ipl-logo

Arguments Against Bilingualism

728 Words3 Pages
Before talking about the arguments for and against the bilingual education, it is essential to define this notion. Bilingual education is often mixed with bilingualism, but those notions are slightly different. The bilingualism characterizes someone who “has the minimum ability to complete fluency in more than one language” (Hornby, 1977), whereas the bilingual education is “the use of two languages as a media of instruction for a child or a group of children in part or all of the school curriculum” (Cohen, 1975).
Thus, bilingual education is taught mainly through school, unlike bilingualism which can be acquired thanks to two parents who gives two different native languages to their child.

Arguments in favor of bilingual education.

Children who have the opportunity to be taught a second language language at school show that they have an important number of cognitive advantages compared to the monolingual children (Denham & Lobeck, 2013, p.49).
It also provides them a background knowledge through the first language, and a more important development of literacy in their native language. Indeed, all languages have a connection, as the theory of universal grammar demonstrate, thus children will learn a second language the same way as they learn their native language, consequently the technical aspect of learning a language will be easier for those who already know a second language.
Moreover, learning a second language at school also means learning a new culture, new
Open Document