Edwards (2004: 7) states that “Everyone is bilingual….there is no one in the world (no adult, anyway) who does not know at least a few words in languages other than their maternal variety.” Why do people strive to become bilinguals in present days? In Asian countries, parents tend to let their children learn English as early as they can. They do not want their children to fall behind others due to the lack of language learning experiences. So, I want to talk about the benefits of being bilingual.
If you happen to speak some terms in other languages, chances are, you belong to the world’s bilingual and multilingual majority. Being a bilingual has several benefits. First, being a bilingual means you can travel more easily. You might encounter some challenges or problems while travelling which can be solved by communicating with others. Second, by being bilingual, your brain will be healthier than those who are monolingual. In the video that I have posted below, it states that being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages. It can also help delay the onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia by as much as five years. Moreover, getting to know various languages can broaden your horizons by making you more open-minded. When we learn a language, we would also learn about the country’s culture and customs which is highly beneficial if we are heading to that country in the future. Last but not least, the advantage of being a bilingual also includes other benefits for brains. It reinforces the executive function, problem solving ability, and the function of switching between tasks of the brain. Even if you didn’t learn a second language at a young age, it is never too late to learn a language in this modern world.
For me, being a bilingual indeed brings a lot of advantages to my life. Since I was little, I was immersed in a bilingual environment. Learning a language is not a difficult task when it happens at a young age which is related to the critical period. I admit that being a bilingual increases my self-esteem and the confidence of communicating with others. We cannot deny that learning an L2 in the critical period is the best situation due to the flexibility of children’s brains, so that’s why parents are trying to let children become bilinguals as soon as they can. Therefore, I definitely agree with having children learn an L2 at a young age. Do you agree with the benefits that I have mentioned above? What is your language learning experience? Please share your thoughts with me!
The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain
References:
Nicholas, H., & Starks, D. (2014). Language education and applied linguistics: Bridging the two fields. New York: Routledge.
As potential consumers, we are constantly bombarded with information about various products or services from all kinds of media, including newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, Internet, etc. Advertising products are most likely to appear in a desirable context, evoking the emotions and feelings of the audience by promising that if they buy or own a product, they will be happy (Dyer 1982). However, how to highlight the core of the product and attract the attention of customers through the slogan of only ten words or so depends on the uniqueness of each slogan.
1.Realistic characteristics of advertising language
Language is a reflection of social reality. For example, the market in winter is full of keeping warm goods. The advertising language is very striking, such as “thickened”, “the cold weather comes”, “enjoy the outdoors during harsh winter months” can be seen everywhere. These vivid slogans make customers pay more attention to the warmth retention feature of the product, which also indicates that the product can meet the needs of customers in this season.
2. Gender characteristics of advertising language
The gender difference in language is mainly reflected in vocabulary. Advertisements aimed at women are full of romanticism and imagination, so that customers can feel the beautiful space behind the language, while those aimed at men are accurate, rational and pragmatic.
The key feature of advertising language is reflected in the age difference, that is, the difference between one generation and another. Here are two ads for different age groups:
(1)This kind of pants is comfortable, warm, wearable, and 100% wool. (advertisement of pants for middle-aged people)
(2)Strong sense of fashion, the most popular pattern in 2020, the same style as the stars. (advertisement for young ladies’ dresses)
It can be seen that middle-aged people prefer plain language that can highlight the function of products, such as “warm”, “durable”, “comfortable”. However, the young generation pays more attention to “fashion”, “the latest style”.
To sum up, advertising language under the influence of social factors, has a unique variation, which makes the language to have different features in the gender, age and other aspects, also further promotes the innovation of the language itself. What do you think about advertising language? Do you think there are any other features of it?
References
Dyer, G. (1982). Advertising as Communication (1st ed.). Routledge.
Li, C. (2015). Research on online shopping advertising language under the perspective of sociolinguistics. Journal Of Shaanxi Vacational & Techenical College, 10(273165). Retrieved 28 November 2020, from.
I am no stranger to Bill 101, and in my previous post I shared some of the struggles that I faced as an English-speaking student in a French school. My saving grace, if I may say so, was the ability to attend an English CEGEP upon graduation from high school. If I did not have this choice I know deep down in my heart and soul that I would not have pursued post-secondary education and would not be the teacher that I am today.
Attending an English CEGEP was a form of liberty for me as I was finally able to be myself after years of trying to blend in. I found my voice after what seemed like a lifetime of being mute.
This is why my anger rises when I listen to the never-ending discussions and debates on the extension of Bill 101 to CEGEPS. It is nauseating to read about the attempts of the Parti Quebecois to block funding in Dawson, the province’s largest anglophone CEGEP. When my former Vanier CEGEP classmate and Montreal MP, Emmanuella Lambropoulos, said that she did not believe that the French language was in peril, she stepped on toes and stirred the pot.
Image source: CTV News.
But the reality is that the PQ fears for the future and it seems like in a very desperate attempt to control the public, they are scrambling to extend the language law.
However, I truly think that if it ever does get approved we will have a higher drop-out rate and a higher rate of unemployment and/or social assistance.
There are too many anglophone and allophone students in my special education classes struggling to get by in their classes. Brilliant minds with so much to say, unable to express themselves in school. And then my colleagues look at me in awe when I say they are intelligent and tell me not to expect much out of them because they “can’t even read a paragraph without stumbling”.
How can we expect these students to attend a French CEGEP when they have so many difficulties in high school?
I truly believe that one cannot appreciate a language if it is being shoved down their throat. A person cannot see the beauty of it when it is forced upon them.
When people travel to Paris, they strive to learn to speak the language.
Why is this not the case in Quebec?
Food for thought.
References
Authier, P. (2020, October 22). PQ fails in bid to take Dawson, McGill off off list of Quebec infrastructure projects. Montreal Gazette. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pq-leader-wants-dawson-off-list-of-quebec-infrastructure-projects
Fletcher, R. (2017, September 8). PQ debates extending Bill 101 to CEGEPS, daycare. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/3729868/pq-debates-extending-bill-101-to-cegeps-daycares/
Reynolds, C. (2020, November 22). Angst around French language boils over in Quebec, as politicians wan of ‘decline’. CTV News. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/angst-around-french-language-boils-over-in-quebec-as-politicians-warn-of-decline-1.5199752?cache=xceuacapshbcr%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue
Authier, P. (2020, October 22). PQ fails in bid to take Dawson, McGill off off list of Quebec infrastructure projects. Montreal Gazette. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pq-leader-wants-dawson-off-list-of-quebec-infrastructure-projects
Fletcher, R. (2017, September 8). PQ debates extending Bill 101 to CEGEPS, daycare. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/3729868/pq-debates-extending-bill-101-to-cegeps-daycares/
Reynolds, C. (2020, November 22). Angst around French language boils over in Quebec, as politicians wan of ‘decline’. CTV News. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/angst-around-french-language-boils-over-in-quebec-as-politicians-warn-of-decline-1.5199752?cache=xceuacapshbcr%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue
In this highly globalized world, an increasing number of people become multilingual or plurilingual. Nevertheless, the public’s stereotype of monolingualism as well as tying certain ethnicity or race with fixed languages remains deeply rooted. In the field of second language studies and sociolinguistics, the issue of accents has always been a spotlight. It is postulated that language is the most prominent indicator of one’s ethnic identity, and that one’s first impressions on others usually refer to accent (Hansen et al., 2017). In addition, Matsuda (1991) stated that “your accent carries the story of who you are” (p. 1329), and accent easily leads to discrimination.
However, based on my own experiences and observations, other than language features such as accents, one’s appearance also serves as a significant marker of one’s identity, providing others a preconception of who you are at the first sight. It echoes with what Hansen (2013) suggested, “both accent and appearance are strong social cues” (p.16). For instance, once when I was shopping in a Chinese supermarket in Montreal, I asked one Asian-like staff for help in Chinese, but I was responded to with “Sorry, I do not speak Chinese”. At that point, the Chinese just came out of my mouth when I looked at him. I definitely meant no offence, but I still felt very sorry and apologized to him. Hence, in my opinion, preconception based on only language or appearance could be a misconception or stereotype that might result in a negative impact, such as impoliteness or even discrimination.
However, Low et. al (2009) pointed out that language cannot be the only factor that determines one’s identity. Instead, it is both subject-as-seen and subject-as-heard that intersect tangibly to construct one’s identity. Similarly, Hansen (2013) also discussed that specific accent-appearance combinations can be astonishing and violate people’s expectations, resulting in either negative or positive reactions. It has been concluded that expectancy violations cause more extreme results than expectancy matching. This makes sense to me when I link it with Xiaoma’s experience. Xiaoma, one of my favourite Youtubers, is a Caucasian who has been learning Chinese for over a decade, so he speaks perfect English, Mandarin, as well as a little bit of Cantonese. In his interesting fun prank video, he recorded how Chinese people reacted to him when he spoke Chinese in Chinatown, New York. Most of them were surprised and impressed. One Chinese woman even commented Xiaoma, “Your Mandarin’s better than my Mandarin. My mother tongue is Cantonese.” I assume that the Chinese people in the video might take it for granted that he should speak only fluent English according to his appearance — a white guy. But then, the fact that this white-looking guy communicated in nearly perfect Chinese mismatched with the Chinese audience’s stereotype or expectations. So, it was this “mismatch” between appearance and language that enabled Xiaoma to receive a lot of attention in the video.
I believe that apart from appearance and accents, there are many other elements interacting together to influence one’s impressions of others. Therefore, we should get to know a person from multiple perspectives before we define who he/she is. Last but not least, hopefully the stereotypical preconception or even misconception will not become the excuse for having bias or discrimination against others.
Questions for further discussion:
Have you ever experienced preconceiving others or being preconceived by others due to the mismatch of your accent and appearance? If so, was it in a positive or negative way? How did you feel?
Do you think that this stereotypical preconception is an obstacle in the interpersonal communication?
References:
Hansen, K., Steffens, M. C., Rakic, T., & Wiese, H. (2017). When appearance does not match accent: neural correlates of ethnicity-related expectancy violations. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(3), 507–515. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw148
Hansen, K. (2013). Interactions of accent and appearance in social categorization, impression formation, and economic decisions. PhD Thesis, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany Available: http://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/ Derivate-27328/Diss/HansenKarolina_Dissertation.pdf.
Low, B., Sarkar, M., & Winer, L. (2009). ‘ch’us mon propre bescherelle’: challenges from the hip-hop nation to the quebec nation¹. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00393.x
Matsuda, M. J. (1991). Voices of America: Accent, antidiscrimination law, and a jurisprudence for the last reconstruction. The Yale Law Journal, 100(5), 1329–1407.
I once asked some of my middle-school-age students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in China, “How is learning English important to you?”. Their answers were quite pragmatical, like “to gain an advantage in college entrance exams”, “to get a good job”, while one answered: “I don’t know. I learn because the school requires me to do.”
Surprised as you may be, it is quite a common situation in the EFL contexts like China, where students are learning English as neither an official language nor a language widely used in everyday communication. Although English is still viewed as necessary for its lingua franca status, students of middle-school age usually have very limited access to the need of actually using it— that is, to use it outside the classroom. Then naturally, they hardly get the chance to experience L2 socialization, where an L2 speaker gains communicative competence, membership, and legitimacy among the community of the English speakers (Duff, 2007). This results in the fact that although relatively competent in reading or writing, EFL learners often find it difficult to conduct oral communications in English — because they have rarely done it before, and do not view themselves as legitimate members of the community.
However, as the Internet has provided a chance for remote socialization, I suggest English teachers in EFL contexts consider encouraging students to participant in interest-based online communities to get access to L2 socialization. While digital or internet-based digital communicative tools or games have been proved effective in a lab environment (e.g. Peterson, 2013), it is the typical situation that students form non-supervised communities according to their interests. An interest-based community may include fans of certain cultural products, such as fan communities of musicals, hip-hop, the Marvel Universe, etc., and may be formed by people sharing the same hobby, such as sports, model assembly, bird watching, etc. through Twitter, Youtube or other online platforms. As English is still the lingua franca in communities where members have multicultural backgrounds, learners in the process of online foreign language socialization can probably practice the process of identifying and complying with the communicative norms of a cultural group, and probably gain pragmatic awareness of when and where can they speak to whom, and how.
As English teachers, one of our concerns of students’ online language learning is that whether they are picking up the “right kind of English”, or the standard, formal variety of English. Indeed, in today’s society, EFL students are still required to learn the standard form in order to reach to more resources carried by English. But the task of teachers is to help them develop the awareness of variety, rather than to limit their development in the repertoire of language varieties. Students will be much more encouraged if told the fragmented, informal language they pick up from interest communities online is also legitimate and useful, for it does contribute to the delivery and negotiations of meaning.
References:
Duff, P. (2007). Second language socialization as sociocultural theory: Insights and issues. Language Teaching, 40(4), 309–319.
Peterson, M. (2013). Computer games and language learning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
It is reported that the number of English learners in China has reached approximately 400 million, which goes beyond the total population of the UK and the US in 2010 (Fang, 2018). This number is largely thanks to the compulsory learning of English from primary school to university in China.
When you ask a Chinese high school student “Why are you learning English?”, the most frequent answer would be nothing more than “It is a required by school and, most importantly, I need to attend Gaokao”. “Gaokao”, the college entrance examination, is a once-in-a-lifetime exam and for high school students to enter a college or university in mainland China. “English” has long been a dominant subject in Gaokao following the introduction of the ‘Reform and Opening-up’ policy in 1978 (gaige kaifong). The other two dominant subjects are Chinese and Mathematics.
You may have no idea how much a Chinese family values the Gaokao, but I can tell you that many of them view it as the only hope to change their destiny. Here is a video of the interview about Chinese Gaokao:
The incomparable status of Gaokao in China, and the status of English, as one of the dominant subjects, has stirred a passion for learning English across the country. Moreover, the globalization since 21st century, along with hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2010 Shanghai Expo has also made “English fever” sweep the nation over the last decade or so.
However, if you ask university students or office workers in China, “Do you think English is important to you? ”, the answers are quite different. It depends on their majors, positions and personal interests, etc. You can often get an answer like “Not really.”, “I never have the chance to use it after graduation.”, or even “It is a waste of time.”
I still remember when I asked one of my Japanese friends why they are not so enthusiastic about English learning, they asked me instead, “Why are Chinese students are so crazy about learning English?” She told me she only needs English when she goes abroad for travelling, and that’s just one or two times a year! And in the future, her master major has nothing to do with English research, so why bother to achieve a high-level? It was from her words that I realized I was asking her under the premise that you “would, should, and must” learn English, and to learn as much as you can. It is a common Chinese perspective, though, at that time I realized how terrible this ideology is.
Admittedly, ideas about English language education are influenced by the language/exam policy in our country, especially by the Gaokao policy. Recently, there has been some concern that “English fever” has developed in an unbalanced way. This fear is not groundless: there has been stressed among parents that their children will lose the chance of having a promising future if they do not start learning English at a very young age, and in early childhood education, “English” has long been the most popular class for many years.
Is this really a healthy environment for students to learn English? Does English fever threaten our Chinese language and culture? Is this a problem, that there is a hidden hierarchy associating English with talent and value (Gil & Adamson, 2011)?
To respond to these worries, a series of NMET (National Matriculation English Test) reform came out. It states that the NMET marks in Gaokao would be decreased from 150 to 100 starting in 2016. Students could also take the English test twice a year, and the highest score would be included in their total Gaokao scores. At the same time, students’ scores in Chinese were adjusted from 150 to 180 points.
An additional proposal suggested that NMET be removed after 2017, but this reform was not that easy for Chinese students who have become accustomed to taking the NMET for a long time. After encountering fierce public opposition, the reform did not go through successfully in 2017, but the English score has been reduced each year—120 points in 2015 with the reduced 30 points added to the Chinese subject, and 100 points in 2016 (except some provinces). For example, in Jiangsu, the NMET has been changed from once-a-year to bi-annual, and only the higher score is recorded.
Many people view this Gaokao reform as a milestone, bringing the focus back on Chinese and cooling down English fever. Though the role English will play in Gaokao in the future is still disputable, many students, and their parents could relieve themselves from the high pressure of learning English for a while.
My niece told me her opinion on this reform:“It is a good one. Though I still love learning English, because I am interested in western culture, not out of any other force. I want to go to a foreign language university after Gaokao. But many of my classmates could allocate more time on Chinese and Maths now.” She is going to attend the 2021 Gaokao.
Here are my questions:
1. What is the higher education exam called in your country? (In China, it is Gaokao.)Does it attach much importance to a foreign language? (maybe not English)
2. What do you think of the exam in your country? Do you think the exam needs a reform? (For example, someone thinks Gaokao should cut down the share of English.)
References:
Fang, F. (2018)Ideology and identity debate of English in China: Past, present and future. Asian Englishes, 20 (1) (2018), pp. 15-26,
Gil, J., & Adamson, B. (2011). The English language in Mainland China: A sociolinguistic profile. In A. Feng (Ed.), English language education across Greater China (pp. 23–45). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
