Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners
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The Brain, Languages, & the Classroom

9/4/2023

 
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This is a monolingual brain. This is a brain on multiple languages. 
In a globalized society, it is a disadvantage to understand and speak a single language. Nations work together to solve problems as well as communicate and work alongside one another. Therefore, one who is able to speak and understand multiple languages has apparent advantages in communication over one who can not. 

Let’s examine the brain,  languages, and how this plays out in our classrooms. 
Monolingual people can become bilingual or even multilingual! The brain is a magnificent organ. And scientists continue to study it and learn about it. Though there is research on multilingual brains, the research is still very new. It wasn’t long ago that experts believed bilingualism slowed learning. Only a few years ago was it believed that different languages were housed in separation in the brain. Recent research has proven that wrong, and now we know that languages are not separated in different parts of the brain. As people acquire languages, the brain actually changes. 

Yet being bilingual or multilingual is not just about knowing more words. In the Power of Language (2023), Viorica Marian says, “It rewires your brain and transforms it, creating a denser tapestry of connectivity.” The linguistic advantages of knowing more than one language seem obvious. But what about the cognitive? 
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Studies have shown that people who are bilingual or multilingual are able to complete cognitive tasks that test attention span, memory, and moving from one task to another faster than their monolingual peers. These abilities seem like obvious advantages. Having a greater attention span can be helpful to us in school and beyond. Having the capacity to remember information is also quite useful. And ultimately the aptitude to go from one idea to another also seems to add benefit to one's life. 

Some studies indicate that being bilingual may slow cognitive decline, possibly delaying the onset of diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia. Living healthier lives means that bilingual people have a greater chance of living longer lives too. 

But if you were a fly on the wall of a typical middle school classroom, you might not hear many languages other than English being spoken. Kids are often ashamed of their home languages, and they sometimes don’t feel the power of bilingualism at a young age. Many parents complain that their children don’t want to speak their home language and that as their kids get older, they only want to speak English. Yet, once these same kids enter adulthood, many realize the power of bilingualism and begin to regret the languages they lost. 

In the Classroom
How do students experience language in our schools and classrooms? What messages about language do students receive both explicitly and implicitly? 

As educators, one of our roles is to create strategic experiences for students to use language, to practice pulling from their full repertoire. We can carefully design lessons that provide pathways for students to engage with peers, speak, listen, and think using the linguistic assets they have. 

  • What do students hear? 
  • Who does most of the talking? 
  • How much time is spent listening to the teacher?
  • How much time is spent interacting with peers?
  • What messages are sent and received about languages other than English? 
  • What types of language models do students have? 

What we can do:

  • Model using languages other than English. Learn a few important words in languages that your students speak.
  • Showcase languages other than English on the walls of the classroom. The bulletin boards speak volumes. Let the languages they speak communicate in more than one way. 
  • Make texts available in languages other than English. Yes, it’s more than okay to have books in Spanish and Urdu and other languages if your students can read in them! Side-by-side reading of texts is a great way to acquire language and learn new content. 
  • Showcase famous authors and other famous people who are bilingual, successful, and proud! If you Google famous bilingual celebrities, you will discover that there are so many! And about 20 of the presidents of the United States of America spoke at least two languages! 
  • Encourage students to write using their full linguistic repertoire. Show them how authors intentionally intermingle words from other languages in their writing to show effect. 

It’s simply not enough to tell students that being bilingual is powerful. We have to quantify it. What we do in the classroom has to match what we say. Only then will students begin to internalize the belief. 


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Valentina Gonzalez is a keynote speaker, author, and professional developer ready to partner with you. 
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