Guest blog by ALL Student Ambassadors, Florence Brown and Tessa Stevenson, who attended the APPG meeting at the House of Lords
An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting was held on Monday 29 January at the House of Lords on the topic of the cognitive benefits of learning a foreign language. The meeting was chaired by Baroness Coussins and was attended by Members of the Commons and Lords involved in relevant organisations. The British Academy recently funded a research project on the same topic – conducted by UCL-based Professors Bencie Woll and Li Wei – which, amongst other things, examined the implications for policy-making in relation to language learning and teaching. This provided the basis for discussion, from which guest speakers departed.
It has long since been acknowledged that bilingualism has many health benefits including the delay of cognitive decline. The first of the four guest speakers, Dr Thomas Bak, a cognitive neuroscientist working at the University of Edinburgh, spoke of cognitive reserve, which is commonly defined as the mind’s capacity to resist damage to the brain. Bilingualism is considered to boost this reserve and, in the case of dementia, can delay its onset by 4.5 years. Enhanced cognitive reserve has also been shown to aid in the recovery from stroke, with bilingual patients recovering on average more swiftly than monolingual patients.
However, it is important to distinguish between bilingual speakers and foreign language learners. Are cognitive benefits tied to linguistic mastery or are they the result of the learning process? Given the research findings of a joint study to which Bak contributed in 2013, it would seem that the benefits stem from the latter: cognitive reserve can be built through foreign language learning alone and is not tied to age, educational background or aptitude. Following this, Bak suggested language lessons for patients suffering from dementia, a service which is in fact offered by a company called Lingo Flamingo and featured in ALL’s January issue of Languages Today.
It is not about perfection but about practice. But what does this mean within the context of politics and policy making? A good place to start is addressing attitudes towards foreign languages. As highlighted by the second guest speaker, Dr Dina Mehmedbegovic, UCL-based researcher specialising in Education, we are not only guilty of underestimating the importance of foreign language learning, but also of under-appreciating the bilingual talent that already exists in UK schools. For example, she once encountered an EAL student of Bangladeshi heritage who believed that her home language was of no value. Unfortunately, this opinion was also reflected in a statement made by an MP, who claimed that Bengali would only ever be of significance if the Bangladeshi economy were to grow. This statement is symptomatic of a widespread belief that has led to the decline of foreign language uptake at secondary school level: English is the international language of business, so why should we learn another?
Mehmedbegovic suggests that, to make a convincing case for foreign language learning in the UK, we need to look beyond the economy and consider another factor: our cognitive wellbeing. Just as we promote a healthy nutritional diet, we should promote a healthy linguistic diet, too. A language lesson a day may not keep the doctor away, but it might help us fend off neurological diseases for a little bit longer. Given the considerable cost of dementia care in the UK, it is in the interest of the country to promote language learning and engage with EAL students’ bilingualism in schools. Given that the annual cost of caring for a patient with dementia can amount to £32,000, it would make sense to invest our efforts in prevention strategies such as language lessons.
The next speaker was Professor Bencie Woll, Director of the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) at UCL. She spoke about the British Academy funded project to investigate the empirical evidence of the cognitive benefits of language learning. Seven hundred and forty one people (mostly working in Education) were surveyed and the findings show that people strongly believe that learning foreign languages helps analytical skills, memory, and multi-tasking, amongst other things. Professor Li Wei, Director of the Centre for Applied Linguistics at UCL, then explained that his and Woll’s systematic review on creativity from language learning found that learning a second language increases creativity and flexibility in your first language. For native English speakers, learning another Latin-script language such as Spanish can improve English skills (especially our ability to manipulate language creatively), whereas learning a language with a different script, such as Mandarin, can improve mathematical skills. In Wei’s opinion, the world needs more people with the adaptability that language learning brings.
Overall, this was a fascinating and highly informative meeting with a positive message from all speakers. It included some pragmatic suggestions, such as Mehmedbegovic’s idea of including leaflets promoting a ‘healthy linguistic diet’ to complement the ones promoting healthy living that are already distributed in hospitals. The extent to which the findings of current research will impact society remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain: we should all do what we can to encourage the study of foreign languages for the improvement of personal health and well-being.
Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School Standards at the Department for Education, met with us at the end of the APPG meeting. As a strong supporter of the Mandarin Excellence Programme – an intensive, secondary-school based language course delivered by the UCL Institute of Education in partnership with the British Council that aims to have 5000 students fluent in Mandarin by 2020, Mr Gibb was interested in discussing foreign language teaching more generally. This gave us an opportunity to share our experiences of MFL teacher training and ask him questions about the ins and outs of policy making within the education sector. After our discussion, Mr Gibb kindly took the time to show us around the House of Lords, giving us insight into the cultural and architectural history of the building. This was a fantastic ending to an intriguing visit which we really enjoyed and were very fortunate to attend; we would like to thank Nick Gibb, the APPG organisers, the British Council and ALL for making it happen!