Joan Pore BEED 2-2
Topic: Benefits of Multilingualism
Subject: Content and Pedagogy for the Mother Tongue
PRELIM
Benefits of Multilingualism
Methodoligically-flawed and ideologicall-biased studies claimed that bilingualism and multilingualism
are problems, interfering with intelligence, proper language use, and socialization.
Individual multilingualism refers to the use of two or more languages by a person.
Social multilingualism is the use of two or more languages in a population; also be referred to as
linguistic diversity.
Advantages of Multilingual/Bilingual Over Monolinguals
Personal Benefits Type of benefit
Brain has improved executive function, increasing Cognitive
attention on problem-solving, puzzle solving,
sorting, and other metal tasks
Heightened ability to monitor the environment, Cognitive
with greater efficiency
Better at resolving conficting information Cognitive
Better at memory generalization Cognitive
Can more efficiently switch between tasks Cognitive
Faster at adapting to changes in trends/ patterns Cognitive
(due to enhanced cognitive control system)
Enhanced mental flexibility and brain plasticity Cognitive
Can engage more neurons available for language Cognitive / Linguistic
processing than monolinguals
More resistant to the onset of dementia, Cognitive / Health
Alzheimer's disease, and other cases of brain
degeneration
Reduces decision-making biases Cognitive / Psychol-ogical
Enhanced encoding of sound Cognitive / Auditory
Heightened creativity Cognitive / creative
Advantages in learning new languages Cognitive / Linguistic / Heuristic
Faster/better language acquisition
Easier to learn differences in sounds, word order,
stress, rhythm, intonation, and grammatical
stuctures of new languages
Greater access to cultures and cultural output. In Cultural / Social
turn, this is likely to foster greater tolerance and
appreciation for cultural differences
Greater access to information Heuristic
Can express oneself in more than one language Social-emotional
and explore different facets one's personality.
More desirable for employment. This is particularly Economic
true for the healthcare, education, business, and
travel industries
People who speak more than one language tend to Economic
have higher salaries, wider choice of jobs, and
more interesting jobs
Societal Benefits of Linguistic Diversity
Societal Benefits Type of benefit
Linguisti/cultural diversity promotes diversity of Social / Academic / Economic
voices, opinions, ideas, and innovation
Languages offer unique philosophies, worldviews, Social / Philosophical
and indigenous knowledge systems
Linguistic/cultural diversity provides more ways for Social
people to communicate. When languages come
into contact, they borrow and feed off each other,
enabling more flexible, nuanced, and inventive
communication.
Linguistic diversity informs and enriches many Academic (historical, anthropological)
fields of discipline, both in the arts and sciences.
Languages encode a huge amount of information
about language development, characteristics, and
change (linguistics): migration and other events of
human history (history, human evolutionary
biology); how humans interact and think
(anthropology, psychology, philosophy); etc.
Linguistic/cultural diversity allows for greater Social
interaction between people of different
backgrounds, providing learning opportunities to
tolerate, appreciate, and embrace differences
Linguisti/cultural diversity of humans is related to Environmental
ecological diversity and the two can benefit each
other.
Languages have economic value. Economic
Languages are important to social and economic
development.
Linguistic/cultural diversity leads to different
localized needs and encourages development of
diverse, locally-responsive industries
Different language groups have local knowledge Health
about medicine and treatment, some of which are
effective and undiscovered by mainstream science.
Language and cultural preservation help keep
intact social systems for community health.
Multilingualism
Beneficial to individual person and also to society as a whole
Governments establish "multilingual-friendly" policies, particularly in education, in order to
maximize the potential of a multilingual population.
Teachers can make their classrooms more "multilingual-friendly". This means that teachers
convey to children the value of their mother tongues, and also the vslue of learning other
languages.
Teachers should adopt the "additive" language perspective rather than the "subtractive"
language perspective.
Mother tongues are not tobe discarded, but rather embrace an important part of the children's
identities and lifetime tool for communication and learning.
Learning other languages will expand their horizons, representing additional skills and
knowledge. They should not considered as superior replacements of their mother tongue.
Becoming better at a second or third language should not subtract from first language
competence.
Students have some opportunity to continue to use and develop their first language in all grade
levels, even as they master other languages.
