- In 2008 only a quarter of elementary schools in the U.S. offered some form of foreign-language instruction.
- Growing up bilingual does not lead to verbal delays as psychologists once supposed.
- Bilingual kids top monolinguals on several cognitive measures; they show greater mental flexibility, a superior grasp of abstract concepts and better working memory.
Many parents would like their children to master a second language, but few kids in this country do. Only 9 percent of adults in the U.S. are fluent in more than one language. In Europe that figure is closer to 50 percent. “The United States is a long way from being the multilingual society that so many of our economic competitors are,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at a meeting on foreign-language education last December.
Part of the problem is that American students are often not exposed to a second language until high school, and even then foreign-language training is rarely compulsory. Numerous studies have shown that children are more likely to learn a second language if they begin early, but in 2008 only a quarter of elementary schools in the U.S. offered some form of foreign-language instruction, according to the Department of Education.
This article was originally published with the title The Bilingual Advantage.