OPTIONAL TASK #3: Academic Reflection on Bilingualism in the USA

TED Talk: Kim Potovsky "No child left monolingual"

Our Brains are wired to be Bilingual

“65% of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual” which is a surprising data. However, Potovsky describes USA as a nation that does not encourage its immigrants to maintain their heritage languages but she personally perceives the nation as a multilingual nation thank to its immigrants. Only 20% of the United States’ population is multilingual since this nation exhibits and promotes monolingualism in English. The reason behind this statement is that multilingualism has always been seen as damage to societies and to the individual itself.

By contrast, Potovsky has a positive view over bilingualism. As USA has no official language she proposes having a “English + Nation”, propelling this way bilingualism. To explain the benefits of becoming -as she herself expresses- an “organic bilingual nation”, she gives examples of generations of immigrants living in the country. It is striking that some grandchildren cannot communicate with their grandparents in their heritage language and it is because there are different types of proficiency: complete, partial (can understand but unable to produce) or none. It seems that it is all part of society’s pressure on being proficient only in English. For those immigrants that need to have access to certain services, it is imperative to speak English. As a consequence, immigrants abandon their heritage languages as the language of communication with their children and grandchildren. They think that by adapting their environment at home into only English next generations will be more fluent in that language and more doors will open for them.

Schooling also takes part into this process of losing heritage languages. It is true that there exist bilingual programmes in the USA. Nevertheless, their true goal is not bilingualism but mainstreaming those immigrants kids into all-English classes as quick as possible. Still, if we take one of the most effective bilingual programmes of the country, we will see that it is not “English-only classes” what makes them become more proficient. Surprisingly, the statistics of students of two-way immersion bilingual program performed way better in reading competences, for instance, than other students of different educational programmes. The reason behind this is that two-way immersion kids are exposed to Spanish (90%) and English (10%) during their first years of kindergarten, and years later their exposure to Spanish and English becomes more balanced (50% and 50%). This way, when a child is immersed in a language they do not understand the more quality of instruction he/she receives in that heritage language the better he/she is going to do in English, Maths and other subjects. Which is also interesting is that in these particular cases gaining fluency in Spanish has no cost at that of English. Hence, the belief that abandoning the home language can accelerate English language learning has no place.

Another concern that population, especially parents, might have is that if their kids know more than one language they will be confused. That is untrue because what bilinguals are good at is code-switching, meaning that they have the ability and the fluency of switching back and forth between two languages in the middle of a sentence. This shows high levels of syntax and proficiency, not confusion. As Potovsky clearly says “our brains are wired to be bilingual”, so there is no excuse for not encouraging bilingualism or multilingualism in any country. Heteroglossic classes must be part of the world’s educational system.

Taking all this into account, it is clear that bilingualism cause no problem to society but instead great benefits. Latest studies showed that bilingual people are better in problem-solving skills and that dementia is delayed 10 years, which is something impressive.

Now, if we think of how all these ideas apply to Catalan educational programmes it is a bit different to the USA case. In Catalonia both Spanish and Catalan are the official languages. Nonetheless, they receive more exposure of Catalan at school because through schooling they emphasize the Catalan identity over the Spanish one. Most Catalan kids are monolinguals at home (some have Spanish or Catalan as their L1) and when they go to school for the first time they are exposed to Catalan (80%) and Spanish (20%).  Then another extra language is introduced: English (L3). On the other hand, kids whose home language is neither Catalan nor Spanish have no access to immersion classes that promotes the protection of heritage languages. Then their only possible context where they can use their mother tongue remains at home. From my point of view, we should all include linguistic diversity in educational programmes and government should have in mind linguistic appreciation when designing their educational systems. This way it will allow teachers to teach languages in a more integrated way, to promote intercultural encounters and to value diversity among the student body. 

Food for thought: Knowing the benefits that bilingualism can bring to a whole country, would not it be great to foster it and turn it into our heritage to the next generations?