Chapter 6: Bilingual Education

Theory Proposed by Bilingual Education Advocates

Additive Bilingualism Enrichment Principle

Figure 6.1: Effects of Bilingualism
(Cummins, p. 171)

Bilingualism and Metalinguistic Abilities. Researchers have found that bilingual students gain cognitive skills from their bilingualism, including learning a third language faster. Because they are constantly comparing and contrasting their two (or more) languages, they become cognitively aware of the structure of the languages, and how they are similar or how much they differ. They consistently score higher on "measures reflecting creative thinking (the Torrance Fluency and Imagination measures), metalinguistic awareness (Word Order Correction), and verbal and non-verbal awareness."(Cummins, p. 165)

Cummins tells about conclusive studies in Italy and in India, where

studies show a clear positive relationship between bilingualism and cognitive performance, instuding measures of metalinguistic ability. [The researcher] suggests that bilinguals' awareness of language and their cognitive stragegies are enhanced as a result of the challenging communicative environment in which their bilingual abilities have developed.
(Cumins, p. 166)

My bilingual children are decidedly more creative than I am. Although my artist grandmother was sure I would be an artist, my creations were very down-to-earth and concrete, while my children produced much more fanciful drawings and writings. My son is now a very creative developer. I expect that my own social creativity has also advanced because of my late bilingualism. After inital protestations about how strange things were done in Denmark, I learned to accept cultural and food differences them, which I have carried over to my new life in the "new" culture of California, 30 years later.

A variety of explanations have been suggested to account for the observed superiority of bilingual children on certain types of cognitive and linguistic measures: for example, the fact that bilinguals have two words for the same idea or object and two ways of expressing the same through may lead them to "objectivfy" or become more aware of their linguistic operations...
(Cummins, p. 167)

This would indicate that we not only should encourage those of our students who are fortunate to become bilingual to keep their two languages equally strong (as in the illustration), but encourage monolingual students of the advantages of becoming bilingual. Possibly the some of the members of the organization U.S. English realize the advantages of bilingualism, and fear that bilinguals will become to strong in our culture. Interesting enough, since this is a country of immigrants, maybe the creativity of those immigrants can be attributed to their bilingual backgrounds. Are monolinguals too complacent without the challenge and contrast of bilingualism? Interesting enough, the origins of U.S. English are among the foreign born who has "made it" here in this country. According to the website

Mauro E. Mujica ... Chairman of the Board and CEO of U.S.ENGLISH since January of 1993 ... [who] immigrated to the United States from his native Chile, has a firsthand understanding of the obstacles facing non-English speakers upon their arrival in this country. His insight into the linguistic isolation of non-English speakers and his determination to help tear down these barriers made him a perfect successor to the late Senator S.I. Hayakawa, who founded the organization in 1983.
(U.S. English, About)

The organization is apparently working to pass legislation in states (and being somewhat successful) to make English the Official Language of this country, but they claim that this does not mean "English Only."

As evidenced in our legislation, official English would not affect the diversity of languages spoken in the home, foreign languages learned in classrooms, mottoes, Native American languages and the like. Making English the official language of the United States refers solely to the language of the government, not of the people, private business, classrooms, etc. Passage of official English legislation would not make the United States “English-Only,” just as Nigeria is not “English-Only” and Mexico is not “Spanish-Only."
(U.S.English, Official English)

This message doesn't sound as terrible as Cummins suggests. As with all organizations, the initial concepts of the founders may have been lead astray by xenophobic followers, who are trying to limit the amount of bilingual education in schools, so that the students do not get the support they need to become truly fluent in both languages, also in Academic language.

Enhancement of Third Language Learning. Studies comparing how well bilingual students learn a third language compared with monolingual students (for example, Basque students in Spain who are bilingual in Spanish, who are learning English in classes with monolingual Spanish speakers) have consistently shown the advantage of bilingual students, who can draw on their enhanced metalinguistic abilities. However, Cummins reports that just bilingualism isn't enough. The students apparently must reach a certain threshold (in Academic Language) for this to be effective.

Specifically, there may be threshold levels of proficiency in both languages that students must attain in order to participate effectively in instruction and avoid falling behind academincally and in a second, higher, threshold necessary to reap the lingistic and intellectual benefits of bilingualism and biliteracy.
...
[The] research strongly suggests that, rather than "shutting doors" as Schlenger (1991) claimed, literacy in two languages enhances the intellectual and academic resources of bilingual students. At an instructional level, we should be ... [building] on this potential advantage...by focusing students' attention on language and helping them become more adept at manipulating language in abstract academic situations.
(Cummins, p. 170)

I have known examples of students who evidently did not manage to cross the threshold in both languages giving them decided linguistic problems in school. The one student was the youngest child of (divorced) Canadian immigrants to Denmark. The parents both spoke inadequate Danish, as far as I could see, also with their children. I think that the older children had no difficulties, so they possibly had an English-speaking environment at home before the divorce. The youngest, however, had no good role models of either English or Danish at home. Luckily he was very musical and sang in various groups, so he was learning correct language through songs. However, he had not advantage from these two languages when I was trying to teach him German.

In the next post, I will take up the final topic in this chapter, the role of the first and second language interdependence.