Medical Xpress – Melissa Beattie-Moss
“There’s an old joke that asks, “If someone who speaks many languages is multilingual, and someone who speaks two languages is bilingual, what do you call someone who speaks one language?” Answer: “An American.” Does the U.S. deserve its reputation for lagging behind the rest of the world in language learning? If so, what are we failing to grasp about the importance of being bilingual? We are making progress, but still have a way to go, says Karen Miller, director of Penn State’s Language Acquisition Lab and assistant professor of Spanish linguistics. “President Obama has made statements in favor of bilingual education, primarily in response to proponents of the English-only Movement, a political movement to make English the official language,” she says. “He has pointed out that immigrant children to the U.S. will eventually become bilingual, speaking both their native language and English. And he has also said that American parents in monolingual contexts should be just as ambitious in terms of finding opportunities for their children to learn a second language, as speaking more than one language can be socially and academically beneficial to all of us throughout our lives.” While 56 to 99 percent of people in European nations are functionally bilingual, only around 20 percent of Americans can make the same claim. Says Miller, if we increase our commitment to language education, more of our citizens would be able to reap the benefits it provides.”(more)