Bilingualism in Childhood

Abstract. In some parts of the world, acquiring a second language in childhood may be feared and resented for itsassumed negative consequences. To investigate this issue, this paper compares and contrasts the results from theearlier studies with the results from the later studies on bilingualism in childhood in an attempt to highlight thesource of this fear on one hand, and to mitigate the resentment on the other. The literature of bilingualism inchildhood, as discussed in this paper, can be characterized as entwined and interdependent. Therefore, this paperfocuses only on certain debatable key themes discussed in the literature of bilingualism in childhood; it is beyondthe scope of this paper to cover all the issues related to childhood bilingualism. Most importantly, this paperdiscusses the effect of bilingualism on cognitive development in childhood, and shows why earlier studies havebeen bluntly rebutted by later studies conducted in the second half of the twentieth century. In general, this paperaims to refute the resentful assumption that acquiring second language can delay children’s cognitive developmentor can be at the expense of their native language.