Speaking
more than one language may confer significant benefits on the developing brain. Research has now shown that bilingual young
adults not only fare better in the job market, but are also more likely to
demonstrate empathy and problem-solving skills.
The
fact is that American adults are largely monolingual English speakers, even
those who began life speaking more than one language. Based on the latest research, it might be time to rethink
the emphasis on monolingualism in the US.
Speaking
two languages has advantages
Over
the past decade, my research has focused on the academic, social, and civic
development of immigrant youth, specifically the ways in which schools shape
how these students experience learning, friendships, and their communities. As a former
elementary bilingual teacher, I saw how full proficiency in both languages
offered students significant academic and social advantages. What was missing, however, was the link
between my students’ early social and academic edge, and their entry into the
job market as young adults. For all the research that supports childhood bilingualism, it is only recently that scholars have begun to
understand bilingualism in adults’ professional lives. Bilinguals show higher test scores, better problem solving skills, sharper mental perceptions, and access to richer social networks. In addition,
young bilinguals are able to draw support from mentors in their
home language communities, and from the dominant culture. These young people
benefit from the wisdom of the adage: The more adults who invest in a child,
the stronger she will be. The bilingual child benefits from being raised by two
or more villages!
Bilinguals
more likely to get a job
Not
only are bilingual young adults more likely to graduate high school and go to college, they are also more likely to get the job when they interview. Even when being bilingual is not a
requirement, an interview study of California employers shows that
employers prefer to both hire and retain bilinguals. Today, high-powered
Fortune 500 companies hire bilingual and biliterate employees to serve as client
liaisons. Research links bilingualism to greater intellectual focus, as well as a delay in the onset of dementia symptoms.
Frequent use of multiple languages is also linked to development of
greater empathy. Yet, despite research evidence, 4 out of 5 American adults speak only English.
This
is true for even those adults who began life exposed to more than one language. In the process of growing up American,
many potentially bilingual children of immigrant parents lose their home language to become English monolinguals. The powerful social and political
forces behind the English-Only movement testify to the perceived threat of
bilingualism. Every day, schools and districts across the nation succumb to
external pressures and cut bilingual instruction.
Historically,
research investigating bilingualism and the labor market has employed US Census measures that do not distinguish proficiency levels in the
non-English language. Most national data-sets define bilingualism with very
broad strokes that do not distinguish between: A respondent who speaks only
Spanish, one who speaks Spanish and a little English, and a third who is fully
bilingual and biliterate. Failure to
capture this heterogeneity obscures any clear relationship between bilingualism
and the labor market.
Only
recently have NCES data begun
to include measures of self-reported proficiency in the home language, while
other, more immigrant-specific data-sets have begun to ask these questions.
Bilingualism
related to higher earning
Of
late, newer data and sharper analytical
methods provide a far richer measure of
bilingualism and individuals’ ability to read and write in non-English
languages. The ability to distinguish between oral proficiency in one or more
languages and actual literacy skills in two or more has allowed researchers to
identify an economic advantage to bilingualism – in terms of both higher occupational status and higher
earnings in young adulthood. The new data-sets measure
bilingualism in younger generations who enter a labor market defined not by
geographic boundaries, but by instant access to information.
Relationship
between bilingualism and intelligence
Beginning
in the 1960s, linguists began to find a positive relationship between bilingualism and intelligence. Building on this work, researchers found that elementary aged bilingual children outperform
their monolingual peers on non-verbal problem solving tasks. Then, in the late
1990s, research emerged showing that even when controlling on working memory,
bilingual children display significantly greater attentional control to problem solving tasks than monolingual children. Currently,
researchers have begun to use data-sets that
include more sensitive measures of language proficiency to find that among
children of immigrant parents, bilingual-biliterate young adults land in higher status jobs and earn more than their peers who have lost their home language. Not
only have these now-monolingual young adults lost the cognitive resources
bilingualism provides, but they are less likely to be employed full-time,
and earn less than their peers.
Americans
are beginning to grasp the cognitive, social and psychological benefits of
knowing two languages.
Historically notorious for
their English monolingualism, a recent Gallup poll reports that in this nation of immigrants, only one in
four American adults now reports being conversationally proficient in another
language.
However,
much more needs to be done if our nation is to remain a global leader in the next century. Schools’ role in the maintenance and development of potential
bilinguals’ linguistic repertoires will be critical to this process. Whether
through bilingual instruction or encouraging parents to develop their children’s home language
skills, what schools do will matter.
Today’s
potential bilinguals will contribute more as adults if they successfully
maintain their home language. Educational research leaves little doubt
that children of immigrant parents will learn English. Where we fail
these children is in maintaining their greatest resource: Their home language.
It’s something we should cherish, not eradicate.
This
article is published in collaboration with The Conversation. Publication does not imply endorsement
of views by the World Economic Forum.
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Author:
Rebecca Callahan is an Associate Professor Bilingual/Bicultural Education,
Cultural Studies in Education at University of Texas at Austin.
Image: Plaster
phrenological models of heads, showing different parts of the brain. REUTERS/Chris
Helgren.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/03/the-advantages-of-speaking-two-languages/
