The Gift of Second Languages

Today’s conventional wisdom is that English language learners (ELLs) need to master English as quickly as possible. Everything else is secondary. If these students remain fluent in their primary languages, good for them. If not, no big deal.

The 2002 No Child Left Behind law has done these students few favors. As a 2004 report from the National Association of Bilingual Education put it:

“... its emphasis on short-term test results – backed up by punitive sanctions for schools – is narrowing the curriculum, encouraging excessive amounts of test preparation, undercutting best practices based on scientific research, demoralizing dedicated educators, and pressuring schools to abandon programs that have proven successful for ELLs over the long term.”

Nearly 10 years of this have not made a dent in the achievement gap between English learners and white native-English speakers. Meanwhile, there is mounting evidence that helping these students maintain their primary language gives them a better grasp on English. And as many schools are finding out, ELLs can help schools teach other students. Dual-language immersion programs bring English learners up to speed on English while they give native-English speakers desperately needed help in learning a foreign language. 

The benefits of knowing two languages are obvious to anyone who’s gone job hunting. What resume looks weaker when it includes bilingual skills? And recent research by cognitive neuroscientist Ellen Bialystok has shown that being bilingual also helps sharpen people mentally. Regularly speaking a second language can even delay the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

In an interview with The New York Times, Bialystok was asked if it’s good for immigrants to teach children their native language. She replied:

“I’m asked about this all the time. People e-mail me and say, ‘I’m getting married to someone from another culture, what should we do with the children?’ I always say, You’re sitting on a potential gift.”

That’s exactly what we’d call it—a gift. And it’s a gift that schools need to stop throwing away.

Price is managing editor at Teaching Tolerance.