Bilingualism May Make Kids More Open-minded

Speaking two languages can make children more open-minded, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Concordia University found that bilingual children were more open-minded than their monolingual counterparts.

Bilingual children are like monolingual children, as they prefer to interact with people who speak their mother tongue with a native accent rather than with those with a foreign accent. While they prefer talking to "accent-free" speakers, researchers found that bilingual children were more open-minded than children who only speak one language.

The latest study involved 44 children living in Montreal. Participants were between the ages of five and six. They were shown two faces on a computer screen as audio recordings were played for each face. One face read a phrase in the child's native accents and the other face read the same phrase in a foreign accent. The children were then asked to point to the faces they would prefer to have as a friend.

The findings revealed that most children chose faces that corresponded with their native accent.

Researchers said the latest findings suggest that bilingual children are biased against foreign accents because they children have a preference for familiarity.

"Kids tend to prefer to interact with people who are like them, and might perceive an accent as the mark of an outsider," researcher Krista Byers-Heinlein, a psychology professor at Concordia University said in a news release.

Researchers recommend that parents teach their children about accents as children lack the self-awareness to remind themselves that the way people talk is a superficial measure of character.

"We show biases early on, so it might be necessary to educate all kids, regardless of their linguistic background, about what an accent is and how it doesn't reflect anything about people other than the fact that they are not speaking their native language," Byers-Heinlein concluded.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.