Social science. The benefits of multilingualism.

  • Diamond J
ISSN: 0036-8075
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Abstract

Multilingualism the ability to understand and speak several languagesis exceptional in the United States but common elsewhere, especially in small-scale traditional societies. Multilingual people have a special challenge involving executive function. Bilingual education is politically controversial in the United States. Even immigrants whose native language is not English often believe that their children should learn only English and will be confused by learning two languages simultaneously. Monolinguals hearing a word need only compare it with their single stock of arbitrary phoneme and meaning rules, and when uttering a word they draw it from that single stock. Multilinguals have constant unconscious practice in using the executive function system.

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APA

Diamond, J. (2010). Social science. The benefits of multilingualism. Science (New York, N.Y.), 330(6002), 332–333.

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