals” (p. 241-2). The bilingual person must not only choose the language to use, but also repress the secondary language, without letting it interfere. The constant additional effort required of bilinguals therefore gives them an advantage when it comes to tasks that require the inhibition of competing stimuli, such as the Stroop test or the turns task (Giannakidou, 2013...... middle of article ..... sequences for the mind and the brain Trends in cognitive sciences, 16.4: 240-250 Byram, M and K. Risager (1999). -Uni., A. (2013). Dimensions of Language and Humanity I. Conference conducted at the University of Chicago, IL. Critical Period Hypothesis for Second Language Acquisition, 14.1: 31-37 Keysar, B., SL Hayakawa and SG An (2012). . Decision bias. Psychological Science, 23.6: 661-668.Magga, OH (2006). Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts.