THE ADVANTAGES OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION

A Brazilian research recently published by the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFRJ) shows that learning two languages at the same time brings cognitive advantages, mainly to the acquisition of the mother tongue.

According to Gehard Friedrich, PhD in Education and Gehard Preiss, Professor of the Superior School of Freiburg, Germany, it is essential to stimulate the brain synapses in children by teaching them foreign languages.

Take songs for instances, even if the child cannot understand he lyrics and their meanings, the mere sounds will have a positive effect on their neurological channels in several regions, which will make language acquisition easier.

A child who can recognize the sounds of two languages early will, later on, control a wider range of sounds than would a monolingual child. Therefore, the bilingual children tend to fix the second language in such stable webs that they will have a good command of it even if they haven't used it for a long time.

The benefits of bilingual education also refer to thinking skills. By using two languages the child develops a more sophisticated way of thinking and contrastive analysis is also stimulated.

The Escola Internacional bilingual proposal promotes linguistic competence beginning in the Pre-school years, not only through speaking, reading, writing and understanding, but also though the specific academic terminology of the curriculum. A special approach that brings lingüistic and academic competence to the students.