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1. Language learning correlates with higher academic achievement on standardized test measures. =2. The Modern Language Association Language Map =

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==4. advantages of bilinguism == 5. There is evidence that early language learning improves cognitive abilities.
 * Article #5 //There is evidence that early language leanring improves cognitive abilities.// Foster, K.M. & Reves, C.K. (1989) Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) improves cognitive skills. FLES News, 2(3) 4.**
 * This study looks at the effects of an elementary school foreign language program on basic skills by looking at the relationship between months of elementary foreign language instruction in French and scores on instruments designed to measure cognitive and metacognitive processes.
 * The study included 67 sixth-grade students who were divided into four groups that differed by lengths of time in the foreign language program.
 * There was a control group of 25 students who had no French instruction and three groups of students who had participated in the program for different lengths of time (6.5 months, 15.5 months, and 24.5 months).
 * The students who did receive foreign language instruction had received 30 minutes of French instruction daily after 30 minutes of basal reading in English.
 * The control group received an additional 30 minutes of reading instruction in place of foreign language instruction
 * The results of the analysis showed that the groups who received foreign language instruction scored significantly higher in three areas (evaluation on the Ross test, total score of all cognitive functions on Ross test, and total score on Butterfly and Moths test) than the control group.
 * **In particular, the students who had received foreign language instruction scored higher on tasks involving evaluation which is the highest cognitive skill according to Bloom's taxonomy. The linear trend analysis showed that the students who had studied French the longest performed the best.**

6. The effects on foreign language instruction on basic learning in elementary school
Article #6 The Effect of Foreign Language Instruction on Basic Learning in Elementary Schools
 * Focus: "To what extent does the teaching of foreign language in the elementary schools effect pupil achievement in the basic skills?"
 * Two third grade classrooms in Champaign, Illinois were involved in pilot study
 * Both groups were given the Science Research Associates Achievement Series tests- data was analyzed to see which of the groups differed in gains in basic skills achievement
 * Children in experimental group received FL instruction from native Spanish speaker
 * method of presentation was oral-aural
 * no instruction in reading or writing
 * presentation- dialogues, pictures, charts, games
 * Experimental Group-25 students, Control Group- 26 students

**7.** Research in Support of Elementary School Foreign Language Learning
8. To read the whole article download the pdf. The following paragraph is part of the article. While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty. "We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker." Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instructionover the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site. What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.

9.Foreign Language Teaching in U.S. Schools: Results of a National Survey
10.Resuts of a National survey. Foreign languages in USA schools

Add PDF Why, How, and When Should My Child Learn a Second Language?

A few samples of what researcher say:
**"**//**Third, fourth, and fifth graders studying languages showed significantly higher scores on the 1985 Basic Skills Language Arts Test than a similar group of nonparticipants. In addition, by fifth grade the math scores of language students were also higher than those of nonlanguage students."**// Rafferty, E.A. (1986) **"**//**These <**//**bilingual>** //**children score well above anticipated national norms in both reading and mathematics and higher than the average of all magnet school participants."**// Andrade, C. et al. (1989) **"**//**Students who speak more than one language perform higher than their monolingual counterparts on tests of academic achievement, cognitive flexibility, and creativity"**// (Moran & Hakuta, 1995; Bialystok & Hakuta, 1991; Rafferty, 1986; Hakuta & Diaz, 1985; Saxe, 1983, others **"**//**Research suggests that students who receive second language instruction are more creative and better at solving complex problems than those who do not."**//  Bamford and Mizokawa, (1991)  **"**//**People who are bilingual have an advantage over the rest of us, and not just in terms of communication skills. The bilingual brain develops more densely, giving it an advantage in various abilities and skills, according to new research...brain imaging showed that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter compared with monolingual participants."**//  Miranda Hitti -WebMD Medical News (Oct. 13, 2004) **"**//**The difference was especially significant in the brain's left side -- an area known to control language and communication skills. The right hemisphere of bilingual speakers also showed a similar trend.**//  //**As in the first test, increases in gray matter density in the brain's left region were linked to age at which a person became bilingual. The earliest second language learners had the densest gray matter in that part of the brain.**//  //**Our findings suggest that the structure of the human brain is altered by the experience of acquiring a second language."**//  Mechelli, A. Nature, (October 2004)  //**"The power to learn language is so great in the young child that it doesn’t seem to matter how many languages you throw their way. They can learn as many as you allow them to hear systematically and regularly at the same time."**//  Susan Curtis, linguistics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. **"**//**The researchers say that although language is thought to be mediated by functional changes in the brain, they show that being bilingual structurally changes the brain. Their study shows the effect was strongest in people who had learned a second language before age 5.**// //**Those who had learned <**//**a second language>** //**at a young age had greater proficiency in reading, writing, talking, and understanding English speech."**// (Mechelli, A. Nature, October 2004) **"**//**An obvious advantage of knowing more than one language is having expanded access to people and resources. Individuals who speak and read more than one language have the ability to communicate with more people, read more literature, and benefit more fully from travel to other countries. Introducing students to alternative ways of expressing themselves and to different cultures gives greater depth to their understanding of human experience by fostering an appreciation for the customs and achievements of people beyond their own communities. Ultimately, knowing a second language can also give people a competitive advantage in the work force by opening up additional job opportunities"**// (Villano, 1996) 11. Math and language - are they processed in the same area of the brain?