Crawford has written in support of Krashen’s and Cummins’ theories, in that the exposure to a new language doesn’t lie within the repetition, but from the quality of the exposure, or input, that the learner is receiving. He advocates in support of immersion within that language for more successful acquisition.

But he also points out the shortcomings with policies such as No Child Left Behind in that the law doesn’t adequately address all of the challenges that second-language learners face with respect to setting goals for academic excellence that are too difficult to achieve because schools are ill-equipped to help these students reach the prescribed accomplishments. He feels that the mandates in place under the law are too “one size fits all”. While they may prove effective to native language students, they don’t take into account the difficulties second language learners face in not just understanding English, but succeeding with their studies in other topics and subjects. Crawford has argued that second language learners need particular assessments that are more in tune with their needs, but they are woefully under-served in this regard. They need unique instructional programs, alternative teaching models, comprehensive diagnosis and monitoring procedures in place to determine proper proficiency levels in a bid for greater accountability for their academic success. For these children, social and economic development could become greatly stunted and, as a result, they will fall behind in the American experience as adults.

Check out the video trailer for the popular elementary book, Letters Forever.

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Her study, published in the journal, Psychological Science, showed that children who speak more than one language are better at communication than children who speak just a single language.

She wrote: “We took a group of children in the United States, ages 4 to 6, from different linguistic backgrounds, and presented them with a situation in which they had to consider someone else’s perspective to understand her meaning….Children in multilingual environments have social experiences that provide routine practice in considering the perspectives of others. They have to think about who speaks which language to whom, who understands which content, and the times and places in which different languages are spoken…Interestingly, we also found that children who were effectively monolingual yet regularly exposed to another language — for example, those who had grandparents who spoke another language — were just as talented as the bilingual children at this task. It seems that being raised in an environment in which multiple languages are spoken, rather than being bilingual per se, is the driving factor.”

The second study, to be soon published in Developmental Science looked at even younger children, 14-to-16-month-old babies, and found again that being raised in a bilingual or multilingual environment sharpens social skills.

The bottom line for Kindler is being exposed to more than one language seems to facilitate “the basic skills of interpersonal understanding. Of course, becoming fully bilingual or multilingual is not always easy or possible for everyone. But the social advantage we have identified appears to emerge from merely being raised in an environment in which multiple languages are experienced, not from being bilingual per se. This is potentially good news for parents who are not bilingual themselves, yet who want their children to enjoy some of the benefits of multilingualism.”

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