The Number of Bilingual Kids in America Continues to Rise

In 2016, 22% of American children, totaling over 12 million children speak languages ​​other than English at home. Over the past decade, this ratio has been raised by 2%, or 2 million children. At the state level, the percentage of children who do not speak English at home varies greatly from 44% in California to 2% in West Virginia.

In the past decade, the greatest leap of this statistic occurs in the District of Columbia (6% to 19% of all children), Maryland (5% to 19% of all children), and New Jersey did. 5 to 30% of children) In addition to English, Spanish is the most common language among families.

In families who do not have English as their mother tongue, it is difficult for 4% of children in the United States or a total of 4 million children to speak the main language of the country. According to experts, learning English is important as it allows children to participate fully in schools and American society. At the same time research shows that there is a clear advantage to ensuring that the first language of a child is maintained. Telling two or more languages ​​is related to concentrating, improving the problem, and improving the ability to concentrate. Multilingualism is also associated with better access to better psychological flexibility, higher cultural ability, stronger local and family ties, and high-paid work.

In 2016, 3% of the children in the United States (totaling 5 million children) were born overseas. This category includes US citizens who passed naturalization and children who are not US citizens. This ratio has not changed over the past five years

Bilingual education is increasing in the United States, and the number of schools offering bilingual programs continues to increase. According to a report issued by the US Department of Education, 39 US states provide some bilingual education in 2012 - 13 school year, the most common of which are Spanish - English and Chinese - English courses is. Critics say that teaching in English is important for assimilation for California's statewide claims but supporters say measures are needed to accommodate the country's large immigrant population I believe. In participating in a bilingual course, it is worth noting that immigrant children who speak little or no English are unlikely to be late for development.

Over the years, the intellectual level of bilingual children has been studied. There are many advantages to knowing how to speak a second language, and many studies show that bilingual children are wiser than others. Indeed, even people are aware of how the brain differs from bilingual and monolingual children. We often use the word "wisdom of the street" for children who know what is happening around us. Suitable for children learning other skills outside the school. Basically there is common sense. Bilingual children can be thought of as another natural "wisdom of the street". They have another holistic view. Language brings culture and understanding of others. In this way, bilingual children seem to be smarter.

Developmental psychologists have long been interested in the influence of the growth of bilingual families. Bilingual children, especially if the proficiency level of the language of school education is limited, may be difficult at first to play with other colleagues. However, in the long term, bilingualism may have a positive impact on certain cognitive abilities. One of the advantages is performance improvement (EF). Execution execution is a series of advanced cognitive skills that help people to manage themselves, especially their own ideas and behaviors themselves. These skills include suppression control, attention shift, and working memory, for example. Bilingual experience is related to improving EF skills and improvement of EF skills is related to improving academic performance