Topic > Differences between bilingual and monolingual children in education

IndexExploring the different learning potentials of bilingual and monolingual childrenBilingualism and mutual exclusivity: evidence from the Davidson and Tell experimentsThe influence of linguistic properties and bilingualism on the use of constraints mutual exclusivityConclusionReferencesBilingualism offers a unique perspective on language acquisition and cognitive development, challenging conventional notions of linguistic competence and highlighting the advantages that come from mastering multiple languages. This essay aims to explore the differences between bilingual and monolingual children, focusing on their educational experiences and learning outcomes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Bilingual children are immersed in two language systems from an early age, allowing them to navigate multiple cultural contexts and develop a broader worldview. They possess a remarkable ability to switch between languages, adapt to different communication styles and understand different cultural nuances. This flexibility and adaptability can positively influence their cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, and overall academic performance. In contrast, monolingual children interact primarily within a single language system, which may limit their exposure to different languages ​​and cultures. Although monolingualism does not imply any deficit in cognitive abilities or academic achievement, understanding the differences between monolingual and bilingual children can help educators and policymakers adapt educational approaches to better support linguistic diversity. Exploring the different learning potentials of bilingual and monolingual children Once children have learned how they segment words from speech streams using stress patterns and rhythmic properties of the ambient language(s), they will encounter the mapping problem, also known as meaning indeterminacy of words. The possibilities for associating the meaning of the word with a referent or with any property of the referent could be limitless: how does the child who hears the word /k^p/ know that the "vessel used for drinking" is labeled instead of the handle of the cup or the material of the cup? What happens if the child is bilingual and another language system is also involved? One theory that has made this problem solvable is that the early stages of children's lexical development are conducted through the acquisition of a set of lexical constraints, or principles, and these lexical constraints might help children limit the possibilities they consider as they map the new words they heard. their contacts. The principle of mutual exclusivity, "limiting the potential meanings of words by assuming that labels for objects are mutually exclusive or have only one name," is one of the constraints suggested by the researchers. On the other hand, for bilingual and monolingual children, the use of mutual exclusivity might be drastically different from each other. As Gathercole noted in his research, monolingual children showed a propensity to use mutual exclusivity: when an object has a known name, monolingual children tend to assume that any additional name given to the object refers to the properties of this object. In contrast, because bilingual children gain the experience of acquiring two different names for an object as a daily routine, the theory has been proposed that bilingual children tend to demonstrate less reliance on the use of mutual exclusivity for their lexical development . Furthermore, in light of the studyprevious, one might have known that the properties of a language could also exert an influence on the use of lexical constraints such as mutual exclusivity, such as the emphasis on mass and count of nouns. Hence, in the following essay, the extent, reasons, and consequences of the difference between bilingual children and their monolingual peers will be discussed in the use of mutual exclusivity in naming entire objects, both with and without the influence exerted by a particular language on bilingual children. Bilingualism and Mutual Exclusivity: Evidence from Davidson and Tell's Experiments Davidson and Tell's recent research highlighted the theory proposed by Au and Glusman by conducting two sets of experiments. The subjects of the experiment consisted of 40 bilingual Urdu and English children and 40 monolingual English children from middle-class Americans. The main goal of the first experiment is that participants (both bilingual and monolingual children) have to decide whether the invented nonsense names refer to the entire object or to the salient part of that object. For the second experiment, however, the goal was to examine the influence of specific instructions given to participants in a specific language (which in this case is English) on their use of mutual exclusivity in naming entire objects. Therefore, according to the final result, the theory proposed by Au and Glusman was highlighted, as monolingual children demonstrated significant reliance on the mutual exclusivity constraint by mainly associating nonsense names with the salient replacement part of a familiar object. This result was drastically different from that of their bilingual peers, who showed less propensity to use mutual exclusivity. Thus, excluding the influence exerted by a particular language, for children in the early stages of lexical development, bilingual children show less reliance on the use of mutual exclusivity than monolingual children. Furthermore, bilingualism may exert a stronger influence on children's acquisition of lexical principles. while at least those associated with mutual exclusivity are emerging in later stages of lexical development. For example, research by Davidson et al., with participants as young as 6 years of age, observed that monolingual children are ready to use the principle of mutual exclusivity during the rejection test (showing a willingness to resist by associating invented labels for objects known), compared to their bilingual peers. Meanwhile, compared to the research of Merriman et al., with participants of 6~8 years of age, it could be seen that with increasing age, monolingual children would show a greater propensity to use mutual exclusivity, assigning a new name to a salient replacement part of an object. Furthermore, the disambiguation test included in Davidson et al.'s experiment could be used to further strengthen this point of view. Developmental distinctions were notable during the disambiguation test (the test aims to examine participants' willingness to refer a new name to a new object), in which 90% of monolingual participants are willing to associate new names with new referents. For their bilingual peers, the result was 69%, which could be considered as evidence of bilingual children's use of the mutual exclusivity constraint. Meanwhile, unlike bilingual participants, the disambiguation effect is more likely to manifest itself on older monolingual participants, while the same result was not observed on older bilingual participants. Therefore, although it can be shown that bilinguals could use mutual exclusivity to some extent, they still seemed to rely less on the principles oflearning words, at least those used by their monolingual peers. The influence of linguistic properties and bilingualism on word learning Use of the mutual exclusivity constraint On the other hand, as suggested by Gathercole and Min's research, bilingualism itself cannot be considered the only engine capable of broadening the Difference between bilingual children and their monolingual peers in the use of the mutual exclusivity constraint. . Although, as mentioned above, it could be argued that bilinguals possess a potentially higher demand for filling lexical gaps given their experiences of consistently assigning two names (from two different environmental language groups), bilingualism itself cannot yet be considered the main reason behind the difference in the use of the mutual exclusivity constraint. That is, a child's act of assigning a new noun to a new referent might be due to the fact that, instead of having two names for a new object, a child might want to avoid the circumstance in which the object has no name at all. . Therefore, the different properties (e.g., mass distinction/noun count) of different languages ​​should also be considered when exploring the difference in the use of the mutual exclusivity constraint between bilingual and monolingual children. Consequently, the language in which the instructions were given also plays a significant role when exploring the difference in the use of mutual exclusivity. As discussed above, it can be seen that the difference between languages ​​is a vital factor and should be taken into consideration while conducting experiments on the difference in the use of mutual exclusivity between bilingual children and monolingual children. Meanwhile, this factor is also what was overlooked in the design of Davidson and Tell's experiment. Therefore, the second experiment failed to examine the effect of bilingualism itself on the difference in children's acquisition of word learning principles. The research conducted by Gathercole and Min, however, with monolingual English children and bilingual English/Korean children, could be used to address this problem. The design of their experiment recognized the drastic syntactic difference between the Korean language and the English language, that unlike Korean, in English there is a strong distinction between mass nouns and countable nouns. So, while other parts of the experiment design aligned with the second experiment with Davidson and Tell, the instructions given to the participating children were in both Korean and English. As shown in their results, it was found that no obvious preference was demonstrated in associating the referent with the entire object when instructions were given in English to Korean/English bilingual children. Meanwhile, it was preferred to name the entire object when instructions were given in Korean. Based on this result, one might observe that different properties of languages ​​should be considered a more important factor in bringing out differences in the early acquisition of word learning constraints by bilinguals, rather than bilingualism itself. Therefore, based on what was discussed above, the difference in the use of mutual exclusivity in naming whole objects is a combined effect resulting from both bilingualism and language properties such as syntax and grammar. However, after bilingual children emerge into adulthood, their use of the mutual exclusivity constraint may vary from the early stages of lexical development. As Au and Glusman observed from a series of experiments, adult bilinguals demonstrated the same level of maintenance of mutual,, 4(1), 139–146.