By: Phillip Mattie
Canada has become so much more than a bilingual, French/English country, so much so that we have within our borders speakers of so many different languages that there is a special “other” non-official languages section in the Statistics Canada website containing a population of over two million people[i]—a stunning figure, especially when major languages and dialects from China and European countries are factored out of the equation. Essentially, while either English or French is the mother tongue of the vast majority of Canadians, many families communicate in different languages at home. Unfortunately, speaking a non-official language at home could negatively impact children and teenagers in grade school English classes. This discussion is very nuanced, however, and certain actions can be taken to minimize such an impact—in some cases erasing it completely and turning it into an advantage.
Age and Language
Age plays an important role in how quickly and how well individuals absorb new vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation techniques. It may seem obvious to say, and you have probably noticed such a phenomenon in your own life, but the earlier a person learns a language in his/her life, the more naturally fluent that person becomes in that language. Children under five years old are the most adept at learning new language patterns; indeed, if a child is raised to be bilingual, there will be an instinctual knowledge of grammar and word choice in both languages. Additionally, young children can perfectly mimic phonemes (units of sound) with uncanny precision. There is something in the brains of our youngest language learners that allows them to adapt and apply speech patterns which, unfortunately, gets deactivated somewhere along the way to adulthood.
For teenagers and adults learning a new language, learning vocabulary becomes more difficult, as with knowing which words to use, and often intonation and stress patterns from their mother tongue come into play with greater frequency, possibly resulting in an accent. Students need to work harder and have more difficulty getting the same results as their younger peers. However, language learners in their teens and early twenties often have an exceptional technical knowledge of language, selecting their words out of a sense of knowledge and experience. Word order is thought out ahead of time in order to minimize errors, and writing is a puzzle, each word needing to be put in the right place.
There are, of course, advantages to being in both groups—children and young adults. You may have noticed that I stressed an instinctual awareness of language in children and a technical awareness of language in young adults. People who learned a language early in life can get through difficulties in language through a good gut instinct, applying their naturalized abilities in language to understand the meaning of a certain piece of literature or newspaper article or what-have-you. If asked to explain a grammar concept, they might well shrug their shoulders and say, “It’s just the way it is.” And on the flip side, a person who learned a language later in life as a young adult can use their vast technical knowledge of vocabulary and grammar to assist them in constructing responses articulately and accurately. If asked to explain the same grammar concept posed to our naturalized language learners, they would say, “Well, because X agrees with Y, thus resulting in subject-verb agreement.” Both groups will understand the issue, just in different ways.
English Class for the ESL Student
This next section is primarily for students who learned English later, but have achieved a high level of fluency and are currently taking high school English. You may believe that you are at a disadvantage in class because of an accent, or perhaps you are concerned that you are lacking in cultural awareness. Regardless of what you think your disadvantages are, you simply have a different skill-set from your classmates, a skill-set that in fact has some enormous benefits.
One such advantage is that your editing skills are above par. Your abilities in grammar set you apart from your classmates; indeed, many native speakers cannot tell a subject from a verb, and so as you comb through a paper, you see the math of the language, the hidden components to it that others do not. You are actually less likely to make grammatical errors. Additionally, your technical expertise allows for a greater understanding of the organization of the written word; you know when to have a paragraph break, you know when the topic shifts from one to the next—because you see the patterns of the language.
Another advantage is that you have a vast understanding of culture. Language is the best representation of culture we have as a species; how we communicate is an indication of how we live. You, having experience in two languages—one being your mother tongue, the other English—are able to critically analyze literature from a neutral position without bias, and even to compare and contrast two cultures linguistically. It commonly takes someone from outside a particular culture or community to realize the problems in it, be those problems sexism, racism, or any other bigotry related “ism” you can think of. Also, you know when to ask why—“Why is this character acting this way,” or “Why is that character making those decisions,” and you are more likely to identify the cultural norms behind those actions and decisions. Try and find these things in the literature presented to you in your English class. So remember, what seems obvious to you is hidden to instinctual users of the language. If this is not a massive benefit, I do not know what is.
If nothing else, have confidence in your abilities. Do not think you are ever at a disadvantage because English is not your first language. You simply have a different skillset from your peers, so turn what you believe to be a disadvantage into what you now know is an advantage. All the best in this endeavour.
[i] Statistics Canada, 2011 Census of Population and Statistics Canada catalogue no. 98-314-XCB. Last modified: 2013-02-13.