Living With Multilingualism |
Multilingualism BLOG
I grew up at Farsi being my first language. Then I learned English, before even entering the public school system. I was tested a few times in my early years as an ESL student but was then released from the program after proving my level of efficiency. Thus, I went through my education as a normal native-English speaker. Living near DC, my high school was filled with people who spoke all kinds of languages. My English teachers were sympathetic toward these ESL students, and never had them participate in ESL classes, but rather, were just given accommodations in our classes. Although I understand why the accommodations were given, I also understand why this can seem unfair to the other students.
My experiences can very much relation to those of Motoko Kainose in her classes at college. In relation to Kainose's sociology class, where the professor just tells the ESL students to not worry about their grammar within their papers. Kainose gives the ESL student’s perspective on receiving special treatment. She did not want the professor’s special treatment as he announced it in front of the entire class, which made Kainose feel a bit inferior. Thus, a teacher announcing an accommodation in front of the entire class does not only make ESL students feel inferior, but makes native English speakers feel as if ESL students are getting an unfair advantage. This is why teachers should privately talk to students who need accommodations to keep the emotions out of it.
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Jared Diamond’s article titled “The Benefits of Multilingualism” dives into interesting evidence as for why multilingualism is more positive than it is negative for children. He claims recent studies have shown that children that are raised bilingually develop a cognitive benefit. Up to the 1960’s, research was showing that bilingual children learned language slower and had a smaller plethora of vocabulary compared to monolingual children. More recent students have shown both sets of children are similar in cognition and language processing. The argument is made that monolinguals only need to compare a word with a single stock of sound and meaning rules. On the other hand multilinguals switch frequently and unpredictably between multiple stocks of sounds and meaning rules. A study was done by giving subjects game like tasks designed to be confusing because the task rules change unpredictably. Monolinguals had a tougher time then bilinguals at accommodating to the switching rules throughout the study. This is considered a superior executive function. The results for the youngest and oldest subjects are of particular interest. Young infants learn to discriminate the sounds of the languages that are heard around them and learn to ignore distinctions not heard around them. Example are given of how Japanese infants lose, while English infants retain, ability to discriminate the consonants l and r. This is because the Japanese language does not distinguish these sounds. For the older age group, Diamond also argues that bilingualism can offer some form of ‘protection’ against symptoms of Alzheimer’s in the elderly. A study was done that looked at Canadian patients with a probably Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The bilingual patient showed their first symptoms at an age 5 years older than the monolingual patients. It is argued this is due to the “use it or lose it” saying. This means that bilinguals do extra exercise for their brain every minute of the day, because they’re constantly going back-and-forth between languages.
Source: Diamond, Jared. "The Benefits of Multilingualism." Science 330.6002 (2010). Washington DC:AAAS. 332-33. Print. |
AuthorAnusheh Kafi, a freshman at Emory University Archives
April 2015
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