How Bilingual Kids Get Ahead: 7 Benefits of Learning a Second Language
Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. ?
You’re wondering if you have the time and motivation to help your child learn a second language. And you’re not 100% convinced the effort will be worth it.
What benefits can a kid get from learning a second language?
With the internet and other technology making the globe seem smaller with each passing year, knowing additional languages is becoming more commonplace. It’s no longer the exception. And that’s a good thing for both your child and the people they interact with. Here are some of the biggest advantages becoming bilingual has for your child.
A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.
1. Opening Up the World of Travel
One of the most intimidating things about travel to many people is the language barrier. Language barriers have prevented some people from traveling to faraway destinations they would go visit if they only spoke the language there.
Now that travel to any part of the world is more accessible, it’s a shame to let anything get in the way of exploring our beautiful earth. Teaching your child a language could someday lead to them experiencing the joys of travel and the eye-opening experience of learning about other cultures.
Learning one country’s language opens up more travel possibilities than just that place though. Many languages are widely used throughout multiple countries. If you’re wanting to teach your child another language to help them travel throughout the world, look for a popular language that’s used many places. A useful choice is one your family, community or child has a reason to use.
2. A Shared Mental Workout
Learning and using another language asks children and adults to remember words, notice patterns and retrieve what they know in conversation.
Research on a broad bilingual advantage in memory or executive function is mixed, and it does not justify promising greater intelligence or protection from dementia. The honest family benefit is the practice itself: you can work on recall, attention and communication together.
Try naming things you notice on a walk, recalling yesterday’s words or taking turns telling a short story. This makes language practice active without turning a health claim into the reason to learn.
If you add a walk or another activity, treat the movement and the language practice as two worthwhile habits rather than a double-strength medical intervention.
3. Awareness of How Language Works
Using two languages can help children notice that the same idea can be expressed with different words and structures. Researchers call this metalinguistic awareness. The effect varies between children and tasks, so it is more useful to describe the skill than to promise a general boost in intelligence or concentration.
With so many electronic devices for kids to play with that gives them instant gratification, it’s good to give them an activity that doesn’t do all the work for them or give instant rewards for little effort. With language learning, you only get out of it what you put in.
If you’re worried your child may get frustrated trying to pick up one of the more difficult languages to learn, don’t worry. Some languages may feel more familiar to an English speaker, but motivation, access and regular use matter too. Start with a language your child has a reason to hear and use, then follow their interest.
Fi3M has child-friendly or beginner resources for several languages, including:
4. Better Job Opportunities
Will every child who attempts to learn a second language become fluent? Probably not. Their level will depend on their opportunities, support, interest and how often they use the language. Basic conversational ability is still useful. That’s not a bad thing, but it won’t benefit them as much as fluency will.
If they keep developing the language, it may widen some future study, work and communication options. The value depends on the role and how well they can use it, so fluency is not an automatic job advantage.
5. A More Realistic View of the World
Children naturally begin with the world close to them. Another language can give them more ways to meet people, stories and perspectives beyond that immediate circle.
Language learning does not automatically make a child empathetic. It can, however, create chances to listen to people in their own language and understand that communities organise daily life in different ways.
Those encounters may shape how they relate to people.
There’s so much intolerance in the world already. Shared language can make some conversations possible, one person at a time.
6. Stronger Family Bonds
A shared language can support family relationships, especially when it lets relatives speak directly with one another. Adding a second language is one way to create that opportunity.
If you have an elderly relative who only speaks one language, that’s not English, teaching your child that language will create stronger ties between them. They’ll be able to communicate without the help of anyone else, and they’ll get to know each other better. Once your child becomes more fluent with the language, they can spend more time together, conversing only in the new language.
Bringing together generations is just one of the great things learning a second language can do.
Are you an immigrant? Or did your ancestors come to this country, but you want to pay homage to that heritage? Teaching your kids a heritage language used by their family or community can be a great way to do that.
Whether it’s learning French, Spanish, German, or even Gaelic, they may value a linguistic connection with relatives and community history. That connection can contribute to a sense of belonging.
You can reinforce their feelings about this by showing them pictures of your ancestors who came from the country they’re learning the language from. Tell them what their name was and any other information you know about them. They’ll get a kick out of “meeting” some of their relatives.
7. Self-Confidence
Everyone loves to feel accomplished, and kids are no exception to that rule. Knowing a second language can give them that feeling. When you know you’ve tackled a daunting goal and accomplished what you set out to do, you can feel almost like a superhero. You feel as if there’s nothing you can’t do.
Learning another language can feel a bit like crossing the line when you’ve run your first marathon. You look back at how difficult it was in the beginning and you take pride in the fact that you never gave up, even when you had moments of self-doubt along the way. That can build confidence for the next challenge.
Final Tip: Manage Your Expectations and Have Fun
Teaching your child another language can open up a whole new world to both of you. Just remember, it will take patience and plenty of understanding to learn this new skill. Try to avoid turning it into a pressure-cooker situation where you are disappointed because you don’t feel they’re learning fast enough.
You want to make this a fun experience for your child because they’ll be more likely to want to learn. Being bilingual should be a positive thing, and you have the power to make it so by offering encouragement instead of criticism. If your child sticks with it, they may value the skill and the time you spent learning together.
Are you raising or planning to raise your children bilingual? Let us know which language they are learning, how it’s going, and if you have any tips and tricks that are working for you!
Social