In today's global setting, students acquiring second language skills at schools can be of great benefit to our international community. No doubt the question of which languages to study at school is of great importance. However, it would be a mistake to simply impose change based on economic reasoning.
With a focus on economic gain and Australia's majority linguistic communities, it is easy to understand that French might not feature high on the priority list. The article does however point out that, for travel purposes, French is the official language of 53 countries. Is this the only important factor for learning French? As the article implies, is it worth teaching French at all?
French literature
Bilingual competency gives access to different languages, and subsequently, different concepts and ideas. Studies have shown that if you want to get a message out to the world, English will be the language accessible to most. However, what about the approximate 6 billion people who don't speak English? How do you reach their ideas?
Recent studies have identified the best languages to get your message out and access different cultural ideas. Along with Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, and Russian, French is of course a highly communicated global language. French is also highly translated in English, which shows the literary demand for both language groups. If you have ever done some research as a monolingual English speaker, you may have noticed that you only ever read articles or scholarly work in English? Ever thought that might be an issue?
Francophile communities
There is nothing better about the Internet than easy collection of data. Duolingo (app for language learning) released information that, after English, French was the most accessed language on their app. For Australia, French tops the list.
Francophile and francophone communities exist all over the globe. In Europe, French is still the second most taught language in schools. Not to mention that half of Africa is French-speaking, and we have New Caledonia at our doorstep. Through my travel experiences, I have used French everywhere I go, and have used French to build relationships with refugees in Australia and other second language speakers. Just being a 'linguaphile' bridges the gap for new language experiences.
The French-speaking world 2008
Brain benefits
I couldn't write a blog without the obvious mention of the cognitive benefits to second language learning. It is common knowledge that when students learn a second language, there are positive impacts on all areas of learning.
Most people quote the 'critical period hypothesis' to me, saying that you can't learn a second language after the age of 12, so why bother. Nonsense! The research shows that, although you may never be a native speaker, you can certainly acquire bilingual competency, and well, why do you want to be a native speaker anyway?
It is never too late to learn a language, our brains are amazing machines. Use it! If you happen to have a slight affinity for the French language, start from there.
As a French teacher, my bias towards the study of French is implicit within this blog. My experience in teaching, however, has shown me that students will generally show interest in language for reasons outside of economic gain and travel. Generally, there are personal beliefs and interests that are predisposed by family and experience. Most students are inspired by their teachers, and tune-in to the teacher's passion for the subject area. Most students in Victoria are also stimulated by the incentive of increased study scores in LOTE (but that's another conversation...).
My opinion dictates that French is, in fact, a globally important language to study at school, and there seems to be general 'francophile' interest. Also, LOTE in general is of benefit to cognition and social skills for students. We don't want to create more of a disincentive for students to learn languages by imposing adult economic beliefs on the languages curriculum. Let's promote language learning for all the right reasons.
