Navneet Kaur
Caley Ehnes
English 100
November 22, 2018
Multilingual Education
Can intercultural learning and communication be achieved in a school learning environment? Multilingual education has been heatedly debated topic amongst policymakers, researchers and educators. Diversity and diversification seem to be inevitable in times of accelerating change. However, growing diversity and the blurring of borders through mobility and advanced communication technology are not necessarily cherished as an asset everywhere. Linguistic diversity brought about by multilingualism has been averred in many circles as a curse because of the problems encountered in building a pluralistic nation in the face of cultural and linguistic diversity (Ovando, 2).
However, there is substantial evidence that, multilingualism is the norm and monolingualism the exception from a globally perspective (Souto‐Manning, 263; Kroll and Dussias, 3). The recent growth in the number of non-English speaking immigrants moving into the United States has not only challenged the country’s education system but has also intensified this debate even more. The use of more than two languages in the US has historically been considered as a complicating factor instead of a benefit despite the growing trend of multilingualism across the world. Drawing upon this background, this paper argues that with the current multilingual and multicultural society the US is, achieving equity, social inclusion and social cohesion would not be possible without multilingualism in its education system.
Knowledge of more at least three languages in education, an international language, national or regional language, and the mother tongue, allows students to communicate with different people at both professional and personal contexts. This is particularly true owing to the reality that majority of the knowledge amount people possess is only often accessible effectively through specific languages whether unofficial or official. The US is undergoing rapid and massive economic and demographic shift. The global economy, at the same time, is increasingly becoming competitive integrated, interdependent and interconnected (Jauregui, 10). Accordingly, Kroll and Dussias point out that one out of every five children in the US lives in a homestead in which English is the only spoken language (4). Yet, below 20% of American fluently speak more than one language, with the present educational approach being inadequate insofar as increasing bilingualism to the required levels for national security and global commerce is concerned (Jauregui, 10). Additionally, the number of people who can fluently speak more than one language is increasing world over due to technological developments, internationalism and regionalism principles that are now adopted by many countries particularly in the field of innovation, commerce, and trade. These principles demand the speakers to be proficient in the working languages to ensure effective communication. In view of such, a national and/or global language education policy is especially important to incentivize global language education beginning early and progresses through compulsory education, as suggested by Kroll and Dussias (8).
Multilingualism practices improve intellectual creativity and flexibility. Kroll and Dussias draw on considerable studies that had found that the human brain has far relatively great plasticity throughout one’s lifespan than understood previously (2). At all stages, life experience has ramifications for cognition as well as for both the function and structure of the brain (Kroll & Dussias, 2). Language use, as an essential element of life experience, discloses these outcomes, according to Baum and Titone as cited in Kroll and Dussias (2). As opposed to the argument that the brain is conditioned to speak only one language, considerable evidence proposes that more than two languages can coexist within the same brain networks with each language responsible for the activation process of the other even when only one of the languages is in use (Kroll & Dussias, 2). Children are adept at learning multiple languages at a young age, and it is possible for a child to learn three or more languages with relative fluidity by the time they reach the age of eight. However, this is only truly possible if learning is started very early. A child’s mind is remarkably gifted, and it should be so if a child is to learn how to walk, speak and otherwise interpret the world around them as they begin to mature.
As multilingual education improves students’ intellectual ability, it indirectly informs students’ academic performance. Children raised in supportive environments speaking more two or more languages from an early age are often more intellectually flexible and perceptive relative to those who only speak one language (Kroll and Dussias, 4). In other words, living in households where parents constantly speak more than one language help children grow up being equally fluent while simultaneously being comfortable with two home languages with the additional ability to learn a third and fourth language. This case, according to Kroll and Dussias is also applicable in the classroom environment where students exposed to different languages will tend to be intellectually flexible (4). Most children who are fluent in more than one language have been shown to have greater social adaptability, superior lateral thinkers, better reasoning and thinking skills alongside having greater cognitive abilities (Kroll & Dussias, 5). Through many decades of careful study, researchers have collectively discovered bilingual children score higher on tests involving problem-solving and creative thinking, as learning more than one language will improve the ability to consider tangible problems in more than one way (Kroll & Dussias, 4). Children who learn multiple languages are also better able to pay attention during mental tasks, and they are often faster at spotting patterns or even creating patterns in seemingly random images (Souto‐Manning, 269).
Multilingualism in education improves students’ opportunities for social adaptability, intercultural understanding, and social interaction. Because language does not operate within a vacuum, society and culture play an important contribution in its existence (Souto‐Manning, 269). This is particularly true as language is a psycholinguistic, an ethnolinguistic and sociolinguistic issue. As such, language depends on mind, culture, and society. In this view, multilingualism improves an appreciation and understanding of cultural values of the societies contained with the languages in question. The experiences people gain from learning two or more languages inevitably tend to change the beliefs, skills, and attitudes of society and people while at the same time creating an expansion of how the world is perceived. While all these features are formally taught within a classroom environment, they are also informally learned in daily outside classroom communication. Schools play an important role in creating community cohesion by building environments characterized by respect and racial tolerance while simultaneously preparing students to be effective citizens in the future. This evidently covers the education’s cross-cutting themes of education for global citizenship and sustainable development and equal opportunity. Culture and Identity have been cited as one of the educational aspects for driving global citizenship and sustainable development alongside building on the key concepts of rights and needs, quality of life, diversity, perceptions and values, and interdependence to provide students with opportunities to explore issues associated with diversity and race. As noted above, with more languages learned, a child will have significantly greater abilities to communicate with those around him or her in such a way that is meaningful and easy. This communication may be limited to close family at first, but the child’s constant connections with the world around them will grow and become farther reaching until they have the opportunity to meet friend’s worth keeping a lifetime. Cultural and generational boundaries are often difficult to cross with fluidity unless one has more than one language available to them, allowing them to more easily spread out their connections.
Moreover, culturally relevant teachings play an important role in empowering students. When teachers value students’ culture, they build bridges between students’ academic standards and experiences. As the US is increasingly witnessing a growing population of immigrants who speak different languages other than the English language (Souto‐Manning, 266), multilingual students are soon expected to be the majority in the US schools. Teachers are as such, required to nurture a generation of future citizens who will consider themselves as capable to develop multilingually, as suggested by Souto‐Manning (266). Teachers who embrace inclusivity are engineers envision and subsequently spearhead the planning and building bridges between students’ individualities, experiences, expertise and interests, and curricular goals. As intellectuals, such teachers endeavor to identify children’s interests and strengths to unveil what exactly drives their motivation. They then make links between curricular goals and standards, and the children (Souto‐Manning, 267). In so doing, teachers mitigate the standardization of learning and teaching by placing children center and front in both teaching and curriculum. Schools should take it upon themselves to promote not only a deeper understanding of the many different cultures around students but to offer them a practical skill. Children who know more than one language, such as French and English, are better capable of travel throughout the world without fear of running into a language barrier at the worst possible moment. This additional language will also offer greater opportunities in a working environment, especially in areas with a large population of residents who primarily speak the second language. Learning more than one language now will also improve a child’s ability to learn additional languages later on, such as Spanish and Italian among others. To this end, it can be inferred that language can serve as a bridge between cultures in equal measures it acts as a tool for communication.
This paper argued that with the current multilingual and multicultural society the US is, achieving equity, social inclusion and social cohesion would not be possible without multilingualism in its education system. This claim was confirmed through a review of past and present literature on the subject of multilingual education. It was established that multilingual education brings about many benefits to students not only academically but also linguistically, socially and cognitively across their lifespan. Most children who are fluent in more than one language were found to have greater social adaptability, good communicators, superior lateral thinkers, better reasoning and thinking skills alongside having greater cognitive abilities. With the growing number of multicultural, multilingual, multicultural children in the US, increasing the accessibility and availability of multilingual education could be a great asset now to both monolingual and English language learning students. This may also come with long-run benefits as these students enter an increasingly more global society and economy.
Works Cited
Jauregui, Hilary. “Increasing American Bilingualism: Policies for Evidence-Based World Languages Education.” Increasing American Bilingualism, vol. 5, 2015, pp. 1–26. Google Books, depts.washington.edu/esreview/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Increasing-American-Bilingualism.pdf.
Kroll, Judith F., and Paola E. Dussias. “The Benefits of Multilingualism to the Personal and Professional Development of Residents of the US.” Foreign Language Annals, vol. 50, no. 2, 2017, pp. 248–259. Google Scholar, doi:10.1111/flan.12271.
Ovando, Carlos J. “Bilingual Education in the United States: Historical Development and Current Issues.” Bilingual Research Journal, vol. 27, no. 1, 2003, pp. 1–24. Google Scholar, doi:10.1080/15235882.2003.10162589.
Souto-Manning, Mariana. “Honoring and Building on the Rich Literacy Practices of Young Bilingual and Multilingual Learners.” Reading Teacher, vol. 70, no. 3, Nov. 2016, pp. 263–271. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/trtr.1518.