Years ago, working in a mental hospital I listened to a couple of Viennese doctors saying that a second language would make children schizophrenic. I laughed at the thought since I was raised bilingually and am certainly not schizophrenic. Now research is showing how infants brains get wired in for distinguishing sounds made from each language.
While not formal research, I can say that my nephew (not yet 3 years old then) ran up to me and started to speak (in Greek) about a parade a block away. He noticed a girlfriend of mine was there and instantly switched to English, never making an error by confusing either language.
An added advantage in a bilingual household (at least it was for me) is that I was taught to listen more carefully to my parents, who spoke a accented, broken English as it was not their first language and both were in their teens when they started to learn it. This ability carried over to all accents, making it easier for me to understand English in foreign accent than my monolingual friends were able to do. In fact, one of my neighbors could not understand the Indian computer 'help' person and called me in. When the problem wasn't solved by that person, the next person was clearly a black, Southern woman with a heavy, drawling accent. He had to hang up and dial another person as he could not understand her while I had no difficulty.
These are interesting findings that educators need to understand more fully as well. Teaching young children may be quite different than with an older person. Today's use of computers in school allows students to keep their own pace as well as to learn languages interactively.
While not formal research, I can say that my nephew (not yet 3 years old then) ran up to me and started to speak (in Greek) about a parade a block away. He noticed a girlfriend of mine was there and instantly switched to English, never making an error by confusing either language.An added advantage in a bilingual household (at least it was for me) is that I was taught to listen more carefully to my parents, who spoke a accented, broken English as it was not their first language and both were in their teens when they started to learn it. This ability carried over to all accents, making it easier for me to understand English in foreign accent than my monolingual friends were able to do. In fact, one of my neighbors could not understand the Indian computer 'help' person and called me in. When the problem wasn't solved by that person, the next person was clearly a black, Southern woman with a heavy, drawling accent. He had to hang up and dial another person as he could not understand her while I had no difficulty.
These are interesting findings that educators need to understand more fully as well. Teaching young children may be quite different than with an older person. Today's use of computers in school allows students to keep their own pace as well as to learn languages interactively.
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