Research on Early Childhood Bilingual Education in China from the Perspective of Cognitive Neuroscience
School of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
| Abstract: | With the rapid development of globalization and the world economy, English, as the universal language, plays a pivotal role in the international political, economic and cultural fields. English non-native speakers are paying more and more attention to popularizing English education as an important part of basic education, and English learning is also showing a trend of becoming younger and younger. However, the early childhood language acquisition process is influenced and controlled by various complex factors, including acquisition age, acquisition methods, family ecological environment and socio-cultural factors. At present, the early childhood bilingual education in China is booming, but due to the mentality of most parents and the immaturity and incompleteness of various conditions, combined with the lack of scientific theoretical basis and empirical research on early childhood bilingual learning, the bilingual education in early childhood There have been many problems in the development process. In recent years, the development of brain development in the field of cognitive neuroscience has made important progress, prompting people to continuously explore how to more effectively promote early childhood language development and bilingual ability. Starting from the concept of bilingual education, this paper expounds the latest research results of early childhood bilingual ability development and brain development, the current situation, existing problems and development path of bilingual education for preschool children in China, and provides a large number of parents, educators and educational decision-making departments. Useful lessons are learned from experience. |
| Keywords: | Bilingual Children; Language Development; Cognitive Neuroscience; Bilingual Education |
| DOI: | 10.57237/j.edu.2023.02.002 |
View:
Downloads:
Received: 10 January 2023
Accepted: 7 March 2023
Published Online: 28 March 2023
Funding
| 1. | 第十一批中国外语教育基金“新时代国际理解教育融入中学外语教学的实践研究” (ZGWYJYJJ11A088) |
| 2. | 2020中国外语教材研究专项基金“美国中小学英语母语教材与国内本土英语教材之对比研究” (ZGWYJCYJ2020503) |
| 3. | 2021年度天津市教委科研计划专项任务项目 (外语教育) “新时代课程思政融入外语教材创新研究” (2021ZXWY-YB01) |
References
| [1] | Andrzejewski, M. E., Spencer, R. C., & Kelley, A. E. (2005). Instrumental learning, but not performance, requires dopamine D1-receptor activation in the amygdale [J]. Neuroscience 135: 335–345. |
| [2] | Atasheneh, N., & Izadi, A. (2012). The role of teachers in reducing/increasing listening comprehension test anxiety: A case of Iranian EFL learners [J]. English Lang. Teach. 5: 178–187. |
| [3] | Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and theindifferent [J]. Bilingualism, 12 (1), 3-11. |
| [4] | Carew, T. J., & Magsamen, S. H. (2010). Neuroscience and education: An ideal partnership for producing evidence-based solutions to guide 21st century learning [J]. Neuron, 67 (5), 685-688. |
| [5] | Caspi, A., Williams, B., Kim-Cohen, J., Craig, I. W., Milne, B. J., Poulton, R. et al. (2007). Moderation of breastfeeding effects on the IQ by genetic variation in fatty acid metabolism [J]. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 104: 18860–18865. |
| [6] | Day, J. J., & Sweatt, J. D. (2011). Epigenetic mechanisms in cognition [J]. Neuron 70: 813–829. |
| [7] | Fass, D. M., Schroeder, F. A., Perlis, R. H., & Haggarty, S. J. (2014). Epigenetic mechanisms in mood disorders: targeting neuroplasticity [J]. Neuroscience 264: 112–130. |
| [8] | Felling, R. J., & Song, H. (2015). Epigenetic mechanisms of neuroplasticity and the implications for stroke recovery [J]. Exp. Neurol 268: 37–45. |
| [9] | Gervain, J. (2015). Plasticity in early language acquisition: The effects of prenatal and early childhood experience [J]. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 35: 13-20. |
| [10] | Jennifer, J. M., & Ponniah, R. J. (2017). Investigating the levels, types and causes of second language writing anxiety among Indian freshmen [J]. Asia TEFL 14: 557–563. |
| [11] | Jennifer, J. M., & Ponniah, R. J. (2018). Acquisition of writing by reading and its impact on cognition. In The idea and practiceof reading [M] (ed. R. J. Ponniah & S. Venkatesan), pp. 41–56. Springer: Singapore. |
| [12] | Kemp, C. (2015). MRI shows association between reading to young children and brain activity [N]. APP News, 25 (4). |
| [13] | Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition [M], 1st edition. Pergamon Press Inc: Oxford. |
| [14] | Krizman, J., Skoe, E., Marian, V., & Kraus, N. (2014). Bilingualism increase neural response consistency and attentional control: Evidence for sensory and cognitive coupling [J]. Brain and Language, 128 (1), 34-40. |
| [15] | Kuhl, P. K. (2014). Early language learning and the social brain [M]. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. |
| [16] | Kuhl, P. K., Tsao, F. M., & Liu, H. M. (2003). Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning [J]. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 100 (15): 9096-9101. |
| [17] | Levinson, S. C. (2012). The original sin of cognitive science [J]. Top. Cognit. Sci. 4: 396–403. |
| [18] | MacLeod, A. A., Fabiano-Smith, L., Boegner-Page, S., & Fontolliet, S. (2014). Simultaneous bilingual language acquisition: The role of parental input on receptive vocabulary development [J]. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 29 (1), 131-142. |
| [19] | Moya, C., & Henrich, J. (2016). Culture-gene coevolutionary psychology: Cultural learning, language, and ethnic psychology [J]. Curr. Opin. Psychol 8: 112–118. |
| [20] | Ölmez, F. (2015). An investigation into the relationship between L2 reading motivation and reading achievement [J]. Procedia – Soc. Behav. Sci. 199: 597–603. |
| [21] | Paradis, J., & Jia, R. (2016). Bilingual children's long-term outcomes in English as a second language: Language environment factors shape individual differences in catching up with monolinguals [J]. Developmental Science, 19 (4), 1-15. |
| [22] | Satterlee, J. S., Beckel-Mitchener, A., Little, R. A., Procaccini, D., Rutter, J. L., & Lossie, A. C. (2015). Neuroepigenomics: resources, obstacles, and opportunities [J]. Neuroepigenetics 1: 2–13. |
| [23] | Scult, M. A., & Hariri, A. R. (2018). A brief introduction to the neurogenetics of cognition-emotion interactions [J]. Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci 19: 50–54. |
| [24] | Sriganesh, R., Rahul, D. R., & Ponniah, R. J. (2018). Genetics of reading ability and its role in solving reading difficulties [M]. In Theidea and practice of reading (ed. R. J. Ponniah & S. Venkatesan), pp. 125–139. Springer, Singapore. |
| [25] | Taguchi, E., Gorsuch, G., Lems, K., & Rosszell, R. (2016). Scaffolding in L2 reading: How repetition and an auditory model help readers [J]. Reading in a Foreign Language, 28 (1), 101-117. |
| [26] | Telese, F., Gamliel, A., Skowronska-Krawczyk, D., Garcia-Bassets, I., & Rosenfeld, M. G. (2013). Seq-ing insights into the epigenetics of neuronal gene regulation [J]. Neuron 77: 606–623. |
| [27] | Wang, X., Hui, Z., Dai, X., Terry, P. D., Zhang, Y., Ma, M. et al. (2017). Micronutrient-fortified milk and academic performance among Chinese middle school students: a cluster-randomized controlled trial [J]. Nutrients 9: 226. |
Join the Editorial Board
We invite active, qualified and high profile scientists and researchers to join as Editorial Board Members.
Join UsBecome a Reviewer
Scholars with a strong interest in reviewing are invited to join the reviewer panel to ensure the quality of the research to be published.
Join Us