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  • Essay / Multilingualism, a rewarded ability for adolescents

    Statistics have shown that only a small part of the world's population is multilingual, that is to say the ability to master several spoken and written languages ​​very well. However, there has been an increasing trend in the number of multilingual people since the start of the 21st century. century. For example, governments in East Asian countries have focused on foreign language programs in primary and secondary education for several decades. Studies have been carried out to determine the most suitable age for studying other languages, and one of the studies shows that only children who started learning their second language before the age of fifteen can fully achieve the native pronunciation of that language (Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p. 94).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayDespite those who have already learned several native languages ​​in their early childhood, many adolescents begin learning foreign languages ​​guided by their parents. While the majority of parents may not fully understand the real differences between children who are capable of mastering multiple languages ​​and those who are not. It is therefore necessary for the public to recognize the benefits that multilingualism can offer. Multilingualism is beneficial for adolescents before the age of 15, as they can benefit from more cultural and educational opportunities, better cognitive skills, especially in memorization, information processing and executive functions, as well as greater communication skills. For starters, multiple language capability provides more cultural and educational opportunities for teens. First, multilingual adolescents may benefit from more cultural opportunities. Since language is one of the most common and important instruments for human interaction and self-expression, it is often considered the foundation of a culture. Therefore, learning a language can help understand its historical and cultural context. According to Angela Scanrino (2014), by learning and using a different language, adolescents can interpret a diverse part of their distinct culture (Scanrino, 2014, p. 391). Scanrino (2014) also stated that the study of new languages ​​emphasizes cultural practices in which people generate, clarify, and reflect their own cultural commitments (Scanrino, 2014, p. 390). Being able to speak multiple languages ​​fluently, children are more likely to have multiple intercultural experiences. Understanding the native language when traveling or living in another country allows them to explore and communicate more deeply with local communities. According to a Japanese undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he spent his early childhood in Japan, but began to live in China for five years at the age of nine and then moved to the United States. United of America. Since his father had grown up in a traditional Japanese family and his mother lived in China for her first twenty years, living in a combination of two distinct environments allowed him to learn both languages ​​and cultures during his childhood. Additionally, the reason he can experience American culture is because he was able to live with a standard American family during his four years of high school. He therefore became involved in three distinct types of companies. He believes that the variety of cultural experiences allowed him to understand things in a deeper way and thus helped him develop a healthyself-esteem. For example, he learned the importance of conscience and independence from Japan, the importance of hard work from China, and the benefits of liberal views and critical thinking from the United States. Additionally, frequent changes in living environments can improve a fifteen-year-old's adaptability and flexibility. Despite the cultural opportunities they may receive from multilingualism, multilingual adolescents may benefit from additional educational opportunities, and one of the greatest benefits is the ability to study abroad. Regardless of countries having the exact same native language, most countries around the world have different official languages. Therefore, being multilingual is an important determining factor in deciding whether or not a student is selected to participate in the study abroad program. Additionally, having the opportunity to study abroad in a completely different country can change a child's future life. For example, a South Korean student named Jin Yong Choi learned English as a second language and began studying abroad in America at the age of 14; four years later he was accepted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He explained that the reason he studied abroad was because he was dissatisfied with the traditional Korean-language education system, which is rigid and restrictive, and the overly competitive environment in Korea left him no choice. other choice than to study abroad. He said that studying abroad at the age of fourteen was an irreplaceable experience for him. During his four years of high school in America, he had a more flexible academic experience: he could choose classes according to his preferences, the academic environment was intense but not too competitive, and he was able to develop his own interests during his time free. . He doubted whether he could be accepted by UIUC without studying abroad in America for high school (Phuong, 2008). According to statistics provided by Phuong, among approximately 576 South Korean students accepted by UIUC in 2008, 346 of them graduated from an American high school (Phuong, 2008). Therefore, it is helpful to have study abroad experience and the ability to speak multiple languages ​​is the premise for these opportunities. Additionally, multilingualism benefits adolescents through their cognitive skills including memorization, information processing, and executive function. For starters, learning an additional language can strengthen their abilities to memorize content and process information, that is, the speed of information processing inside the brain. Most languages ​​consist of rules such as spelling words and grammar, and adolescents under the age of fifteen can acquire the ability to transfer this knowledge into automated information through practice. In a book titled “How Languages ​​Are Learned,” Professor Lightbown et al. wrote that Robert DeKeyser (1998, 2001, 2007), a researcher at the University of Maryland, referred to "declarative knowledge" as the rules of language that learners are aware of having, and "procedural knowledge" such as the ability to use language. Lightbown et al. continued that through practice, learners can find the pattern among declarative knowledge and gradually moved from memorizing declarative knowledge to mastering procedural knowledge (Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p. 109). The process of transferring declarative knowledge to a stream of procedural knowledge allows the brain to improve its memorization capacity. Lightbown et al. spoke of "the hypothesis ofthe remark” proposed by Richard Schmidt (1990, 2001), implying that the remark is the critical initial point of memorization (Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p. 115). By gaining more procedural knowledge inside the brain, phrases and grammar that are noticed continuously can create a more powerful memorization coding and storage system. Besides the memorization system you benefit from, connection speed can also be improved by learning a new language. Lightbown et al. wrote that a speaker proficient in multiple languages ​​builds a larger network of connections between linguistic features through practices (Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p. 111). Therefore, by combining information, learners are able to think and react more quickly. Additionally, Lightbown et al. wrote about a study led by Jacqueline Johnson and Elissa Newport (1989). In the study, 46 Chinese and Korean speakers who started learning English as a second language at different ages are tested. They are asked to decide whether there is a grammatical or spelling error in several complete sentences and to match their answer to twelve main categories. The result shows that people who started learning English from a young age had the highest scores (Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p. 95). Indeed, people who became multilingual in their childhood and adolescence benefited the most from procedural knowledge and were able to build a complete network of associations in their brain. Not only can multilingualism improve their abilities to remember and process information as part of their cognitive skills, but adolescents may also possess stronger executive functions. Executive functions are cognitive processes including selections, attentions, and cognitive flexibility. These are crucial skills for adolescents because they are closely linked to their thinking, reasoning and visual processes. According to Raluca Barac and Ellen Bialystok, some studies from past decades provide strong evidence that multilingualism before peak age has no relation to the growth of intelligence but has enormous positive effects on the development of executive functions ( Barac & Bialystok, 2011, p. One of the researches was carried out in Switzerland by Lewis Balkan (1970), professor at the University of Brussels. Balkan created several non-verbal tests to precisely measure cognitive flexibility in three controlled groups: participants in the first group became bilingual before the age of 4; participants in the second group became bilingual between the ages of 4 and 14; and the participants in the last group are monolingual. The results show that the first and second groups perform significantly better than the third group. (Diaz, 1983, p. 36). Therefore, multilingualism has an extremely positive influence on cognitive skills, including memorization, information processing and executive functions. Additionally, multilingualism is beneficial for adolescents' communication skills. Switching between languages ​​often allows adolescents to improve their ability to understand the points of view of others and express their own opinions, thereby strengthening their communication skills. In the book “How Languages ​​Are Learned,” Lightbown et al. wrote about the revised interaction hypothesis by Michael Long (1996), professor of second language acquisition at the University of Maryland, College Park. Long asserted that communication is an effective way to improve language skills because whenPresenters attempt to express an idea, they notice and compromise on meaning, and this negotiation is useful in the development of their language (Lightbown and Spada, 2013, p. 114). This will enable interlocutors to express their opinions more clearly and with less hesitation in the future. Additionally, research from the University of Chicago and Cornell University has shown that even minor multilingual learning can influence infants' abilities to understand and communicate. Sixty-four infants aged 14 to 17 months took part in the experiment, in which half of them were exposed to an additional language other than English, while others were not. On a table are two randomly selected toys, one visible to both the experimenter and the infant, and the other visible only to the infant. The experimenter then asked the infant to hand over the toy that he could see. For example, suppose the two toys are a toy car and a teddy bear, and the experimenter can see a toy car but not the teddy bear, he or she will ask, "Ooh, I see a car, can you Give it to me please? Two trials were tested for the two groups, one with two different toys and another with identical toys. The results showed that the multilingual group had an average correction of 0.683 while the monolingual group had an average correction of 0.553, so the multilingual group had ten percent better accuracy than the monolingual group (Liberman, WoodWard, Keysar and Kinzler , 2017). Therefore, they concluded that being multilingual for young children could improve their communication skills. However, there are opposing views that multilingualism might contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders. Since the rational part of the average teenager's brain is not fully developed and won't be until age 25, learning multiple languages ​​could have negative effects on their neural system. Uljarević et al. (2016) stated that learning multiple languages ​​can be difficult and overwhelming for some children and cause neurodevelopmental disorders (Uljarevic, Katsos, Hudry, & Gibson, p. 1205). However, no study has clearly shown the negative correlation between multilingualism and neurological development. Uljarević et al. searched 597 peer-reviewed studies on multilingualism and neurodevelopment. They first removed 465 of them after reading the abstracts, then removed 82 studies due to non-experimental methods, irrelevant research samples, and inconsistent discussions. Of the remaining fifty studies, more than half tested language performance, ten studies tested language functioning, and the remainder of the studies tested other neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability. The results showed that 94 percent of studies concluded that there is no relationship between multilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders, while three studies concluded that multilingualism may have a positive influence on language performance ( Uljarevic, Katsos, Hudry and Gibson, 2016, p. Therefore, there is no evidence demonstrating that multilingualism contributes to neurodevelopmental disorders in adolescents under the age of fifteen. Additionally, parents and researchers are concerned that learning multiple languages ​​for children with ASD may further harm their communication skills. ASD, short for Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a disorder that causes problems with communication and social interactions..