L.A. kids have it good as a group — growing up in this mecca of pop culture complete with palm trees, sushi, sunshine and Hollywood lore. Another characteristic distinctively native to the region is our historic Spanish heritage that flavors everything from neighborhood names to architectural design and California cuisine. Los Angeles, previously known as El Pueblo, was founded in 1781 by 11 Spanish-speaking families. That’s right, Spanish is our cultural heritage language in Los Angeles.
But while Spanish is prevalent in L.A., any second-language learning is enriching for brain development and advancement of communication skills. I dream of a day when every student in Los Angeles receives primary education that includes multilingual instruction. Here’s to making it the standard instead of the exception!
Why learning another language early matters
The reality is that more than half of L.A.’s population speaks a language other than English and more than a third of those people speak Spanish. In a world that begs for greater diversity, more equitable access and inclusion, why not start by offering a second language to our youngest citizens? Why not teach students diversity through languages?
“We need to think about creating global citizens,” says Hillary Larson of Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles. “Learning another language exposes children to diverse cultures and points of view. A bilingual education provides students with a cultural awareness and understanding that is more open and accepting of diversity.”
Infusing your child’s daily curriculum with another language would simultaneously be more systemically inclusive since it is the heritage language of the largest cultural group of Angelenos who identify as Latine. For English language learners (ELL) students who are Spanish speakers, it might even flip the narrative of leadership in the classroom. We need to be bold, and if we want to make the world outside the classroom more diverse, equitable and inclusive, then let’s start by teaching those values early.
PHOTO COURTESY OASIS TRILINGUAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL
What it does for the brain
The brain is like a muscle: You have to exercise it to grow bigger, and learning another language is robust brain work. “Our brain’s ability to change is influenced by learning experiences,” says Joyce Hsiao, head of school at Oasis Trilingual Community School. “Multilingualism impacts the brain’s physical structure, affects the brain’s cytoarchitecture and increases brain plasticity.”
Through various languages, not just Spanish or French, but by teaching Mandarin, Armenian or Filipino, for instance, students would learn to translate, communicate and conceptually think differently. For example, monolingual English speakers may “know” a fact or person, but Spanish or French speakers use two separate verbs to describe that knowledge because to “know” a person is quite different from “knowing” that the sky is blue. Students would learn that there is not just one way to think and express themselves, just as there is more than one way to solve a mathematical equation. This process of growth in the brain is called neuroplasticity, whereby the brain makes additional neural connections and sets the stage for even greater complexities and understandings than were possible previously.
PHOTO COURTESY OASIS TRILINGUAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL
Each new language grows connections in the brain internally — and externally increases a person’s connection to the world. Not only is empathy a known predictor and byproduct of second-language learning, but communicating with more people increases social connections, which promotes positive mental health, a matter of growing concern for our youth.
Second-language learning has long been associated with augmenting brain function in a multitude of ways:
- cognitive flexibility
- academic performance
- memory
- problem-solving abilities
- empathy
- connections (neural and social)
The “old school” reason for learning another language was to increase future career opportunities in a more globalized world. “Besides the United States, every country is teaching their students two or three foreign languages,” Hsiao observes, “and by the time they complete high school!” We now know that learning another language is not just about creating a competitive global constituency, but about increasing their social and emotional connections, which can expand their personal and professional opportunities.
How to engage your children
You’re convinced, so now what? The first step is to engage the young learner. Find their currency to create self-directed lifelong learners. This can be done through food, toys, games, movies, art, gymnastics… Whatever interests they already have, up the ante in the target language.
OWL is an effective methodology used by Oasis Trilingual Community School and across the nation. At home, ask questions such as, “Oh, you like chocolate chip cookies? Let’s bake cookies together in Spanish!” “Want to learn to surf? I know a great Hebrew instructor.” Language infusion and inspiration can be found anywhere, so keep it lively for emotional engagement, make it relevant and draw connections between the language and their real-world life (the L.A. Zoo is a wonderful destination that translates across languages).
Which brings me to the next point that a beloved kindergarten teacher taught us about literacy that Billy Crystal humorously illustrated in the movie “Forget Paris”: read.
Read everything. As you navigate around town with your tot, read the signs out loud: “El Pollo Loco, you crazy chicken, you!” No kid asks for flash cards, but the real world can serve as your own personal set of flashcards. Throughout Los Angeles, you’ll find a multitude of signs in diverse languages. Grow their confidence by reading them together. Biliteracy is the single most important skill set to maintain and grow a second language.
Do I hear karaoke in your future? You bet! I start every class with a song that encourages biliteracy to learn the words while simultaneously creating a safe space to practice new sounds alongside the native singer. Last year, my first graders learned “Vivir Mi Vida” in January and were still begging me to sing it in June.
Silliness is my brand of teaching, so I play with words, and that’s when it gets really fun. My students adore charades, but teaching idiomatic expressions never disappoints when I talk about age and hoot like a monkey: “Tengo nueve años or is it monos?” Kids love to be the expert and correct the adult, so gamify everything.
Demystified, it’s not hard to start learning a new language, but the trick is engagement plus stamina. This is an endurance project. Everyone will be motivated by different factors, but the outcomes will emerge the same: greater cognitive functioning, diverse connections, increased social interaction and communication abilities, all of which lead to more opportunities for our kids.
Amy Rush Conroy, M.A., is a native Angeleno who founded Habla Blah Blah 20 years ago to engage children with second-language learning through song. She teaches Spanish at the Hollywood Schoolhouse and has a guide to help cultivate bilingualism in kids. Her first book “¿Cómo Te Sientes?” is a Beginner Reader book in Spanish, available next spring.
