LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND THE BENEFITS OF BILITERACY AND BICULTURALISM

With more than 50% of people globally speaking two or more languages, our understanding of bilingualism (the ability to speak two or more languages) and the potential benefits of a bilingual approach to education have increased a great deal since the first comprehensive studies in the 1960’s.

With the development of our knowledge around bilingualism some previously common myths have now long since been debunked.

Previous myths included:

-Children are confused by the learning of a second language.

-Children’s academic progress in other areas is slowed by learning a second language.

-Restricting the use of the home language or only using it temporarily will transition students as quickly as possible to the dominant school language.

-The two languages a bilingual person speaks are separate and distinct systems.

-Languages can be simply added or subtracted from the minds of bilingual speakers

-The languages students use in school should be strictly separated by time, day, or subject.

There is now extensive body research which not only disproves these myths (and many more!) but has in fact shown a number of benefits of a bilingual education and even more for those who are biliterate (able to speak, read and write in two or more languages).

Proven benefits of a bilingualism include:

-Enhanced ability to multitask, problem solve and make decisions.

-Greater ability to concentrate.

-Improved competitiveness in the jobs market.

-Increased ability to access other cultures (biculturalism).

-Better performance on verbal and non verbal Intelligence tests.

There are even proven health benefits to being bilingual. According to Jubin Abutalebi, a neuropsychologist at the University of San Raffaele in Milan, “Bilingual people have significantly more grey matter than monolinguals in their anterior cingulate cortex, and that is because they are using it so much more often,” he says. The ACC is like a cognitive muscle, he adds: the more you use it, the stronger, bigger and more flexible it gets.

This increased brain function has been shown to slow the effects of dementia with bilingual people showing symptoms on average five years after monolingual people with the same level of disease progression.

Bilingualism and The Role of Schools

With the benefits of bilingualism and biliteracy now more evident than ever, school’s with a bilingual approach to education are better equipped to provide their students with the tools needed to be successful both academically and socially.

Educational understanding of best practice in bilingual education has improved greatly since the early days when “submersion” techniques were used and students were simply thrown into regular classes in an unknown language in the hope that they would pick it up. This resulted in a “sink or swim” outcome for the students and in the worst cases resulted in students having to be withdrawn from regular classes to focus on catching up with language acquisition and therefore missing out on important educational experiences with their classmates.

A More modern approach to language acquisition is dual language education. In dual language education students are taught language and literacy in two languages simultaneously. Far from hindering a student’s ability to acquire a second language as previously thought, a simultaneous focus on the development of language and literacy in a student’s mother tongue provides the understanding and context from which students can more quickly and effectively learn a second language.

The Edron Academy – Biliteracy and Biculturalism

As a School we are proud of our biliterate approach to language acquisition with students ultimately studying both Spanish and English as first languages. The importance of language acquisition as a platform for their development in other subjects cannot be underestimated and students are also given the opportunity to study French and Mandarin during their educational journey with us. Ritchhart (2002) highlighted the importance of language when saying ‘Language wraps itself around, in, through and between everything that we teachers and learners do in the classroom’.

Our students’ biliteracy allows them to access the richness and diversity of the bicultural aspects of our school. Through our bicultural approach our students are able to gain a wider perspective on different traditions, customs, beliefs and practices and are therefore better placed to understand and empathise with those that are different from them.

Our commitment to academic excellence in the languages goes beyond students being multilingual. Our goal is to use language as a tool to give our students the richness of educational experience they need to become truly global citizens.

Roger Stokes , Headteacher

Bibliography

American Federation of Teachers. 2020. Bilingualism and Biliteracy For All. [online] Available at: https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2020/lu.

Collier, V. and Thomas, W., 2004. The Astounding Effectiveness of Dual Language Education for All.

Costa A. and Sebastián-Gallés, N., 2014. How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain?. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(5), pp.336-345.

Imagine Learning. 2020. Bilingualism, Biliteracy, And Best Practices In Dual-Language Instruction. [online] Available at: https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/2018/11/bilingualism-biliteracy-and-best-practices-dual-language-instruction

Ritchhart, R., 2002. Intellectual Character. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer.

Shoebottom, P., 2020. The Language Learning Theories Of Professor J. Cummins. [online] Esl.fis.edu. Available at: http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm [Accessed 22 October 2020].

Vince, G., 2020. The Amazing Benefits Of Being Bilingual. [online] Bbc.com. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual [Accessed 22 October 2020].