Final Reflection

Bilingual students usually have to deal with several social-emotional issues. One of these is stress. According to Kamenetz (2016), managing to use one language instead of the other requires skills such as "inhibition" and "task switching". Learners who cannot develop these skills are likely to be stressed and frustrated. Bilingual learners are also likely to develop perfectionism. This is whereby learners feel that they need to do everything correctly and perfectly. While this may be a good thing, perfectionism can lead to anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem. Another social-emotional issue that bilingual learners have to deal with is heightened awareness which can also cause anxiety (Chumbow, 2018).

Some of the academic implications of bilingualism are that it helps students to effectively connect with people from different backgrounds and cultures. This way, it fosters positive relationships where students interact harmoniously. Embracing bilingualism in schools enables learners to increase their ability to empathize with others and also enables them to develop emotional intelligence. All these positively impact the academic performance of learners. Students learn better when they work together. When students develop empathy and emotional intelligence, they can work together in groups, support each other, and therefore perform better academically (Kamenetz, 2016).

Since bilingualism is very important, there is a need to develop ways to serve bilingual learners better. One way through which we can serve this population better is by making more time for talk. Communication between learners and teachers allows teachers to explore the understanding of learners and therefore provide the necessary support. It is also important to use translanguaging in teaching. This is where a teacher uses more than one language in a classroom setting. Translanguaging enables bilingual students to make use of their linguistic resources to interact with their environment thus promoting a deeper understanding of the world.

It is important to serve this population and promote bilingualism in schools because it helps learners to become more attentive. By determining which language to or not to speak at a given moment, learners become more attentive. They observe this attention even when learning other things (Kamenetz, 2016). Bilingualism also promotes diversity and integration among learners. Learners feel that their home language is heard and valued when it is used in learning. There, therefore, gain confidence in diversity and other cultures. Serving bilingual learners also promotes school performance and engagement. Research shows that bilingual learners have better school attendance, seem happier, and record higher scores (Kamenetz, 2016).

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