Susan Sun: Foreign languages boost life learning

The Ministry of Education is finally talking about making the learning of foreign languages compulsory in New Zealand's school curriculum.

Judging from the mostly positive response so far from both the public and educational circles - the Educational Institute and various school principals, for example - the ministry's proposal looks set to become reality.

New Zealanders have every reason to celebrate.

On the other hand, it couldn't have been more disappointing for me when many of my bilingual and multilingual friends reacted with a "What's all the fuss about?"

Worse still, I tested it on my overseas friends. They found it absolutely incredible that the teaching of foreign languages was not compulsory in New Zealand schools already.

Needless to say, these are all non-native English speakers.

To them, learning a second language, whether at home, within the community or at school, has been a way of life, or way of school life at the very least.

Monolingual English speakers would, however, cheerfully point out that English is the world's primary language for international communications, and growing by the day.

The number of people around the world learning English is going up, not down.

Although on the one hand its undeniable success has given its native speakers immense advantages and a great sense of contentment, on the other hand it has also led them to falsely believe it is a "done deal", according to the British Council's recently published book English Next by David Graddol.

English is growing, but is not, Graddol notes, in the hands of English native speakers.

Globalisation has driven English to become an international lingua franca, of which the native speakers are no longer the sole stakeholders.

English in its new global form is increasingly taught, learned, used and controlled by non-native speakers.

For instance, China used Belgian teacher-trainers of English in the 1990s because of their valuable experience in bilingual education. Bilingual speakers such as Indians and Singaporeans are more sought after because of their translating, interpreting and cultural skills.

The English "gold standard" and accents, of which the native speakers are so proud, and on which the learners must model their own use of the language, have become increasingly irrelevant.

Graddol claims international corporate meetings go more smoothly when no native speakers of English are present.

As for British monolingual graduates, the economic future is bleak, the book concludes. This is because qualified multilingual youngsters from other countries are proving to have a competitive advantage over monolingual English speakers in global companies and organisations.

Another challenge which English faces, the book painstakingly points out, is that its leading position as the world's primary language is diminishing.

One example is that the proportion of English material on the internet is declining, while other languages are flourishing.

Another telling example is the almost overnight switch of national foreign language teaching policy in South Korea.

Mandarin is now the number one foreign language taught there, replacing English, which was the most popular a few years ago.

Debates over the value to society of learning foreign languages have been constantly held. The political, social, economic and cultural benefits it could bring usually top the discussion list.

However, there are other reasons why we should not overlook the tremendously important, but not so obvious, lifelong benefits which learning a second language could bring.

"Think outside the square", "step into other people's shoes", "get out of your comfort-zone" are attitudes and qualities which parents and teachers try very hard to nurture.

Learning a second-language can provide a foundation for this.

In the process of learning a second language people are accustomed to looking for more, better or alternative answers.

They are also less likely to accept things at face value.

Once you are a second language learner, you will be forever dissatisfied with falling short of perfection in the language, and want to be better.

The beauty of learning a second language lies precisely in the fact that it is demanding.

This never-ending business of learning a second language is thus the best thing in the pursuit of lifelong learning.

English native speakers have not only been the victims, socially, economically and culturally, of the global success of English, but have also been short-changed in their own personal development.

* Susan Sun is a senior lecturer in Chinese at Auckland University of Technology.