Bilingual Advantage

As language researchers, we know that bilingualism has lifelong cognitive, social, economic, academic, and cultural benefits. We also know that there is incredible language diversity in the U.S. with more than 150 different languages spoken just in Illinois households with school-age children.

But too often, parents who speak languages other than English choose to stop speaking their home language to their children because they think it will be better for them. Sometimes this stems from the parents’ experiences, especially if they arrived in the U.S. speaking little or no English. They naturally want to give their children what they didn’t have – English – not knowing that by speaking their home language they can actually improve their children’s chances of academic success in school without hampering their English in any way.

What’s more, parents often are convinced that they shouldn’t speak their home language by teachers, educators, speech language pathologists, and even healthcare professionals, whose training revolved around monolingual (English-speaking) children.

This is preventable and “The Bilingual Advantage Starts at Home” project aims to tackle the issue and raise awareness of the benefits of bilingualism among teachers, parents, and families in Illinois so that everyone can make an informed decision about their language use.