I had to create a twitter account and follow five educational leaders or sites as part of my assignment. One article, by bilingual readers, caught my attention because it talked about the benefits of having a bilingual education. I grew up in a bilingual household with two parents that only spoke spanish and I also received a bilingual education. I believe this has made me a valuable person, which is why I am also seeking my educational degree in bilingual education. While scimming through my twitter account, i came upon an interesting article about benefits of bilingual education. This article Bilingual Education was posted on a website called spanglish baby and the author, Roxana A. Soto, explains how her bilingual education benefited her. She shared some benefits of receiving a bilingual education and explains briefly how that also helped her in her professional career. One benefit is being biliterate which is reading and writing in two or more languages. I personally am biliterate and it is a great asset to have. Besides speaking two languages, knowing how to read and write in the second language will boost bigger and better opportunities. Another benefit she lists is having more choices for literature and other resources. Looking for information in a broader pool of resources gives that person more options for more information when researching and looking in the languages you know; the same thing with reading something in its original language and not getting "lost in translation." The third benefit is opportunities to study or work abroad. Students can find opportunities to study abroad if they are at ease with another language and this way they can expand the second language. If you can speak another language, that will also open more opportunities to work in another country. Another benefit is that a bilingual person can easily learn a third or fourth language; speaking another language makes it easier to learn an additional language. It becomes easier to learn a different language when you are already bilingual. Finally, obtaining more opportunities to work is another benefit. Roxana explains that her schooling in bilingual education has made her successful. It is the only reason she has been successful in her professional career as a journalist giving her the opportunity to be a journalist in both English and Spanish media as well as obtaining a higher salary.
The author of this article spoke briefly of how she has benefited from bilingual education and wishes to give her two children the same opportunity she received. Just as Roxana, i also have benefited from a bilingual education and want to help my future students and parents who do not speak English.
Another article posted on twitter by bilingual readers that also caught my eye was about myths of raising bilingual kids, which lists the stereotypes about bilingual students/children as being "slow learners." I have attached the link to the article for your happy reading.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2012/10/17/10552/book-excerpt-five-myths-about-raising-bilingual-ki/
More resources on twitter so follow me!
