You may have heard that a person who speaks three languages is trilingual, a person who speaks two languages is bilingual, and a person who speaks one language is American. In a recent address to the Council on Foreign Relations, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan confronted this mindset: “We have never been more aware of the value of a multi-literate, multi-lingual society: a society that can appreciate all that makes other cultures and nations distinctive — even as it embraces all that they have in common.” Duncan urged Americans to become more globally conscious, to engage in exchange with foreign languages and cultures, and to resist the urge to rely on English as a global lingua franca (you can find the full transcript here).
The Asia Society reports that 21 of the top 25 industrialized countries begin the study of world languages in grades K-5. In the U.S., most students begin language study at age 14 or later. Some may argue that growing up speaking a second language at home—or completing a few years of high school Spanish—is enough to allow our children and young people to compete in the global economy, but remember: the academic variety of language we use in school, college, and the workplace can be very different than what is spoken at the kitchen table. Academic proficiency in a second language can take 4 or more years to develop.
Creating a truly multilingual and multicultural American society will not happen naturally. We need an education system that aims for increased exchange between children and youth from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, to foster and nurture bilingual children and young people, and to push for longer and more robust foreign language programs in schools. Latin, French, and German should make room for languages like Chinese and Arabic.
Here are some ideas for promoting multilingual and multicultural exchange:
- How many ways can you say hello? To start, have students guess how many languages the group can use to say hello. As soon as they are finished, have everyone call out hello in as many different languages as possible. Have a recorder write the languages down. You may be surprised at your collective multilingual powers.
- Deliberately create a multilingual and multicultural space. Do you work with students or adults who speak one or more languages? Use them as a resource to support globally-themed activities and projects. This helps students feel valued. When you start working with a new multilingual group, have students get into pairs or small groups and teach each other words or short phrases in their first language. You can also have students label common objects in their first language to create an everyday multilingual experience.
- Involve parents and families. Immigrant parents often think they cannot help their children academically because they don’t speak English. But, we know that reading with children in their first language helps just as much as reading in English. The website Colorín Colorado has reading tip sheets for parents in 11 languages. You can find them here.
President Obama spoke out about the issue of English Only in America during his campaign trail. Check out this youtube video.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
As someone who learned a foreign language at the ripe old age of 25, I completely agree with this post. Start them early! I also really like the idea of involving families. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized how much Italian I accidentally learned from my grandmother. Had I known earlier I could have used her as a great resource.
Great article! I fully agree we need to teach our kids a second language and need to start early. Just fyi, Duncan did not speak at Asia Society – that link references the same CFR speech he gave.