Raise your hand if you are bilingual!
Toastmaster Chair, fellow Toastmasters and honored guests, in
this country, ‘bilingual’ largely means French and English, but you may know
another language other than French. I am a bilingual, having learned French and
English from a young age, as have all of my cousins. I visited one cousin and
her family last week-end. She is married to a monolingual man and has 2 kids
with one more on the way. Early on, they have decided that the children will be
bilingual even though the father misses out on half of his kids’ conversations.
Why would they do it? Why would he voluntarily put himself in a situation where
he might not understand his kids? Let me give you 3 reasons why, like my
cousin, I feel more parents should aspire to raise bilingual children.
Research has shown that bilingual children outperform
monolingual children in executive functions. Executive functions are cognitive
processes such as problem solving, mental flexibility, attentional control and
task switching. I am NOT saying that because I’m bilingual J! Ellen Bialystok, a
Canadian psychologist and Distinguished Research Professor at York University
has done extensive research on the effect of bilingualism on different aspects
of cognitive development in children. She has found that being bilingual
gives the individual an advantage of better attention control and therefore
facilitates processing and functioning in several cognitive tasks. Imagine
presenting an object to me. Immediately my brain provides the labels of the
object in both languages I know. Which word I pick to say out loud depends
largely on which language is being used and the appropriate word to use in the
context. Constantly making the
decision about how to best respond to a situation, as well as having better
control over what they select, results in better performance in regards to
problem solving and attention control. In other words, bilinguals are exposed
to more situations where they have to make decisions based solely on the
situation they are in, making them better at focusing their attention on the
details that are relevant at a specific moment in time.
If that isn’t reason enough, let me give you a second reason.
The American Speech Language Hearing Association promotes good listening skills
and ability to connect well with others as advantages of being bilingual. Language
goes beyond just a means of communication. Each language has the ability to
shape an individual's perception of the world, and a bilingual's perception of
the world would change according to the language they are currently functioning
in. This makes them more sensitive to cultural differences hence makes them
more adaptable in a social setting and more likely to make friends.
There is another strong, third, reason parents decide to
raise bilingual children in Canada. In a 2007 survey, 60 percent of Canadian
parents cited increased job opportunities for their children as the main reason
for enrollment in French immersion schools. That is because a 2006 research
poll for Canadian Heritage revealed that almost 70 per cent of Canadians felt
that bilingualism improved employment and business opportunities. With over 30
countries with French as an official language and over 220 million French
speakers worldwide, bilingual employees may work with multinational
corporations working in or with these countries. Exports from French-speaking
countries represent 19 per cent of world exports, creating a sizeable market
which requires French speakers.
In summary, my cousin’s children will be better than their
monolingual counterparts in executive control tasks such as problem solving and
task switching; they will do well socially thanks to an increased cultural
sensitivity and; they will have a better chance at landing a job when they get
older. If you are not bilingual, and you are thinking right now about how to
reap the benefits of being bilingual, do not despair. Since learning a new
language is no small task, prove your dedication and determination, other
traits increasingly valued in the globalized world, by picking up a new language
now.
