The globe represents how over six thousand worldwide languages and cultures all fit into one picture.

Language as an Asset

Anna Wood-Gaines
Aug 8, 2017 · 10 min read

This showcase represents two contrasting ideals. One belief is that foreign language learning should be valued as something that needs to be incorporated into our community. The alternate idea is that not everyone in the community views learning a second language as something with value. There are several viewpoints and opinions on this topic matter. Without development, foreign language learning will remain low on this community’s priority list. This showcase highlights where this community has been successful in engaging in this goal, and where it can improve.


Why should the United States put value in learning a foreign language? Communities around the world are valuing foreign language education as a top priority because countries depend on having multilinguals to help grow the economy and stabilize the society. Being multilingual not only benefits the country, but there is also scientific evidence that it benefits a person’s development, brain health, and emotional responses. In the Spokane community, and similar communities across the United States, the majority of people are solely English speaking. Learning foreign languages is a need to our society because it strengthens the country’s stability and the people’s health. More attention should be given to foreign language education in the community.

An empty De Leon Hispanic grocery store indicates that not everyone values the cultural integration.
De Leon is a Hispanic grocery store in Spokane. It combines and embraces two different cultures.

Unfortunately, there are many challenges the Spokane community has to face in order to prioritize and improve foreign language education. Many people in this community know nothing other than English because over 94% of children in Spokane live in homes that speak only English. Without understanding the benefits of foreign language learning, it is difficult to prioritize it. It is because of this unintentional ignorance that people in communities like this do not value multilingualism. It is not because they think learning a second language is meaningless, but, “with English as a lingua franca of trade and international politics, bilingualism has become less and less of a priority [in America]”. Many countries around the globe speak English, which gives little motivation for English speakers to learn other languages. In addition to this, budget cuts and lack of foreign language teachers make creating a foreign language curriculum extremely difficult for schools. In fact, “schools at every level are balancing their budgets and offsetting reductions in government allocations by cutting their offerings and/or eliminating foreign language requirements”. Even school districts that value learning foreign languages are forced to prioritize and sometimes cut these programs. Schools across the country have been forced to prioritize specific subjects over foreign languages due to budget strains. This can be seen across the country in colleges as, “Only 7 percent of college students in America are enrolled in a language course.” College students are told to focus on their specific degree, packing their schedules full of major related classes. The threat of not finishing in four years discourages students to pursue foreign language learning. Educators in this country are not valuing the need of learning a foreign language across the entire span of an American’s education. Because higher education wants students to only focus on their major and courses that directly affect their future jobs, the need for foreign language education is sometimes pushed aside.

In addition, the perception that Americans do not value learning foreign language comes from a faulty belief that being bilingual cause more problems than benefits. This thought process stems from a faulty study decades ago, “in which bilingual students underperformed monolingual English speakers and had lower IQ scores”. This research was disproven because it was taken directly from socially disadvantaged groups. This study further compounded a fear that being bilingual would confuse the brain, and ultimately make children less smart. Because of this false research, programs like English-Only were given scientific proof that only knowing English would best serve students. From 1997 to 2008, foreign education instruction in public elementary schools, “dropped from 24 percent to 15 percent” and in middle schools, “decreased from 75 to 58 percent”. Over the past few decades, the value of foreign language within the American community has decreased considerably. Without motivation to invest in foreign language education, schools will continue to drop programs in order to meet budget requirements. While the original study has now been falsified, it still greatly affects our community’s view that multilingualism should not be valued as a priority.

An Italian grocery store highlights their heritage with an Italian flag, while also incorporating American culture.
Two partners celebrate their different backgrounds. She is currently learning Spanish to better understand his culture.

While our community does not prioritize being multilingual, countries in Europe are valuing foreign language as a crucial part of their curriculum because it broadens their students’ opportunities for growth and understanding. While the United States does not have a national requirement for students learning a foreign language, “Studying a second foreign language for at least one year is compulsory in more than 20 European countries”. European countries set a standard for foreign language education as something that is crucial to a student’s overall learning. The majority of European countries require students learning a second language, and several even require a third. This disconcerting statistic that, “only 18% of Americans report speaking a language other than English, while 53% of Europeans (and increasing numbers in other parts of the world) can converse in a second language,” only further proves America’s underappreciation of foreign language education. While our country disregards the need for foreign language education, countries around the world are leading the charge. With globalization bringing the world ever closer together, the importance of understanding each other has become crucial. In fact, “Learning each other’s cultures and languages has become the need of the hour for us to empathize and appreciate each other’s way of living”. Learning a second language helps people see the big picture and be more empathetic toward each other. By our community not valuing the learning of other languages, we are supporting ignorance and stagnation. The way that other countries value English, is the way the United States should value Mandarin Chinese, German, and a multitude of other foreign languages.

Countries have also implemented strong foreign language education programs because having multilingual people in a society helps increase economic growth and stability. In order, “‘To prosper economically and to improve relations with other countries,’ [former] U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in 2010, ‘Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages’”. Without a way to communicate with other countries, the United States will not be able to grow as a country and a society. It is important to have diplomats, scientists, and entrepreneurs be proficient in other languages to aid a countries economic and strategic interests. Without having professionals in our country with the ability to communicate to other countries, it becomes very difficult to grow and expand our country’s reach around the world. Being multilingual, “is moving from ‘nice to have’ to ‘need to have’ as the world gets smaller and globalization continues to impact most every aspect of our lives”. The need to communicate is crucial when it comes to foreign relations. Without strong ties to communities around the world, exportation and importation of goods will stagnate. Continuing to grow our foreign language education program will insure a stronger communication path between the United States other and countries. To make our country stronger, multilingualism is a skill we need to invest in. Prioritizing foreign language learning will allow more stability and economic growth within our community.

Cassano’s Grocery combines and embraces the Italian and American cultures.

In addition, there is scientific evidence that learning a second language positively strengthens the brain. The U.S. does not value adding foreign language learning, yet, “Being multilingual… [causes] higher density of grey matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language”. Having a higher density of grey matter is a sign of a healthy, active brain. The idea that foreign language education positively effects student’s brains, increases the value of it to the community. Also, learning a second language is important for us as it has been linked to delaying the onset of dementia symptoms. “Adults who spoke two languages were carrying on longer at a higher level despite greater degrees of damage,” thereby creating a preventive measure against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Because bilinguals have shown to have strengthened their brains in some areas, it makes senses that there is a correlation with ‘exercising’ your brain and preventing dementia. This is positive for our society, as caring for patients with Alzheimer’s is a huge cost for the nation’s healthcare system. In the study, “Age of Language Learning Shapes Brain Structure: A Cortical Thickness Study of Bilingual and Monolingual Individuals”, the authors “examined the effects of learning a second language (L2) on brain structure. Cortical thickness was measured in the MRI datasets of 22 monolinguals and 66 bilinguals”. The research took people who knew one language and compared them to people who knew two languages and linked structural changes to the brain as the way that those people learned. Their final results showed, “that learning a second language after gaining proficiency in the first language modifies brain structure in an age-dependent manner”. Learning a language later in life actually helps strengthens different parts of your brain. This study found that learning a foreign language past childhood is still extremely beneficial to a person’s brain. By learning a second language later in life, it strengthens different parts of the brain and improves the overall health of the brain.

While learning a language as an adult is helpful to the brain, learning a language during childhood can be even more beneficial. According to the Critical Period Hypothesis theory, “children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left”. The ability of learning two languages at once lets children apply it to all areas of the brain as it is growing, making the entire brain stronger. While this is still a theory, if found to be true, it says that learning a language as a child gives he or she more maturity socially and emotionally. Children will be able to be more patient in difficult situations. In the study, “Eyes Wide Shut: Linking Brain and Pupil in Bilingual and Monolingual Toddlers” the authors observed the way monolingual and bilingual toddlers cope with conflicting information regarding the names of objects using electrophysiological recordings and changes in pupil sizes. The results found that, “bilingual toddlers showed a similar pattern to adults” and that these findings, “support previously documented greater cognitive flexibility in bilinguals”. The bilinguals were able to respond to the test more efficiently because they encounter new words more frequently than monolinguals. The bilinguals had already learned to be patient and to problem solve, while the monolinguals often got frustrated and gave up. When faced with a challenge, “Bilinguals still learning English scored well in English reading, ‘even though they didn’t have huge mental dictionaries to draw on, they may have been great puzzle-solvers, taking into account higher-level concepts such as whether a single sentence made sense within an overall story line’”. Bilinguals may have an alternative path to solving the problem, but they are able to apply their problem-solving skills to get positive results. In addition to problem solving, bilinguals tend to be better than monolinguals at multitasking, focusing attention, and learning additional languages. By learning a new language, children are also exposed to new cultures and new points of views. This aids them at being more empathetic at an early age and throughout their life. Overall, being bilingual has great cognitive, emotional, and social benefits for children.

Salish teaching immersion program in Spokane teaches children in the native language, yet have been the recent victims of racist graffiti.

There is overwhelming evidence that being bilingual is beneficial to individuals and communities, yet it is still not a main priority for a community. There are budget concerns as well as infrastructure problems. However, hope is on the horizon. In fact, “This fall 50 Spokane kindergarten students will learn in Spanish and English. Spokane Public Schools will add two Spanish language immersion kindergarten classes in the Libby Center, where students will be instructed in Spanish half of the time”. This will be Spokane Public Schools first attempt at a dual-language instruction. This program actually reduces cost because a variety of subjects are taught in two languages, eliminating the need to purchase separate language books and hiring a separate language instructor. Dual-language classrooms educate both English learners and English natives, in each other’s home languages, with the goal of, “functional bilingualism and illiteracy for all students by middle school”. Dual-language instruction is the first solution of many to come. Spokane, and the state of Washington, is leading the way in this nation’s reprioritization of the need of bilingualism. Learning a language at any point in a person’s life is beneficial, and making sure that children get the opportunity to learn a new language and culture is crucial to their development. It is time that the people of this community value foreign language education as a need.

A local Spanish immersion program is set up in a local house to offer students a dual-language opportunity.

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