Positive Effects of Bilingualism on Cognition and Language Acquisition

Abstract

Bilingual education and bilingualism still remains a controversial field in educational policy among scientist and in public. This article aims to present the research results on positive effects of bilingualism on cognitive awareness and language acquisition. The first section of the paper presents different attitudes towards bilingualism. The second part of the article describes the research results on positive effects of bilingualism on metacognitive awareness. The third part of the article analyzes the studies on positive effects of bilingualism on language acquisition. I argue that bilingualism has advantages on metacognitive awareness and language acquisition and therefore, it is very important for the educational institutions to develop and implement effective bilingual programs in order to take the advantage of the strengths of bilingualism.