Nowadays still being many myths about bilingualism.If you have heard about any of them there multlipe researches that show they are false. Here are the most common of theme:
"Learning two languages confuses a child and lowers his intelligence." Bilingual children are neither less not more intelligent than monolingual, but as we spoke in other post bilingual kids have higher metalinguistic sensitivity. And language mixing is not a sign of linguistic confusion.
"A child who learns two languages won't feel at home in either of them. She'll always feel caught between two cultures." Bilingual adults generally say they never had problems knowing what groups they were a part of.
"Bilinguals have split personalities." Some bilinguals do report feeling that they have a different "personality" for each language. However, this may be because they are acting according to different cultural norms when speaking each of their languages.
"Parents who speak a language other than English to their children will hurt their children's chances for academic success in this country. " it is best for parents to speak the language they are most fluent in to their children. This could be the native language or a language the parents speak very well. If parents speak to their children in a language the parents do not know well themselves, then they are providing a model for children of a language that is not fully developed.
"The older a person is, the harder it is to acquire a second language." Only some tasks, like acquiring pronunciation, are easier for children, but and adult can learn the second language like a native but it will be more difficult form him.
These and more myths are in the book 7 steps to raising a bilingual child by Naomi Steiner MD with Susan L. Hayes. 2008
"Parents who speak a language other than English to their children will hurt their children's chances for academic success in this country. " it is best for parents to speak the language they are most fluent in to their children. This could be the native language or a language the parents speak very well. If parents speak to their children in a language the parents do not know well themselves, then they are providing a model for children of a language that is not fully developed.
"The older a person is, the harder it is to acquire a second language." Only some tasks, like acquiring pronunciation, are easier for children, but and adult can learn the second language like a native but it will be more difficult form him.
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