Other Language Learners

Earlier this week we looked at myths and evidence about educating English language learners. Helping these children to obtain proficiency in both English and their native language must be a critical goal for PK-3 education. But what about the 90 percent of children who already speak English–are we missing out on a critical opportunity to teach them a second language in the PK-3 years?

In our increasingly global economy, developing a workforce that is conversant in other languages and cultures will be increasingly important for our national economic competitiveness. Our government also needs a greater supply of proficient speakers of a variety of other languages to ensure our national security.

Yet only 9 percent of American adults are proficient in more than one language–compared to 53 percent of Europeans. And only a small percentage of multi-lingual Americans are proficient in Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, and other languages that will be in increasing demand in the years ahead.

Strengthening foreign language instruction in the PK-3 years must be part of the solution here. Research suggests that, when it comes to teaching children a foreign language, earlier is better. Part of this is obvious–the younger you start learning a language, the more time you have to master it. But evidence also suggests that young children’s brains are better suited to picking up language than older adults’. Young children’s brains seem designed to acquire the rules and sounds of their native language. When young children are taught a foreign language, they tap those same abilities to learn the new language. But as the brain develops, we begin to lose some of those abilities–particularly the ability to learn new sounds. Older youth and adults can still learn a foreign language, but it may be more difficult for them. And it is virtually impossible for most people to learn to speak a foreign language without an accent after the early teen years.

While becoming proficient in a second language is its own benefit–research shows there are additional benefits to doing so. Learning a second language in the PK-3 years can strengthen cognitive abilities, help improve students’ achievement in English, and make it easier for youngsters to learn additional languages later in life.

Yet despite abundant evidence that it’s better to start learning language sooner, most American public school students don’t have an opportunity to learn foreign language until middle school–too late for many to acquire native-like proficiency in a new language. In his book, Building Blocks, Gene Maeroff reports that one-third of elementary schools offer some type of foreign language instruction. But in most cases, what they offer is minimal: Only 7 percent offer sufficiently intense foreign language instruction that students are likely to obtain proficiency in a new language. That’s a tremendous wasted opportunity.

The federal government spends about $26 million on Foreign Language Acquisition Grants to states and school districts, and elementary school foreign language programs are a priority for this program. But the program is too small to have a significant impact on the availabliity of elementary foreign language instruction. The biggest obstacle to improving access to high-quality PK-3 foreign language instruction is a lack of qualified teachers who are proficient in foreign languages. The federal government could help address this problem by supporting alternative certification programs that enable native speakers of foreign languages to become teachers. Federal policy could also create incentives for schools to offer PK-3 foreign language instruction.

Our future economic and national security require preparing more of today’s children to speak a more diverse array of foreign languages, at a higher level of proficiency, than American adults do today. Helping ELL students maintain and build proficiency in their native languages is one piece of that puzzle. Improving native English speaking children’s access to high quality foreign language instruction in PK-3 is also essential.

Photo courtesy of flickr user krazykritter, used under a Creative Commons license.