Jewel+Hanson+-+Pros+and+Cons+of+Second+Language+Education

toc = = = = = = = = =Introduction= This wiki page explores issues and debates, pros and cons, surrounding second language acquisition. The following questions will be addressed and discussed:
 * //To have a second language is to have a second soul. - Charlemagne//**

(1) How does learning a second language potentially benefit students?

(2) How does not learning a second language potentially hurt students?

(3) How does English, as a predominate global language, affect other cultures?


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 * = Inherent in foreign language studies is the idea that other groups of people think differently and their thoughts and ideas are purposeful, meaningful, insightful, and valuable. Social studies can help one grow out of ignorance and arrogance, but foreign language studies force students to see outside their own realities. When studying a foreign language, students must realize that the world is big, bigger than themselves and their immediate environment, and it is begging for their respectful participation.  ||=  Further, when studying a foreign language, students can actually alter their worldview psychologically and neurologically. Thus, the benefits of learning a foreign language extend beyond obtaining the ability to speak another language.  ||=  In other words, the issue in learning a foreign language should not always be, do I need to speak another language in order to survive, linguistically speaking? Rather, the issue is and should be, am I able to see outside my reality and interpret, sometimes even take on, another person’s (culture’s) needs, biases, skills, perspectives, desires, etc… in order to survive in the current economic and social globalization?  ||

Finland: Learning multiple languages leads to academic success
Finland, whose education system boasts incredible results with few resources, attributes a large amount of their academic success to students learning multiple languages. Not long ago, the British Broadcasting Network investigated this phenomena. It is interesting the Finland attributes a large amount of their academic success to students learning multiple languages (Click here to watch the BBC special on Finland).

Propaganda: Pressure on non-English speakers to learn English
It seems as though there is tremendous pressure for non-English speakers to learn to speak English. International propaganda expresses the importance of learning English to non-English speakers. (Click here to see an example of this propaganda in media form: Why should I speak English?) If language is a function of culture, how much culture are we losing by introducing the world to English as a primary language? To what extent is the prevalance and supposed importance of English damaging other cultures?

Backstage Cognition: Learning a new language reshapes brain structures
The University of California, Los Angeles has completed extensive research on this topic, specifically studying how learning language changes structures of the brain, thus changing the way one perceives and reacts to one's environment, thus changing culture. Gilles Fauconnier, echoing Erving Goffman, calls this "backstage cognition." Although this serves as a confirmation for those who already speak multiple languages, it should also serve as a warning to those who do not believe that second language acquisition is important for survival in the increasingly globalized economic and academic world. Consider reading Fauconnier's article "Introduction to Methods and Generalizations" (Click here to find a link to this article about Backstage Cognition) which summarizes some of UCLA's cognitive linguistics findings, including the following:
 * “...when we engage in any language activity, be it mundane or artistically creative, we draw unconsciously on vast cognitive resources, call up innumerable models and frames, set up multiple connections, coordinate large arrays of information, and engage in creative mappings, transfers, and elaborations."
 * "...Backstage cognition includes viewpoints and reference points, figure-ground / profile-base / landmark-trajector organization, metaphorical, analogical, and other mappings, idealized models, framing, construal, mental spaces, counterpart connections, roles, prototypes, metonymy, polysemy, conceptual blending, fictive motion, force dynamics..."
 * "...any language form in context has the potential to trigger massive cognitive constructions, including analogical mappings, mental space connections, reference point organization, blends, and simulation of complex scenes."
 * "How this works remains in many ways mysterious. What is clear is that language is radically different from an information carrying and information preserving system, such as a code or telecommunications. Language forms carry very little information per se, but can latch on to rich preexistent networks in the subjects' brains and trigger massive sequential and parallel activations. Those activated networks are of course themselves in the appropriate state by virtue of general organization due to cognition and culture, and local organization due to physical and mental context. **”

Language shapes human thought, thus shaping culture
Two years ago, Lera Boroditsky published an interesting article in //The Wall Street Journal// titled " Lost in Translation: New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world; a different sense of blame in Japanese and Spanish" (Click here to find a link to the article "Lost in Translation"). Her article summarizes some important research regarding cognitive change due to linguistic learning. She says, “ It turns out that if you change how people talk, that changes how they think. If people learn another language, they inadvertently also learn a new way of looking at the world. When bilingual people switch from one language to another, they start thinking differently, too. And if you take away people's ability to use language in what should be a simple nonlinguistic task, their performance can change dramatically, sometimes making them look no smarter than rats or infants...All this new research shows us that the languages we speak not only reflect or express our thoughts, but also shape the very thoughts we wish to express. The structures that exist in our languages profoundly shape how we construct reality, and help make us as smart and sophisticated as we are."

Lera Boroditsky also says the following:
 * "Language is a uniquely human gift. When we study language, we are uncovering in part what makes us human, getting a peek at the very nature of human nature."
 * "As we uncover how languages and their speakers differ from one another, we discover that human natures too can differ dramatically, depending on the languages we speak."
 * "The next steps are to understand the mechanisms through which languages help us construct the incredibly complex knowledge systems we have."
 * "Understanding how knowledge is built will allow us to create ideas that go beyond the currently thinkable. This research cuts right to the fundamental questions we all ask about ourselves. How do we come to be the way we are? Why do we think the way we do? An important part of the answer, it turns out, is in the languages we speak.”

Language affects culture (Boroditsky)
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