The Acquisition of English As a Foreign Language in Bilingual and Multilingual Contexts

Watch Kim Potowski’s TedTalk “No Child Left Monolingual” here:

Kim Potowski’s TedTalk “No Child Left Monolingual” is undoubtedly a highlight among some of the TedTalks on bilingualism and multilingualism, since it includes very interesting data that many do not know of. The first shocking information in this talk is that 65% of the world’s population speaks more than one language. In other words, 35% of the world’s population is monolingual. These percentages are often disregarded or not paid attention to, nevertheless, they are worth looking at. The good news about this data is that almost three quarters of the world’s population can speak at least two languages. This already duplicates their chances to be able to communicate with the rest of the world’s population in contrast to monolinguals, who have no option but to communicate with those who speak their language.

Potowski is very straightforward when dismantling two widely spread myths about multilingualism, which supposedly “damages” society and individuals. Thinking that language diversity can be harmful to individuals and societies is of course a quite contradictory thought – and perhaps a bit old-fashioned too. Potowski actually proves in several ways that multilingualism does not at all negatively affect speakers, but quite the opposite; it has many advantages. In one of the studies that support her arguments for multilingualism, results showed that learners involved in two-way immersion programs had the best results in English as opposed to those in monolingual programs. The same study also showed that bilingual and full English programs did not affect English results at all. Additionally, according to Potowski, “abandoning the heritage language does not accelerate English learning”. Once more she dismantles the myth that children get confused with a second language by explaining the concept of organic memory, which implies that children under eight years old use different parts of the brain for language learning. She actually believes that the years in kindergarten are optimal to add foreign languages in the educational systems and that starting to learn a foreign language at fourteen is way too late. Furthermore, Potowski argues that some other advantages of multilingual brains are the capacities to think faster, solve problems more efficiently and have dementia delayed. 

Another point in the TedTalk that is worth mentioning is the idea of code-switching as a very positive and advantageous fact and not as something to be ashamed of. Code-switching is an actual skill that only speakers with certain degree of bilingualism or multilingualism can carry out successfully. These speakers switch back and forth from one language to another in a very natural and fluid manner. Potowski provides examples of speakers who code-switch between two languages and thus a new language emerges from this phenomenon: “Spanglish, Arabish, Chinglish, etc.”. Code-switching is however often regarded as an inability to speak a language correctly, while it actually involves a complex cognitive process and it is indeed an ability that one can be proud of.

By the end of the talk, Potowski proposes ways in which citizens of the United States can convert their society into an “English plus” one; that is, a society in which the majority of population is bilingual or multilingual. Activities such as reading books in the heritage language to their children, skyping with people abroad who speak the target language(s), using media or TV in a different language, speaking the foreign language as much as possible, etc., benefit both individuals and societies all over the world.

In Europe societies tend to be less monoglossic than in the United States, where English is the dominant language. Therefore, most of the population in Europe is bilingual or multilingual. For instance, in Germany most of the population speaks German and English, since the latter is learned in school in a thorough way, which ensures certain fluency in the language.

In conclusion, governments, institutions, and schools should encourage language learning at all times and bilingualism and multilingualism should be seen as a beneficial tool for individuals and societies. Moreover, individuals should try to increase their opportunities for language exposure and comprehensible input as much as possible, since the origin of language acquisition lies here. All humans should try to maintain and even expand multilingualism across the globe by promoting the learning of languages so as to prevent monolingual societies from dominating the world and belittling its precious language diversity. 

References

Potowski, K. (2013). No Child Left Monolingual. TEDx Talks. Chicago. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSs1uCnLbaQ