The revolutionary power of bilingualism | Karina Chapa | TEDxMcAllen
Summary
TLDRThe speaker explores the cognitive advantages of bilingualism, drawing on personal experiences and scientific evidence. They discuss the challenges faced by bilingual students in America, including historical trauma and societal pressures to assimilate. The talk advocates for bilingual education, emphasizing its potential to foster cognitive flexibility, problem-solving skills, and even delay dementia. The speaker envisions a future where the US, with its growing Spanish-speaking population, can lead in cultivating a bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural generation.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The human brain can connect a native language with a foreign one to understand it, even without prior knowledge of the foreign language.
- 📊 In the United States, despite a rich linguistic diversity, only 20% of people are bilingual, compared to a global average where half of the population speaks more than one language.
- 🏫 Language is often misunderstood and historical trauma contributes to the lack of bilingualism; for instance, past punishments for speaking native languages in schools.
- 🧊 Language is likened to an iceberg, where the tip represents social language and the base represents cognitive academic language proficiency, which takes longer to develop.
- 🌱 Becoming bilingual is a gradual process that involves not just speaking but also dreaming in the second language, indicating deep cognitive integration.
- 🤔 A bilingual brain operates like having two interconnected icebergs, where knowledge from the first language can be transferred to the second, aiding in cognitive development.
- 🚫 Denying students the opportunity to develop cognitively in their first language can lead to illiteracy in both languages, as they lack the foundational cognitive development.
- 🌟 Bilingualism is a gift that enhances cognitive flexibility, problem-solving skills, creativity, and can delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's.
- 👥 The United States has a unique opportunity to become the leading country with the most Spanish speakers, emphasizing the importance of bilingual education.
- 🌱 Bilingual education is not just about language; it's about cultural identity and empowerment, allowing students to embrace who they are rather than who they might become.
Q & A
What is the 'superpower' mentioned in the script that a native language gives you?
-The 'superpower' is the ability to understand a foreign language by making connections with your native language.
Why does the speaker believe that only 20% of people in America are bilingual despite the diversity of languages?
-The speaker believes it's a combination of factors, including a lack of understanding of how language works and historical trauma.
What is the difference between social language and cognitive academic language as described in the script?
-Social language is the language used at home and in everyday interactions, which is developed quickly within the first few years of life. Cognitive academic language proficiency, on the other hand, involves deep critical thinking and takes five to seven years to develop; it's the language of analysis, inference, and conclusion making.
What does the speaker recall as the moment she became bilingual?
-The speaker recalls the moment she became bilingual when she started dreaming in English, indicating that her brain was thinking in the language she was learning as a second language.
How does the speaker describe the bilingual brain?
-The speaker describes the bilingual brain as having a 'double iceberg,' where the surface represents social language, and underneath is the interconnected cognitive academic language proficiency.
What does the speaker suggest happens to students who are not allowed to develop cognitively in their first language?
-The speaker suggests that these students may become illiterate in two languages, as they do not get the opportunity to transfer cognitive development from their first language to their second language.
Why does the speaker feel that historical trauma may play a role in the low rates of bilingualism in America?
-The speaker refers to historical instances where children were punished for speaking their native language in schools, which may have led to a subconscious belief that their native language is inferior.
What does the speaker argue about the importance of using words carefully in the context of language and identity?
-The speaker argues that words can be used as weapons of mass destruction, and it's a choice to use them constructively. Telling a child not to use their native language can undermine their identity and make them feel like they need to become someone else to be successful.
What is cognitive flexibility, as mentioned in the script?
-Cognitive flexibility is the ability to quickly switch between thinking about different concepts, as demonstrated by the color-naming task in the script.
Why does the speaker believe that bilingualism can revolutionize the world?
-The speaker believes that bilingualism can revolutionize the world because it offers cognitive benefits such as better problem-solving skills, creativity, and cognitive flexibility. It also has health benefits, such as delaying the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's.
What opportunity does the speaker see for the United States regarding bilingualism?
-The speaker sees an opportunity for the United States to develop a new generation of adults who are bilingual and biliterate, given that the U.S. is projected to have the most Spanish speakers in the world by 2050.
Outlines
🌐 Language Connection and Bilingual Brains
The speaker begins by engaging the audience with a playful Italian language test, highlighting how our brains naturally connect a foreign language to our native tongue. They emphasize the superpower of understanding a foreign language, especially Spanish, given America's linguistic diversity. The speaker points out the paradox of only 20% bilingualism in America despite 80% of non-English speakers being Spanish speakers. They delve into the concept of language as an iceberg, where the visible tip represents social language, quickly learned, and the submerged part represents cognitive academic language, which takes longer to develop. The speaker shares a personal story of becoming bilingual, dreaming in English after two years of living in America, illustrating the cognitive shift to a second language.
📚 Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
This paragraph delves into the importance of cognitive academic language proficiency, which is likened to the submerged part of an iceberg. It requires 5-7 years to develop and involves critical thinking skills. The speaker discusses the bilingual brain, comparing it to two interconnected icebergs, suggesting that knowledge from the first language can enhance the second. They argue against the suppression of native languages in education, as it deprives students of the cognitive development needed to transfer skills to a second language. The speaker passionately advocates for bilingual education, lamenting the illiteracy in two languages that results from neglecting native language development.
🏫 Historical Trauma and Language Identity
The speaker addresses the historical trauma associated with language suppression in American schools, where children were punished for speaking their native tongue. They recount personal experiences of feeling unworthy and 'dumb' due to language barriers, and how these experiences reflect a broader societal devaluation of non-English languages. The narrative includes a confrontation with a principal over discriminatory posters, emphasizing the need for open dialogue about language's role in identity. The speaker argues that discouraging native languages undermines a child's sense of self, urging recognition of bilingualism as a gift rather than a curse.
🌟 The Power and Future of Bilingualism
In the final paragraph, the speaker discusses the cognitive benefits of bilingualism, such as enhanced problem-solving, creativity, and cognitive flexibility. They share an interactive exercise to demonstrate this flexibility. The speaker also touches on the health benefits of bilingualism, including delayed onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. They highlight the United States' potential to lead in bilingualism by 2050, given its large Spanish-speaking population. The speaker concludes with a call to action for stakeholders to embrace bilingual education, which they believe can revolutionize the world.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Bilingualism
💡Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
💡Social Language
💡Historical Trauma
💡Language Identity
💡Language Transfer
💡Cognitive Flexibility
💡Monolingualism
💡Bilingual Education
💡Civil Rights
Highlights
The ability to understand a foreign language when you already speak another is a superpower given by your native language.
80% of language-minority students in America speak Spanish at home, yet only 20% of Americans are bilingual.
Language is like an iceberg, with social language being the tip and cognitive academic language proficiency beneath the surface.
It takes 5 to 7 years to develop deep critical thinking in a language, which is crucial for cognitive academic language proficiency.
The speaker became bilingual when they started dreaming in English after two years of living in America.
A bilingual brain is like having two interconnected icebergs, representing the transferability of cognitive skills between languages.
Learning in your native language is never a waste of time; it helps build a foundation for learning a second language.
Students who are not allowed to develop cognitively in their first language may become illiterate in both languages.
Historical trauma, such as punishing students for speaking their native language, has lasting effects on language identity.
Language is tied to identity, and suppressing a child's native language can make them feel their identity is not valuable.
Bilingualism is beneficial, with bilingual brains showing better problem-solving skills, creativity, and cognitive flexibility.
Bilingual brains are also healthier, potentially delaying the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's.
By 2050, the United States is projected to have the most Spanish speakers in the world.
There's an opportunity to培养 a new generation of bilingual and biliterate adults in America.
Bilingual education can revolutionize the world, and it requires a collaborative effort from various stakeholders.
The speaker advocates for open and honest conversations about language to change the educational system for the better.
Bilingualism should be embraced as a gift, not treated as a curse, in educational practices.
Transcripts
[Music]
does anybody speak Italian
no all right it's okay you're gonna see
a text on the screen and all you have to
do is read it and try to pay attention
to what your brain is about to do ready
here we go
so what is going on in those beautiful
brains can you make sense of what it
says I thought nobody spoke Italian what
you're doing is making connections with
your native language and a foreign
language you probably were able to
understand revolution fundamental mode
paradigm and if you also speak Spanish
you probably could have read the whole
thing in espanol una revolution a son
can be fundamental and el cambio de
pensar IV Salazar cualquier cosa un
cambio de para Diekman that is a
superpower the superpower that your
native language gives you to understand
a foreign language in America five
million students speak a language other
than English already at home and 80% of
them speak Spanish so why is it that
with this diversity of languages in our
country only 20% of people are bilingual
whereas in the whole world half of the
population speak more than one language
I believe it's a combination of factors
I think it's lack of understanding on
how language works mixed with a little
bit of historical trauma so let's talk
about that language what is language
let's imagine language is like an
iceberg the tip of the iceberg
represents social language that's the
language that we use at home at the
store with the neighbors with our
cousins in that language is developed
rather quickly one two three years and
you speak fluently a language at the
social level just imagine a baby when
the babies are one year old what do we
want to do we tell them say mama we hit
the same mom and they'd say mama
but at the time they're three it's like
yeah kya Tommy hito poor father because
they'll become Cheeta chatters right
fluency in language however if we go
below the iceberg under the surface that
is cognitive academic language
proficiency we don't see it on the
surface it's deep critical thinking and
to develop that deep critical thinking
we need five to seven years it's not
until the child comes to school that
they started learning how to analyze the
plot of a story make inferences draw
conclusions in fact it's a language of
thinking I remember exactly the day I
became bilingual you see I came to
America as an adult 20 years ago already
but I remember two years later I wake my
husband up in the middle of the night
and I tell him honey honey I'm dreaming
in English it was the very first time in
my life I was dreaming in English I just
dreamt in Spanish before then but then I
knew that my brain automatically was
thinking in the language I was using the
language I was learning as a second
language so what happens in a bilingual
brain a bilingual brain is really like
having a double iceberg so let's imagine
we're in a little boat and we're facing
these two icebergs don't worry it's not
the Titanic we're safe so we're seeing
these two icebergs and apparently the
two languages are very different it's
almost like if I continue this
conversation in Spanish if they were
split gondola diferencia entre lenguaje
sociology language academic well-dressed
om eazy-e's minutos some of you you just
flip the switch and you're like oh sure
I'm listening to Spanish and thinking in
Spanish but then some of you were like
wait I mean I didn't sign up for this
right and that's okay you're just not
balanced bilingual yet you're emergent
bilinguals but if that little boat
because it becomes a submarine and it
goes under the surface what do we
discover that it wasn't two icebergs
after all it was just
and it was interconnected with that
represents is that whatever I learned at
the cognitive level in my first language
I can transfer it to my second language
it's never a waste of time to learn in
your native tongue so if I learn that
two plus two equals four in English it's
not gonna be five in Spanish it's still
four or if Christopher Columbus came to
America in 1492 in English
he didn't come a year later in Spanish
just because he came late in Spanish no
15 minutes later right no he came at the
same time with the same people for the
same reasons so whatever I learned at
the cognitive level in my native
language will help me understand my
cognitive world in my second language
but then what happens to students that
are not allowed the opportunity to
develop cognitively in their first
language are they gonna have anything to
transfer not if they're not given those
five to seven years to learn to think in
their own language so then these
students sure they learn English just
fine they're in middle school in high
school speak in English but now they're
illiterate in two languages and every
time I say that my heart hurts because
those children came to us with a promise
of being bilingual and biliterate and
someone along the way sacrifice their
native cognitive development just for
them to learn English and I want to
think that everybody in this audience
agrees with this statement that
bilingualism is a gift
so then why in practice we treat it as a
curse I think it has to do with
historical trauma and maybe some of you
went through it maybe your parents so I
always try to be very delicate when I
talk about this topic decades ago in
America children would were punished
in the school for speaking their native
tongue so if one told Maria at recess
Maria pasame la pelota and somebody hurt
one one went to the principal's office
not only to get scolded but to get
paddled to get physically punished for
speaking the language his parents gave
him at birth what did we do to these
children now they became adults who
maybe subliminally they feel Spanish is
a second-class language because then
again an institution of power told
himself so what are we doing today do we
think that historical trauma doesn't
exist I have to tell you that just a
couple of years ago I visited a high
school and I saw the assistant principal
put him posters up on the wall so I went
and I walked to read the posters and
they said this is America
speak in English so as she was putting
the posters up I started taking the
posters down and she kept walking
putting them up and I kept walking
taking them down so then finally she
turns and she sees me and she's like
daddy you know what are you doing I
spent a lot of time and effort creating
this posters the students need to speak
English to be successful I could have
been irate and I could have told her
right there in her face that he was
strong but I didn't do that I just told
her okay mom I said let's talk let's go
sit down and talk because in my 18 years
of experience in education I have
learned that one thing that people need
to sit at the same table to have open
and honest conversations about language
otherwise we will not change anything so
that day she learned that those posters
were a violation of her students civil
rights she didn't know that but then
together we also learned that words can
be used as weapons of mass destruction
it is our choice to use them as weapons
of mass construction why because
language is tied to identity when we
tell a child do not use your native
language what is the message we're
sending we're telling him his identity
is not valuable that he has to become
somebody else that it doesn't matter if
they don't see their culture the
language surrounding them in schools
that in order to be successful they need
to sacrifice who they are who their
families wanted them to be and become
someone else and I have to tell you I
thought I was totally immune to this
historical trauma because after all I
was born and raised in Mexico so I was
very sure about my native language I
just needed to learn laying English as a
second language little did I know that
that historical trauma had penetrated
every fiber of my being I still remember
it like if it was yesterday when I
started my master's degree here in the
valley that first night it was probably
my second year in the u.s. so that first
night I remember going super anxious to
that classroom and I enter the classroom
and all I can hear is English English
English English English English English
that's all I could hear now I know
everybody was bilingual I didn't know
that because I was such in a state of
panic that I couldn't hear anything but
English English English English English
English English and I didn't speak
English fluently so I started feeling
like I was not worth it like I didn't
belong like I didn't have anything to
contribute to that classroom and as you
can see I'm not one to shy away from
speaking in public right but that day I
went and sat in the corner and I felt
for the first time ever the worst
feeling in my life
I felt like I was the dumbest person in
the room when in reality I knew I was
one of the smartest ones there
so then the professor walks in beautiful
blonde blue-eyed woman so I say to
forget it
[Laughter]
stereotyping you know it's also my thing
so then this beautiful professor asks
each one of us can you please introduce
yourselves ok so then it was my turn and
I said I'm Karina choppa from Monterrey
because I had learned to say Karina and
Monterey instead of Karina and Monterey
to avoid the look right so then she gets
all excited and she's like Monterey
California like me I'm like no no no no
no I'm from Monterrey Mexico so then for
a second she went oh and I'm like oh
right so then she's like even better
you're from Mexico I'm so happy you're
here with us we have so much to learn
from you I'm sure your Spanish is
beautiful I'm so happy a fall that
things you have to contribute to our
class halfway into that message I had
this face right but then I started
looking around and I'm like who is she
talking to
how can I be an asset if I don't even
speak English fluently I had learned to
believe that fallacy but that woman gave
me that night hope and knowledge the two
biggest weapons she was able to give me
to fight historical trauma and that is
the same hope and knowledge that I wish
every one of those 5 million students
receiving our American school systems to
feel empowered for who they are and not
who they will become one day I don't
understand why bilingualism is still one
of the biggest debates in a daily
educational system in America why is it
if even you're a scientist have
determined that bilingualism is good
that a bilingual brain is a stronger
brain that are bilingual brain has
better problem-solving skills skills
more creative
and more cognitive flexibility do you
want to try it you know what cognitive
flexibility is let's find out you're
gonna see some words on the screen and
as you see them you have to say em out
loud but you need to say about the color
of the words ready here we go all right
what is that black color of the word
here we go ah ah you learn that my
friends has cognitive flexibility and
what neuroscientists have found out is
that a bilingual brain is better and
faster at those kind of tasks why
because we're so used to seeing this
world from different perspectives the
Sun is not only the Sun the Sun is in
soil lhasa ale or in sign language we
have that cognitive flexibility and a
bilingual brain is not only a stronger
brain but a healthier brain a bilingual
brain can fight the onset of dementia
and Alzheimer's who wouldn't want that
for themselves for their own children
and let me tell you right now we have
one of the biggest opportunities in the
world the United States it's already the
second country with the most Spanish
speakers in the whole world just after
Mexico and guess what Spanish speakers
we multiply quickly and we don't travel
alone
so by 2050 we do by 2050 we will be
number one in the entire world the
United States of America will be the
country with the most Spanish speakers
in the world because in America so must
be linguists so we currently have the
opportunity to develop a whole new
generation of adults who are not only
bilingual but by literate bicultural by
choice because it is our choice to
continue educating children monolingual
or to give them the advantages of a
bilingual education because we cannot do
it alone we need everybody together
teachers administrators parents
community members business owners to sit
down at the same table and have those
open honest conversations about language
because I think we can agree on
something
education can definitely change the
world but bilingual education can
revolutionize this world
thank you yeah
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)