The benefits of learning a foreign language

There are lots of contradictory researches about this topic but it is something that we have to read about and learn about from our own experiences. Now I will focus on the benefits of learning English as a foreign language.

In 2007 I wrote about how to teach English nowadays. I still think the same. Teaching English is not teaching just the language but the culture. Why? Because the understanding of another culture expands people’s horizons. The common arguments for learning English in our country are “getting a better job” or “for traveling”. And it’s true. English is in full development, and knowing or not knowing the language markedly increased the difference between those who can and cannot seize the opportunities of globalization. But we cannot focus just on that. There are many other benefits.

To better understand the importance of learning English, will discuss the following:

a)     According to research by the British Council: ”English has official or special status in at least seventy-five countries with a total population of over two billion. English is spoken as a native language by around 375 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers in the world. Speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language. Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. One out of four of the world’s population speaks English to some level of competence. Demand from the other three-quarters is increasing.”

b)    Access to knowledge: 95% of scientific publications are written in English (source: Institute of Scientific Information, ISI).

c)     Access to information: 90% of Internet information is also in English (source: British Council).
c) Access to continuing education: increasingly more universities in Spain, Belgium, Japan, Korea and other countries where the native language is not English are taught at the language and demanding a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)-the same required for entry to American universities.

d)    Income: on a study of bilingualism and income in Canada between 1971 and 1991, Christofides and Swidinsky report that French-speaking Canadians who invested in learning English income increased substantially compared to those who did not. Thus, also improved their quality of life through greater and better access to goods and services.

As you can see, to get better job opportunities is one of the reasons to learn English but not the most important. In my opinion, access to information is one of the most important nowadays.

But there are other reasons that some researchers have pointed out, such as the brain development.

In an interview with the BBC World Service radio program Science in Action, Professor Diamond said that individuals reared bilingually were better able to focus in confusing situations.

“A baby that has been reared bilingually has learned from the age of three months to pay attention to the sounds of Italian and to ignore mummy who speaks Chinese,” he says by way of example. “But if mummy starts speaking, the baby will start paying attention to Chinese sounds and ignore Italian. An infant reared bilingually has to practice at paying attention which the rest of us don’t.”

In another Canadian study he examines, it was suggested that those who speak more than one language were less likely to develop forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. A survey of hundreds of elderly Canadian dementia patients, found the bilingual patients on average developed symptoms at least four years later than their monolingual peers. The possible explanation was that bilingual individuals were exercising their brains in ways which their monolingual peers were not, and thereby delaying dementia.

And what about our country?

Most of these researches are focus on ESL while in our context we teach EFL. There are not researches about EFL in our country but we could infer that cultural issues and to open new opportunities are the most important effects of learning a new language.

What can we do to get more information about the effects of learning a new language in our children?

Improvement of Language Policies: determine how languages are going to be tough to meet national goals is a priority that we have accomplished. The last 6 years our local policies have been focused on promoting English learning at different levels and areas. Despite there’s been a clear policy on this, there’s been a lack of integration with Universities. More funds are needed to support researches on this field.

Schools and Universities should work collaboratively: usually universities are too focused on the theory that they forget what is really happening in the real world. Then, new teachers don’t know how to deal with students and they feel frustrated. If Universities would work together with schools –preferably public schools- they could learn from each other. This would be a great opportunity for Universities to do research as well.

Exchange information with other Spanish-speaker countries in EFL: we could learn from other countries experiences with a similar context. This could be done creating a Latin-American TEFL Online Community.

Anyway, I think there is awareness of the importance of managing this language, nation wide, which will help us to improve our results.

Here you can find some researches I suggest you to read:

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages:

http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3651

http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4724

http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4524

Cornell University

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May09/bilingual.kids.sl.html

National Education Association

http://www.ncssfl.org/papers/BenefitsSecondLanguageStudyNEA.pdf

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