Posted by “Raising Bilingual Children: Common Parental Concerns and Current Research” is an article written by Kendall King and Lyn Folge, Georgetown University and published in CALdigest and in the CAL (Center for Applied Linguistics) webpage.
This article shows the results of a study of 24 bilingual families with children between 0-5 years old in Washington D.C. , and also summarises previous research in bilingualism. The study comes to the following conclusions:
1. Bilingualism and language delay: monolingual and bilingual children meet major language development milestones at similar times.
2. Bilingualism and language confusion: the aproach “0ne-parent, one language”, while generally recommended, can also result in passive bilingualism. Parents in general do not need to fear language confusion if they opt for another aproach such as using the minority language at home. Parents also should think more about the quality and quantity of exposure to both languages that their children receive.
3. Bilingualism and television: human interaction ist better than recorded sounds for fostering language learning.
4. Bilingualism and inteligence: bilingualism should not be viewed as predictor of greater intelligence or as an overall indicator of high academic performance. Bilingual children gain specific advantages in targeted areas such as greater understanding of language as an abstract system.
Read the full article here.