ipl-logo

Essay On Bilingual And Multiculturalism

935 Words4 Pages

Words as "bilingual" and "multiculturalism" express much more than someone 's ability to speak two languages and to be familiar with more than one culture and so, the need to understand the depth of these concepts is imperative. Their significance is structured in layers, reffering to code switching, emotions, sculpting the personality, identity and cultural scripts, layers which are connected in a complex way. One of the primary characteristics of bilingual people is the often switch they make between their mother tongue and their second language. What is seen on the surface is a person speaking two languages when, in fact, it could be said that we see two sides of their personality- each one associated with one language. In the Preface of her article, "Bilingual Lives, Bilingual Experience, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development", the Polish linguist Professor Dr. Anna Wierzbicka cites the multilingual German sinologue Christoph Harbsmeier in an interview for the Epok magazine: " A change of language brings with it a change of role. When I speak
French, I can’t stop making gestures with my hands. I learnt Danish at Oxford, because my wife-to-be, who is Danish, didn’t …show more content…

First of all, people who speak more than one language are more likely to be open-minded, less judgeful and to acquire qualities like cultural openness and leniency. More than that, " bilinguals at all ages demonstrate better executive control than monolinguals matched in age and other background factors. Executive control is the set of cognitive skills based on limited cognitive resources for such functions as inhibition, switching attention, and working memory".("Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain", Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I.M. Craik, and Gigi

Show More
Related

  • The New Bathroom Policy At English High School, By Martin Espada

    976 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bilingual people often get pushed away or bullied for not being able to speak a new language. Bilingual speakers should feel like they belong in their own identity. They should also speak out about their struggles and challenges with bilingualism. In the essay, "Hunger of Memory", Richard Rodriguez explains that being able to keep his native tongue while also learning a new language can be very helpful in the outside world. Being able to acknowledge different languages can help at school, work, or even just the grocery store.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The New Bathroom Policy At English High School By Espada

    1133 Words  | 5 Pages

    The definition of bilingualism is fluency in or use of two languages. Martín Espada is the author of the essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” which is about the act of Spanish being a forbidden language in a school full of multicultural children. In the essay, his main argument is the idea that the language of Spanish, or Bilingualism as a whole is interpreted as a burden for a young immigrant. Another author named Richard Rodriguez wrote about his struggle to juggle between his 2 languages, his public language (English) and his private

    Read More

  • The New Bathroom Policy At English High School

    651 Words  | 3 Pages

    My personal experience being multilingual is that i am able to freely express myself in words or phrases that come natural to me. Being able to speak Vietnamese, English, and French with ease while using some commonly known phrases from the Japanese language. Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, two authors that speak Spanish and English have different standpoints on the subject of bilingualism. In Martin Espada’s essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” explains the need to maintain cultural identity through bilingualism, while in Richard Rodriguez’s exert “Hunger of Memory” depicts the necessity of becoming bilingual to be able to function well in society. “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” by Martin Espada explores

    Read More

  • Bilingual Paraprofessional Essay

    397 Words  | 2 Pages

    The variety of terms used to refer to Bilingual Paraprofessionals explains the lack of a universal definition for this job. Most definitions, however, focus on the roles that paraprofessionals play, namely, assisting professionals in schools (e.g., teachers, speech language pathologists, counselors) and providing services to children or their parents under the supervision of certificated personnel. Bilingual paraprofessionals are usually hired to provide educational services in more than one language, usually English and another language; help students in public or private schools, either in general or special education; and assist with students who may or may not have disabilities. The National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals (NRCP) in its seventh report, The Employment and Preparation of Paraeducators: The State of the Art- 2003, highlighted the difficulties of collecting data regarding the exact number of paraprofessionals working nationwide. The report estimated the number of paraprofessionals to be more than 525,000 in the year 2000.

    Read More

  • Essay On Biracial Identity

    243 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the past I have struggled with my biracial identity. As a child I was confused about which community I belonged in because I am a mix of Navajo and Caucasian. As I got older, I began to question myself and who I was. I felt like I did not belong to either the Native or Caucasian community because in both groups I felt like someone else. I felt as if I had to live two lives that were completely separated.

    Read More

  • Early Childhood Language

    1005 Words  | 5 Pages

    Adults who attempt to learn a new language can understand the logic of the new language but can’t fully master jargons, diction, and exceptions to grammar rules. Researchers discovered that when adults mastered two languages in childhood, both languages were located in the same areas of the brain with no influence on the cortex. Bilingual adults keep the two languages unconnected, starting one and temporarily stopping the other when speaking to an individual who only speaks one

    Read More

  • Essay On Mexican Immigration

    757 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hispanic Americans, or Latinos, are a very large and diverse ethnic group in the U.S. Altogether, they make up about 44 million people or 15% of America’s population. Individuals who make up this category can identify with various nationalities and backgrounds. However, the 2010 U.S Census – as stated in the textbook -- reported that 75% of its total Latino respondents identified being of Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban origin. According to the lecture notes, 65% of Hispanics claim to be Mexican Americans, while 8.5% are Puerto Ricans and another 3.5% are Cuban Americans.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Being A Bilingual Student By Richard Rodriguez

    367 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his essay about being a bilingual student, Richard Rodriguez makes the claim that a family’s language is intimate. As an intimate language it is unfit for use in school or in public and that attempts to do so demonstrate a misunderstanding of the purposes of school and the intimacy of a family’s language. To create this argument, Rodriguez recounts numerous parts of his childhood to serve as examples to support his claim. Rodriguez uses some of his examples to state that English is a public language. In one segment of his essay, he explicitly says that English is the language of society when he says “for it is now the sound that of my society,” (Rodriguez 12) his society being Americans.

    Read More

  • The New Bathroom Policy At English High School Summary

    575 Words  | 3 Pages

    Language forms a part of culture and identity. Bilingualism is the right to speak multiple languages. Part of bilingualism is keeping and developing a passion for language. In the essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” Martín Espada suggests the definition of bilingualism and the importance of keeping it. Espada understands the difficulty of continuing to speak Spanish.

    Read More

  • Espadas Bilingualism

    601 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, in order for one to truly understand the arguments made by the authors they must also understand the context behind these arguments; therefore, knowing how the individual authors’ definition of bilingualism lets the reader truly absorb what points they’re trying to make and why. In Espada’s essay, he defines bilingualism as a way for a person to remain in contact with their different cultural identities. There are many areas in the essay where the reader could interpret this definition from. However, the most significant piece of evidence appears at the beginning of the essay where Espada mentions his friend Jack Agueros’ analogy to describe his bilingualism “English and Spanish are like two dogs I love. English is an obedient dog.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Bilingual Education

    1138 Words  | 5 Pages

    With nations becoming increasingly connected through mediums like the internet, the world has changed substantially within the last decade. It’s a time where Spanish songs such as Luis Fonsi’s Despacito can top the American music charts, where traveling to the other side of the world takes a few hours instead of weeks, and more importantly, where states like California and Utah are continuing to promote and provide for a growing demand for bilingual education through dual-immersion programs. Although the states have great strides in the right direction, bilingual education should not be encouraged but rather be required for K-12 students. Because bilingual education integrates languages into the student’s lifestyle through instruction, it enriches the lives of children, the adults they will become, and the community to which they will contribute to.

    Read More

  • Bilingual Persuasive Speech

    750 Words  | 3 Pages

    The more language knowledge significantly helps towards your career as you know. Bilinguals have the privilege of get their information from a wider variety of resources. Also, it has great educational benefit to kids. Many studies suggest that bilingual children tend to have a higher concentration and are better at working through distraction while doing their school work. Research has shown that bilinguals score higher on average on tests involving creative thinking or problem solving.

    Read More

  • Bilingualism Research Paper

    1223 Words  | 5 Pages

    Increasing development of bilingual education and the evolution of language may be due to the population size, social, political, economical and personal requirements. Numerous researches show that learning a language can improve mental agility, it can strengthen brain, develop communicative abilities of invidividuals and strengthen and improve overall humans´ abilities and skills. The concept of bilingualism should be tackled because of the various definitions that are given to this term. Those definitions seem to share one basic element, which is the use of two given languages by a given speaker. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages or the frequent use (as by a community) of two languages.

    Read More

  • Advantages Of Bilingualism Essay

    1064 Words  | 5 Pages

    Another benefit of being bilingual is the ability if utilize and expressideas in different languages. When people are confronted in a situation and they have to provide answer for particular question then bilingualism enable individual to find the appropriate word from two different languages thus it help them to provide best answers. It also allow one to rely on their skills and enhance their cognitive skills. However, it is also indicated that cognitive abilities of a bilingual individual is sharper than an individual who can only speak one language(Bialystok, Craik, &Luk, 2012).

    Read More

  • Literature Review Of Bilingualism

    3783 Words  | 16 Pages

    The notion of bilingualism is frequently connected to the idea of code-switching since a person should have ability to speak using two or more than one variety. Researchers have made countless studies describing bilingualism as they create awareness in different ways. To begin with is Bloomfield (1933) who defined bilingualism as having the “native- like control of two languages”. However, Haugen (1953) pinpointed that bilingualism is the ability of a speaker to communicate and understand an additional variety. This is to mean that the concept of bilingualism exist only when an individual of a certain variety has the capability to communicate effectively in an additional variety.

    Read More

More about Essay On Bilingual And Multiculturalism

Open Document