The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/961437
thelinguist.uberflip.com APRIL/MAY The Linguist 13 FEATURES O ver the last two years, the EU Commission has been facilitating consultation events with a range of education and linguistics experts, with the aim of reviewing EU language policy and recommendations to member states. It is evident that, 16 years after the vision of education in 'mother tongue plus 2 languages' (MT+2) was shaped and agreed in Barcelona by EU leaders, this goal remains, for many, a distant vision. 1 In the UK, data on language learning in schools is not even available on the Eurostat site, and the only part of the UK committed to the 1+2 policy is Scotland. 2 According to reports produced in the UK, such as the British Academy's 2013 'State of the Nation' report, the deficiency of language skills among the workforce is so severe that some large companies have started deleting language requirements from their job adverts and staff profile requirements, having to focus their business strategies on English-speaking countries only. According to 'State of the Nation', this creates "a vicious circle of monolingualism". Without any doubt, this vicious circle rests on the dominance of English – unrivalled by any language in our history – with one in four people in the world competent in the language, resulting in a feeling of 'English is enough'. Therefore, attempts to promote language learning in the UK need to use new and different arguments to those used in non- English-speaking countries. They need to focus not so much on the immediate advantages of learning a particular language, but more on the general benefits of language learning, multilingualism and active language use, independently of the specific languages involved. Such an approach could also lead to a positive re-evaluation of the role of languages spoken by migrant communities: once we acknowledge linguistic diversity as a benefit, rather than a burden (both to individuals and to society), all languages become valuable and worth preserving. Until recently, most arguments for learning languages fell into two broad categories: cultural (e.g. learning French leads to a better understanding not only of French but also English language and history) and economic (e.g. the value of learning German or, more recently, Chinese, as languages of powerful modern economies). However, over the last few decades, a new, third category of arguments started to emerge: the cognitive benefits of language learning and use. Originally, most of the studies explored possible differences between monolingual and bilingual children, suggesting that bilinguals tend to perform better in metalinguistic tasks (understanding of languages), social cognition (including the notion of the 'Theory of Mind') and executive functions, particularly attention switching. 3 However, over the last decade it has become clear that the effects of bilingualism are lifelong, leading to better cognitive functions in old age, 4 a later onset Can the cognitive benefits of 'bilingualism' overcome the 'English is enough' fallacy? Dina Mehmedbegovic and Thomas Bak change the narrative on language learning Languages for health JUST THE TONIC People with dementia learn a language through the social enterprise Lingo Flamingo