>> Ar 2001-01-02 21:53 -0800, scríobh Asmus Freytag:
>>>> There won't be. All evidence (and there's lots of it here in Ireland
>>>>where
>>>> we have English-medium and Irish-medium schools) shows that, in general,
>>>> children who are bilingual do BETTER in school than monolingual children.
>> My own personal attempt at explanation is that the rapid acquisition of a
>> full second language (and culture) during that time might have bound some
>> of the capacity that otherwise could have expressed itself in improved
>> analytical scores. The alternative conclusion would be that the analytical
>> test measured an innate skill largely unrelated to and unaffected by my
>> ongoing scientific training.
>> With this experience as a background, I've been very wary in accepting
>> any purported study results in this area.
There is another possibility, here. The exercise of learning
other languages, and the connections the other languages make
possible, may serve to boost one's abilities in other areas.
The discussion also reminds me of the need for both written
and aural training, the fact that one barrier to this in
the past has been the great expense of systematic training
recordings, and the possibilities of those costs dropping as
DVDs with capacities for 20 hours of material come on-line,
as we type. (Now, if we could just develop ways to absorb
that 20 hours worth within a few minutes... :B-)
John G. Otto Nisus Software, Engineering
www.infoclick.com www.mathhelp.com www.nisus.com software4usa.com
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My opinions are probably not those of Nisus Software, Inc.
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