Bilingual Argumentative Analysis
Being multilingual or bilingual is the ability to speak more than one language, for some this can be a huge advantage as it provides more diversity and therefore can be a skill that both the workforce and college admissions look at when determining the best applicants. It is no surprise that having the ability to speak more than one language can come as an advantage, however what advantages does speaking more than one language offer? Parents are often concerned that using a non-community language as the language of their home will disadvantage their children (Bialystok, 2008,p.3). However, it has been found that being bilingual is actually associated with cognitive advantages such as enhanced selective attention and advances the development
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Bialystock and Viswanathan reported that bilingual 8-year-old children demonstrated more skills than monolingual children on tasks that required that ability to inhibit a response when necessary and the ability to be cognitively flexible and to shift focus from one task to another (Levine, 2016, p. 403-404). We also find that, researchers have demonstrated that there are cognitive advantages of bilingualism, particularly on tasks measuring cognitive flexibility and selective attention. These tasks require regulation of inhibitory mechanisms that allows one to focus attention on relevant information while suppressing attention toward misleading information (Crivello et al., 2016, p.122). Both sources are supporting the advancement of children using experimental conclusions that elaborate on their particular findings. In the popular Newsweek media source we also find evidence of cognitive abilities in bilingual children however, they aim towards informing the public in a different manner. The difference between Newsweek and Levine and Crivello is that fact that Newsweek’s focus is aimed towards stating their opinion to the public using little research to state their claim rather than educating the audience about the advantages that bilingualism has for a child’s development.
Bialystock and Viswanathan reported that bilingual 8-year-old children demonstrated more skills than monolingual children on tasks that required that ability to inhibit a response when necessary and the ability to be cognitively flexible and to shift focus from one task to another (Levine, 2016, p. 403-404). We also find that, researchers have demonstrated that there are cognitive advantages of bilingualism, particularly on tasks measuring cognitive flexibility and selective attention. These tasks require regulation of inhibitory mechanisms that allows one to focus attention on relevant information while suppressing attention toward misleading information (Crivello et al., 2016, p.122). Both sources are supporting the advancement of children using experimental conclusions that elaborate on their particular findings. In the popular Newsweek media source we also find evidence of cognitive abilities in bilingual children however, they aim towards informing the public in a different manner. The difference between Newsweek and Levine and Crivello is that fact that Newsweek’s focus is aimed towards stating their opinion to the public using little research to state their claim rather than educating the audience about the advantages that bilingualism has for a child’s development.