View Content #18381

by Lindsay Marean, InterCom Editor

Our InterCom theme for October is language advocacy. As an InterCom subscriber, you are undoubtedly in favor of second language education in the United States, whether foreign, heritage, or indigenous. Our challenge as language advocates is to connect our personal reasons for believing in multilingualism with facts about its benefits.

I am a second-generation language educator. My mother started teaching me Spanish at home when I was in elementary school. By the time I reached high school (and the first available foreign language classes in our school district), I was so excited about learning languages that in addition to Spanish I took French, and then I had an opportunity to be an exchange student in Brazil, where I learned Portuguese.

Children who have the opportunity to learn more than one language, as I did, are likely to have certain advantages. They tend to exhibit more creativity and divergent thinking, be more capable of ignoring extraneous information when solving problems, and score higher on tests of verbal and non-verbal intelligence. They tend to have better academic performance than their monolingual peers, especially in the long run. They are more apt to feel comfortable in different cultural settings.

As an adult, I began studying my heritage language, Potawatomi. I am enthusiastic about all languages, but I am in love with Potawatomi, because it is a core part of my identity. Potawatomi is also critically in danger of no longer being spoken, and so my efforts to learn and teach it are not just from personal compulsion but also community necessity.

Indigenous and heritage language study connects new generations with their parents and grandparents. The stronger a child is in his or her heritage language, the more likely he or she is to be strong in English and to go on to college.

My own career path has included public school language teaching, college supervision of pre-service language teachers, and indigenous language documentation and revitalization. My language skills have also given me some great conversations with strangers, a few odd jobs that required bilingualism, rich travel experiences, and a more competitive resume.

Multilingualism opens up markets both locally and abroad that would otherwise be closed by language and cultural barriers. Strong local language programs attract global businesses to your community. A broad base of multilingual citizenry helps us in diplomatic dealings with other nations and is critical to our national defense.

I love languages because they have opened the world to me, cemented my own identity, and provided me with better job security. Our nation benefits from multilingualism for the same reasons: higher achieving children, culturally secure and interculturally competent citizens, and globally competitive workers. I encourage you to reflect on why you are a language professional and to use your personal insights to promote multilingualism at local, state, national, and international levels.

Here are a few resources with facts about multilingualism and suggestions for how you can be a stronger advocate:

• The American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Language's advocacy page: http://www.actfl.org/advocacy
• The Joint National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies' website: http://www.languagepolicy.org/
• "A Rationale For Foreign Language Education," a position paper of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages: http://www.ncssfl.org/papers/index.php?rationale
• A recent article from the Indian Country Today Media Network about indigenous language immersion: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/01/teaching-whole-child-language-immersion-and-student-achievement-156685