A Report on the Topic of Cognitive Development

The topic that I chose for this research paper primarily focuses on cognitive development. One thing that was discovered was the importance of language learning at an early age. I wanted to figure out whether bilingualism for children was beneficial or detrimental to a child’s cognitive development. With learning two languages, there were several pros and cons that may affect early childhood. Early experiences with bilingualism can benefit a child in some certain areas. On the other hand, this skill may affect the child in a negative way as well.

According to Journal of Child Language by Margaux Keith and Elena Nicoladis, “bilingual children sometimes show a lag relative to monolingual children in one of their languages”. There is a relatively big gap between the amount of vocabulary a bilingual child can obtain compared to a monolingual child. Bilingual children were known for making more symbolic errors based on this article.

Psychological Report by writer J. Bruce Morton states that “bilingual advantage in cognitive control, however, should be interpreted with caution.

There are less obvious differences between bilingual children and monolingual children. Bilingual children may have a tough time with their other language. Children who are bilingual tend to have to use their native language in order to remember words in another language. This system can be quite taxing at and strenuous for bilingual children.

I recently interviewed Andrew Nguyen, a current freshman attending De Anza College. grew up in Vietnam and moved to the United States when he was around five years old.

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During his childhood, he learned the Vietnamese and English language. I asked him about his thoughts on becoming bilingual at a young age. “I believe that growing up as a bilingual is great,” Nguyen explained. “I had the great opportunity of using different resources in many ways.” In his opinion, becoming bilingual serve many great purposes. He also stated that he loves having the ability to connect with many others. “Learning another language was great for me. I was able to develop new skillsets”.

According to The Development of Human Potential by Berger, language learning serves many great benefits during the early stages of human development. One benefit to learning another language at an early age is better information processing. With this, children will be able to gain cognitive skills in smaller steps. This concept is also known as quantitative change. Also, this experience at an earlier age is essential because it can shape many relationships in the future. Children will be able to obtain better social skills and learning skills.

Also, they will have a better time adapting to their environment. Children will have a better time controlling their emotions. From learning another language, a child will gain an explicit memory. This is very important because children will have an easier time remembering and applying certain words and phrases. Habituation is present throughout a children’s life and plays a great role in bilingualism. With this concept, children will be more exposed to certain concepts, words, and ideas. This will improve their memory and intelligence as children get older.

My experience with learning a second language is completely different. While others became bilingual during the early stages of their life, I decided to learn a language as an emerging adult. In my experience with learning a second language, I personally have gained positive results. Learning another language was a completely different experience for me compared to someone who grew up bilingual. Even though I may have picked up certain skills a little bit later than children who are bilingual, I was still able to apply these new ideas in my life. Because I picked up a new language, my motivation for learning increased exponentially.

My thoughts and actions have changes over time because of this. I felt like I had a better sense of my ethnic identity as I learned a different language. I became more interested in different cultures, backgrounds, and other languages. This particularly helped me in different contexts, whether it was school, family, other cultures, or other languages. I was able to accommodate many experiences as I learned a language later in my life.

Should we focus more on bilingualism at an early age? As you can see, there are possible benefits and also several drawbacks with this concept. With bilingualism, children will be able to learn information processing skills, gain explicit memory, and experience qualitative change. Although they may gain more skills, some children may eventually face some trade-offs.

On the other hand, there may be some negative effects to early bilingualism. With this experience, children might have a negative impact. Monolingual children tend to have a better sense of vocabulary compared to children who are bilingual. Also, children who are bilingual might be behind in certain skills, such as semantic development. It is essential to recognize the many positive and negative effects that bilingualism may bring at an early age.