Mandating Second Languages in Schools

The lack of foreign language education is certainly not a new challenge that American schools face. Although half of the world’s population is bilingual, the United States has become largely monolingual, especially since the end of the 1800’s when the “Americanization” ideology was adopted. Many people felt the strong urge for English as a linguistic identifier of the “American”. After America’s involvement in World War I, English monolingualism was largely supported and eventually, legislation removed foreign language instruction from most elementary schools. Since then, there has not been a significant amount of improvement for the push for foreign language education in the states, despite the significantly positive effect it has on children.

            Valerie Flores suggests that bilinguals have advantages in executive functions such as inhibition and shifting; however, no advantages have been recognized in updating. Flores explains updating as working memory, which is responsible for holding and manipulating information in our short-term memory. Although research does not support that bilinguals have longer working memories, it is however suggested that the reason behind bilinguals possessing better executive functioning is due to the constant shifting between two language systems as well as two cultures, which strengthens parts of the brain where inhibition and shifting take place.

            Valeria Flores conducted research that involved EEG measurements while comparing the ERPs of different groups, which allows you to isolate group differences for given cognitive processes. Event- related potential components are for examples, the N200 in which the brain is detecting whether conflicting information is present. Also, the P300 is elicited in tasks that require inhibiting, or stopping extraneous brain activation. Flores was able to examine the ERPs for the shifting trials within the color- word stroop task, investigate ERPs across groups on the non- verbal stroop task, compare ERPs across the verbal and non verbal stroop task for each group, and explored whether these ERP components are associated with academic performance. Flores found that the connectivity of the bilingual mind is shaped largely by experience and the linkages to academic achievement, at varying stages of development, may help educators grasp the benefits of bilingualism.

            According to The New York Times, research has shown that learning more than one language from an early age creates children who are “more cognitively flexible”, better at solving critical- thinking problems, as well as better at handling multitasking. Educating children with foreign languages is incredibly positive not only for the individual but for national security, for it is in large, imperative for diplomats, military personnel, and other government workers. It is no question why we should not be implementing language courses back into elementary schooling.