Takuya Kobayashi

Professor Ingram
UWRT 1102-053
April 7, 2015
Prepare to Take Place in a Global Society
First of all, my inquiry question is that Are there benefits to being bilingual? As I
have researched so far, there is no certain evidence that shows bilinguals are smarter
than Monolinguals, but I found out that Bilinguals definitely have some benefits in
many ways. I also conducted a survey for bilinguals and monolinguals. I asked them
some questions and also asked them to do some brain test games. This survey shows
some interesting results which might prove that bilinguals have benefits in remarkable
memory, and their brain age is younger than monolinguals. From these results, I would
like to say that American parents should encourage their children study foreign
languages.
I would like to show my research results to American parents. The reason why I
chose this audience is because when I asked my classmates what languages they have
taken in high school or in college language classes; it is uncommon that they take some
languages classes. Even if they have taken, most of them are in high school and only
primary level. In addition, my research results show that studying foreign language at an
early age has some advantages. Because they have the ability to mimic closely to that
languages intonation and pronunciation while older ones face difficulties because they
already have their native language which they got used to. A study conducted by
researchers from UCLA and the University of Hong Kong show that even adults with
significant exposure to a language in childhood can end up speaking like a native. By

starting early, your children can speak smoothly and confidently from the first(Masters
in TESOL.net, 52). Thus, parents should consider teaching
However, I assume that American parents would say why they need to teach their
children other languages when English is the universal language. They might also claim
that their children can learn in college. On the other hand, researchers show the research
results which are opposed to American parents claim. For instance, Roberta Michnick
Golinkoff Ph.D., author of How Babies Talk proved that learning a foreign language at
an early age is cognitively as easy as learning a first language. Furthermore, other
researchers have proven that students with four or more years of foreign language study
perform much better than monolinguals on many tests including all sections of the
Scholastic Aptitude Test(SAT) (TODAYs ZAMAN 15). As researchers have proven, it
is too late to study foreign language in college.
As they argue, I totally agree with researchers. I also did research about comparison
between bilinguals and monolinguals. I basically asked them a few questions to get
some ideas of their background, and their study habits. They also did a game which
could know their brain age and cognitive skills. Participants are currently in college age
20-22 and all bilinguals have been studying or knowing two languages more than five
years. I asked 10 bilinguals and 10 monolinguals, and used an app to measure their
brain age. In this game, you basically have to remember the numbers that will appear
for a few moments and then press them in ascending order, see figure 1.

As a result, average of bilinguals brain age is 29 years old

while monolinguals average is 37 years old. I also found out
that most of bilinguals GPA is higher than 3.0 while
monolinguals I asked have less people who have higher than

*figure 1

3.0 GPA. I was surprised that there are this much differences between them even
though I expected bilinguals to do better. Additionally, I thought it is interesting that
some bilinguals use different languages depending on the situation. For instance, a girl
who speaks English, Russian, and Tatar said that some English vocabularies cannot be
translated to Russian or Tatar so that she needs to use all the languages when she thinks
something. She also uses English and Russian at the same time when she talks to her
Russian friends. I can see she is using her brain efficiently and productively by using
different languages at the same time. These research results show that bilinguals
definitely have some benefits, and tend to do well on many things.
In addition, interestingly, bilinguals who were born in the US and were taught two
languages at the same time when they were child have higher GPA and did well on the
both tests than bilinguals who have been studying foreign languages for more than five
years. This result shows why studying foreign language at an early age makes them do
better at studying.
However, some monolinguals show some interesting results as well even though not
as much as bilinguals did. For instance, a few of them did well on the cognitive skills
test. Basically participants who played the game called The Brain must use their sight
and knowledge to determine the correct answer; essentially they use their cognitive
skills in order to progress in the game. The player must choose the correct word to and
color in order to advance. For example, the word blue will be filled in the color white

with a green background, and the correct answer will be shown in the same way see
figure 2.

*figure2

Honestly I was surprised that a few of monolinguals actually did really

well on this test because I assumed they would not do as well as bilinguals do. I was
watching all of them playing this test
and some of them did it way more smoothly and correctly than bilinguals.
But, there is a large gap even in monolinguals group; some did really
well on this test, some did badly. And still, the majority of bilinguals did better than
monolinguals so I can say that bilinguals did better on the cognitive skills test than
monolinguals did.
In conclusion, researchers and I have proven that bilinguals have some benefits, also
how learning a foreign language at an early age affects their brain in many ways. As I
stated above, bilinguals brain age is almost 10 years younger than monolinguals.
Bilinguals also did well on the test which measures their cognitive skills than
monolinguals did. Most interestingly, even in bilinguals group, people who were taught
two languages at the same time when they were child by their bilingual parents, did
better on the test, also doing their school work better than other bilinguals and
monolinguals. However, not only school work, but also there are some benefits outside
of school. In todays society, it has become more common that people go to abroad for
vacation. In such case, it is very useful and make your trip more fun to be able to
communicate with local people if you could speak a foreign language such as Spanish.
Additionally, children who grow up learning about languages develop empathy for

others and a curiosity for different cultures and ideas; prepared to take their place in a
global society.(The Telegraph, 61)*3 This quote explains that bilingual children are
disciplined, and open minded which are important for this globalized world. These
things are essential to survive nowadays and not only college, but also many companies
are looking for this kind of people to hire. Overall, I can say that bilinguals definitely
have some benefits than monolinguals do. Also, it would be difficult for American
parents to teach or let their children to learn foreign languages unless they are
bilinguals, but I strongly encourage them to do so.

References
*1 Steele, Ann. "MastersinTESOL.net." Why Children Should Be Learning a
Second

Language.

13

Apr.

2014.

Web.

21

Apr.

2015.

<http://www.mastersintesol.net/resources/second-language-learning-benefits-aguide-children>.

*2 Dincay, Turgay. "Advantages of Learning a Foreign Language at an Early

Age."

TodaysZaman.

25

Nov.

2011.

Web.

21

Apr.

2015.

<http://www.todayszaman.com/op-ed_advantages-of-learning-a-foreignlanguage-at-an-early-age_263877.html>.

*3 Ford, Catherin. "'Children Should Start Learning Languages at Age Three'"

The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11151726/Childrenshould-start-learning-languages-at-age-three.html>.