Effect of Growing up in a Bilingual Household

#The cognitive process of learning language is complex. A main part of learning spoken and written language is something called phonological awareness (Chen, 2004) (Chiappe, 2007) which describes the individual's cognition of the fact that words are made up of multiple sound units. Another large part of language learning is orthographic awareness - the understanding of language based on its written construction (Liow, 2006). This applies to both spelling and syntax.

There is debate over whether growing up in a bilingual environment has positive or negative effects on children's phonological and orthographic awareness, and thus their ability to learn to read and speak fluently. There is much evidence that metalinguistic awareness, that is understanding of the overarching syntactic principles of language, is greater in children who are bilingual (Chen, 2004). Hammer and Miccio point out that the process of learning to read begins long before the commencement of formal instruction in school. This is due to the "language and literacy events" that children are exposed to at home and in the environment (Hammer, 2006). Being exposed to an environment with multiple languages would certainly have an influence on one's phonological development. However, there is also evidence that lower socioeconomic status has a significant impact on this process as well, and can negate the positive effects of growing up in a bilingual environment (Hammer, 2006; Liow, 2006).

A study by Chen et al. that found that phonological awareness was greater in children who spoke Cantonese Chinese at home and later learned Mandarin Chinese in school as opposed to those children who spoke Mandarin both at home and in school. Chinese is a distinct language in that two words whose pronunciation is identical can have two different meanings because of differences in the cadence of spoken tones. While Mandarin Chinese has four types of tones, Cantonese has as many as nine (Chen, 2004). The authors found that students whose first language was the Cantonese dialect (which differs so significantly from the Mandarin that it is virtually unintelligible to a Mandarin speaker) had a more developed phonological awareness during early learning, but that the differences were not significant in later childhood. The authors concluded that in the early stages of language learning, the bilingual children were at a significant advantage, but that later on the monolingual children "caught up" with the bilingual children on measures of phonological awareness.

A study by Liow and Lau discussed the fact that, when the two languages are very dissimilar, being bilingual may not aid phonemic awareness, and may even hinder it. This depends on the structure of the languages, on the school programs, and the socioeconomic status of the families (Liow, 2006). This study found that students who were either bilingual English-Mandarin or English-Malay speakers often had problems with orthographic awareness. The authors hypothesized that the influence of a first language other than English at home cause the children to have "inefficient processing in English" (Liow, 2006). One striking difference between these two studies is that the two languages spoken by the test subjects were vastly different in structure.

There is much evidence that bilingual children from low-income families can have even lower letter identification scores than monolingual children. A study by the Department of Health and Human Services conducted in 2003 found that preschool children who were English second-language-learners were tested on letter recognition abilities and found to be below the national norm in both English and Spanish (their first language). Subsequently, these children did not gain as many letters as did children who were monolingual English speakers, throughout the course of the year.

There are clearly many factors influencing the development of phonological, orthographic, and metalinguistic awareness in children. Both monolingual and bilingual children are also subject to the influences of their home environment, which include their parents' languages, and family socioeconomic status.

Multiple Languages play an important role in a child's ability to be successful at learning, speaking, reading and communicating socially. This role has an impact on relationships, particularly beginning with the teacher-student and student-student relationships. A study was done on 345 Spanish-speaking pre-kindergarteners and 161 different pre-k programs around the U.S (Chang, 2007). The study found that Spanish-speaking students with teachers who spoke Spanish in the classrooms had better social skills and closer relationships with their teachers than students whose teachers did not speak Spanish in the classroom. With an increase in the use of English in the classroom, the rate of misconduct and learning problems increase, but the level of tolerance for frustration decreased. Outside of the classroom, students whose teachers spoke Spanish in the classrooms experienced less bullying and teasing by their classmates.

The education of students whose dominant language is not English is the responsibility of every school district/ charter school in the country. Several regulations and guidelines have been put into effect to ensure English Language Learners are properly educated. Every school must provide a program for every student who is limited English proficient (LEP).

Based on the court case Lau vs. Nichols in 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that providing students with the same textbooks, teachers, and curriculum does not offer an equal educational opportunity for non-English speakers (Perez, 2005). All schools must take steps to overcome educational barriers faced by non-English speakers.

The Enforcement policy of 1991 addressed all previous points that "fell between the lines." Under this new law: Teachers in the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs must be trained and evaluated by someone with previous experience in the program, the exit criteria should be based on the program's objectives, and ESL cannot be excluded from gifted/ talented or other special programs (Perez, 2005).

Based on the court case, Plyler vs. Doe in 1982, the Supreme Court declared that schools do not have the authority to enforce immigration laws (Perez, 2005). The fourteenth amendment prohibits schools to deny free public education to undocumented immigrants regardless of their immigrant status.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights requires the school district to administer a home language survey (HLS sample on page _) to all the students (Educating Students, 2001). If the student's primary language is not English, the school must conduct