Additive Bilingualism
Additive Bilingualism
In the process of learning additive bilingualism, a person learns the second language while keeping their first one fully Ibid. This mode of acquiring also drives cognitive growth, promotes the coexistence of different cultures, and helps people join the right communication channels, thus securing its effectiveness in multicultural societies.
What are the key benefits of additive bilingualism?
Additive bilingualism comes with a lot of advantages, such as improved cognitive flexibility, more effective problem-solving, and greater empathy for different cultures. According to research, bilingual people are likely to excel in cognitive tasks compared to monolingual people, including abilities such as attention control and multitasking. A case in point would be, students who are involved in additive bilingual programs are usually seen to achieve better performance in most of their subjects.
How does additive bilingualism differ from subtractive bilingualism?
Learning a second language alongside the primary language and gaining an emotional bond to it while being bitten off a piece of the snake is what is called additive and substractive bilingualism respectively. In particular, subtractive bilingualism is when learning a new language makes one forget his/her mother language or a language that is already acquired. For instance, a kid who simultaneously acquires the knowledge of Span and English through an additive context will still search for both languages even if he/she doesn't push for them. The distinction in being able to speak Spanish is that a child raised in a household where only English is spoken and this child does not come into contact with Spanish or is not taught it will lose the ability to speak it.
What role do educational programs play in promoting additive bilingualism?
The structured multilingual environments that are the most essential part of the educational programs for additive bilingualism to promote them. The programs like dual-language immersion or bilingual education strive to teaching both the target and first languages, with the skills in both languages, the students who come from different backgrounds also benefit from this. A good example is a dual-language school in English and Mandarin that not only teach language skills but also promote cultural understanding and appreciation.