The purpose of this essay is to analyze the benefits of being bilingual for a person's cognitive development. Unlike the understanding of bilingualism in the early 20th century, where nationalist policymakers and researchers considered bilingualism's interference and hindrance of cognitive function to negatively affect students' development, ample evidence has been provided about its benefits. Evidence suggests that the interference of bilingualism pushes the brain to resolve an internal conflict, which results in cognitive development compared to monolinguals. In a 2012 study by Barac and Bialystok, they studied Spanish-English bilinguals, Chinese-English bilinguals, French-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals to investigate bilingual influence on cognitive development. Barac and Bialystok found that all bilingual groups outperformed monolinguals on executive tasks. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Additionally, collective evidence from other studies suggests that bilingualism improves the brain's executive function. Since the brain's executive function involves directing attention processes, it means that bilinguals exhibit greater mastery in solving problems, making decisions, planning, among other activities that require attention such as remembering. First, bilingualism increases the ability to monitor one's surroundings as it requires one to keep track of changes. For example, a bilingual may need to use two languages ​​interchangeably. When it comes to flexible thinking skills, bilinguals display a high sense of creativity as their proficiency diversifies their thinking about new and different ideologies acquired through another language. Despite language barriers that may be experienced, such as dialect, bilingualism increases opportunities for superiority in terms of linguistic, academic, and cognitive performance. This may be based on the awareness that a bilingual acquires as he or she learns an additional language and assimilates the acquired knowledge and ideas with what he or she already knows. Appreciating the various advantages of bilingualism's communicative competence, bilingualism increases the communication skills of individuals. As bilinguals learn the new language, significant transfer of phonological features occurs, particularly in the existence of common elements of phonological input. Such transfer is beneficial in learning as it improves bilinguals' linguistic proficiency in other languages ​​as well, bilingualism broadens the context of exposure to distinct literacy resources across language barriers. Through bilingualism it helps the orientation of the brain as it stimulates communicative and linguistic awareness, while improving communication skills. This is evident in the study by Barak and Bialystok who examine how education, language, and cultural background enhance language development among bilinguals. Additionally, bilingualism has been associated with cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. As previously mentioned about the benefits of bilingualism on executive control systems, this cognitive activity declines with healthy aging. With the idea that stimulating mental practices hinders cognitive decline, these continue to benefit the brain as individuals age. However, bilingualism puts constant pressure on the brain's executive control in managing attention to different languages, meaning that this continuous mental practice strengthens cognitive reserve. By this logic, this means that bilingualscan cope with the onset of Alzheimer's disease more effectively than their monolingual counterparts. Considering cognitive performance over the course of an individual's life, with children continuing into old age and people spending their lives, bilingual individuals reveal significant differences. In the classroomIn this context, bilingualism shows high academic performance. Bilinguals can often have a stereoscopic view of the world from different linguistic and cultural perspectives. Such skills improve flexibility in learning and thinking. Knowledge of two or more languages ​​allows the individual to grasp Information as it facilitates interaction with learning experiences. On numerous occasions, bilinguals find themselves constantly referring to vocabulary and the dictionary as they try to master new words, phrases and even understand their meaning. As a result, this improves their ability to learn and remember vocabulary better than monolingual students. Bilingualism allows a student to have a broader context of opportunities to understand the language and transfer knowledge, consequently making it easier for him or her to learn cognates between languages. Additionally, learning a new language requires mastery of concepts and rules. Through bilingualism, it benefits students in American classrooms by providing them with a wide range of different strategies by equipping them with the skills needed to manage rules and concepts that control language and culture, among other aspects related to bilingualism. As a result, bilingual students exhibit a high sense of self-control, which has been widely used as an indicator of instruction in school. Because the bilingualism debate centers on language and significantly involves culture, bilingualism has helped foster students' authentic cultural identities. . For example, it is certain that heritage language students' identities will change as they learn languages ​​to fit into the dominant culture of American schools. Often, cultural identity events play a significant role in the overall equation of educational equality, meaning they influence how people perceive and respond to others, which, in one way or another, shapes the personal identity. With the various issues surrounding bilingualism such as ethnicity and race, learning a new language does not mean loss of cultural identity or acquisition of the cultures of the new language as you maintain identification with your native culture. By challenging arguments regarding the necessity of assimilation of minorities into American culture, bilingualism advances the goals of social justice and student self-determination, thereby maintaining authentic cultural identities. In other cases, bilingualism strengthens the recognition and respect of culture and language which guarantees the ability to develop a sense of biculturalism. Along with this sense of biculturalism, students can make more and better choices. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay To conclude, the various benefits of being bilingual essay are discussed in this. Based on various studies, several advantages of bilingualism over monolingual counterparts have been found. For example, as mentioned above, bilingualism has led to higher academic achievement, cognitive developments, as well as delayed Alzheimer's disease. Works Cited Barac, R., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingual effects on cognitive and linguistic development: Role of language, cultural background, and education.:, 22(3), 415-422.