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Q: Benefits of being bilingual ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Benefits of being bilingual
Category: Reference, Education and News > General Reference
Asked by: jpbischke-ga
List Price: $5.00
Posted: 02 Nov 2003 16:43 PST
Expires: 02 Dec 2003 16:43 PST
Question ID: 271995
I'm looking for some information on the benefits of being bilingual. 
There are many I'm sure but I'm looking for tangible numbers.  Things
like (and I'm making these up):

-Bilingual employees earn $5,000 more than their fellow non-bilingual
employees
-Bilingual employees score higher on measures of job satisfaction,
etc.

I'm looking for the benefit nd then the supporting reference.  A
satisfactory answer would consist of at least five of these benefits
along with a reference for each.  Although I realize that's it not an
encompassing definition I would bilingual to be defined as the
combination of English and another language.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Benefits of being bilingual
Answered By: belindalevez-ga on 03 Nov 2003 07:18 PST
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
<According to a study carried out by the University of Florida, the
University of Miami and the Florida Department of Education, Florida
Hispanics who are fluent in Spanish and English earn almost $7,000
more than their English-only counterparts. Bilingual Hispanics also
have the lowest poverty rates.
http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2000news/lingual.htm
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/florida/workforce99/demographic.htm

A study by the University of Wales shows that employees who can speak
both Welsh and English earn between 8 and 10 percent more than their
monolingual counterparts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1680990.stm

The Los Angeles Unified School District pays bilingual teachers a
bonus of up to $5,000 annually.
http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/vol4n22/Biling-en.shtml

In Canada bilinguals are less likely to be unemployed.
Bilingualism is an asset in gaining a job in the top companies.
Bilingual candidates can enter the job market and change jobs more
easily than unilingual persons.
http://www.cpfns.ednet.ns.ca/data/resource/bilingual.pdf

A study of bilingualism in employment in Canada found that bilinguals
had greater job opportunities. 30.1% of companies interviewed found
that bilingualism was a positive attribute.
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/lo-ol/perspectives/english/economic/ch5_09.html

The demand for bilingual employees throughout the world in increasing.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:cLK9VhYbev4J:www.sde.state.nm.us/div/learn.serv/Bilingual/dl/TA%2520Manual%252004-04-03/06.d.what.research.says.doc+%22bilingual+employees%22+survey&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

A comparison of data from 1971 to 1991 found that salaries for
bilingual employees were between 2.2 and 9.3% higher than monlingual
employees.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:-W_8YQErctMJ:www.uottawa.ca/services/irp/eng/survey_95-96.pdf+%22bilingual+employees%22+survey&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

According to a study in the U.S. 
bilinguals earn 7 percent more than monolinguals.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:kc1p0xigwmEJ:www.aueb.gr/espe2001/pdf/biling.pdf+%22bilinguals%22+%22percent+more%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Peal and Lambert found that bilinguals have higher IQ’s than
monolinguals. Their study found that bilinguals have greater mental
flexibility, greater abstract thinking, greater lexical independence,
superior concept formulation and higher verbal IQ than monolinguals.
http://mll.kenyon.edu/~howley/Biling.html

Bilinguals are more creative, better at solving complex problems, they
outperform monolinguals on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests.
They communicate more with people, read more literature, and travel
more.
http://www.cal.org/ericcll/faqs/raising.html

Bilingual children understand written languages faster than
monolingual children.
http://www.apa.org/releases/bilingual.html

The comparitive advantages of bilingualism on the job market.
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/lo-ol/perspectives/english/econo/part3a.htm



There are a number advantages that bilingual children have over
monolingual children. Learning a second language benefits a child’s
cognitive development. Bilingual children also tend to perform better
in other subjects like mathematics and science. Children who are
bilingual also have an increased capacity for learning languages as
adults.


A great deal of research has been carried out on bilingualism. An
excellent source of this research can be found by following the link
given below to ‘Database of bilingualism’ where details of the latest
research in this field can be found. The Bilingual Research Journal is
a good source for recent research into bilingualism. They have an
online archive of research published in the last 10 years. In order to
read the studies in the Bilingual Research Journal, you need an Adobe
PDF reader installed on your computer. You can download a free copy at
the link given below.

The following are extracts from The National Languages Institute of
Australia’s publication ‘Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. This
publication gives an overview of  the research carried out in
Australia and overseas:

"Controlled groups of monolinguals and balanced bilinguals were
compared and the bilinguals were found to be significantly ahead of
their monolingual counterparts in verbal and non verbal reasoning,
divergent thinking and subject matter attainment."

"..a number of studies (...) have shown bilinguals to be more
creative, cognitively more flexible and to perform better on tests of
verbal and non-verbal intelligence."

"Sixth grade bilingual children were found to perform significantly
better on all tests than monolinguals (..)."

"They found that bilinguals demonstrated greater verbal ability,
performed better on measures of concept formation and scored higher on
tests of verbal originality than did monolinguals."

"(...) bilingual children, by virtue of their two languages, are
exposed to a more complex environment and to a greater amount of
social interaction compared to children acquiring only one language."

"(..) code switching means the switching from one language (or a
variety of a language) to another part of a sentence or conversation.
Many outsiders see code switching as a sign of linguistic decay, the
unsystematic results of not knowing at least one of the languages
involved very well. A wide range of research into bilingualism
indicate that the opposite is really the case (Appel & Muysken
1987:117)."

"(..) bilingual children appear to pass through similar sequences in
the development of both their languages as do monolingual children".

"Lambert and Tucker (1972) indicate that children who learn a second
language at school experience positive social development. These
children tend to adopt a dual reference group maintaining anchors to
the primary reference group of their original language and culture and
at the same time developing anchors in the secondary reference group
of the new language and culture. Children who learn a second language
can, therefore, add to their existing social repertoire without
compromising their existing social integration".

"Genesse (1987) has shown that children who acquire a second language
tend to be more open-minded and more tolerant than their monolingual
counterparts".>



<Additional links:>

<Database of bilingualism research.>
<http://www.edu.bham.ac.uk/bilingualism/database/ctlage.htm>

<Research into bilingualism.>
<http://brj.asu.edu/>

<National association for bilingual education.>
<http://www.nabe.org/>

<Bilingual parenting in a foreign language.>
<http://www.byu.edu/~bilingua/faq.html#question06>

<Bilingualism.>
<http://www.lsadc.org/web2/faq/bilingualism.htm>


<Adobe pdf reader –free download.>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html>

<Bilingual Research Journal archive.>
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/nabe/brj/>

<Cognitive development in bilingual children: A case for bilingual
instruction in early childhood education.>
<http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/nabe/brj/v20/20_34_lee.pdf>

<Cognitive development in bilingual children: A case for bilingual
instruction in early childhood education – downloadable pdf file.>
<http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/nabe/brj/v20/20_34_lee.htm>

<Bilingualism and bilingual education.>
<http://www.unavarra.es/tel2l/eng/BilingEd.htm>

<Scientific studies of bilingualism.>
<http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language/bilingual.htm>

<Camberwell primary school bilingual program.>
<http://www.camberwellps.vic.edu.au/bilingual.htm>

<Search strategy:>

<bilingualism advantages>	
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bilingualism+advantages>

<"bilinguals" "percent more">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22bilinguals%22+%22percent+more%22>


<bilingual advantages>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bilingual+advantages>


<Hope this helps.>
jpbischke-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $3.00
Awesome answer.  Above and beyond the call of duty!!! :)

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