Language Acquisition and Language Extinction

Typically, on the first day of school when I give a pep talk about the need to speak English, I sometimes ask my students to think about how many hours a day they use English. And then I ask them to “see” those hours up on the wall as they look around and imagine that the four-wall perimeter of our classroom represents a 24-hour day. Sadly, for quite a few students, that English section of the wall turns out to be pretty small. After that realization, when I announce my classroom rule of speaking as much English as possible, heads immediately nod up and down in agreement.

Can the same “speak English” rule be extended to homes? Whenever such a proposition is expressed by an authority figure or in the media, a controversy ensues. The latest example in the area is here.

Many factors contribute to the acquisition of a new language or the lack of it. For example, my passion for languages in general and for English in particular may explain my lifelong love affair with the language. On the other hand, if a new immigrant is financially hard-pressed, he or she may put learning English on a back burner for a while and join the ranks of day laborers for jobs that require little English. Age and language environment play a role, obviously. My son immigrated at the tender age of 6, received all his formal education here, and now uses English as well as a native-born American.

Even though there may be political reasons for acquiring or losing a language, pragmatically, like many other skills and abilities in life, if you don’t use a language, you will lose it. My son has practically lost his ability to recognize written Chinese because he stopped learning/using it a long time ago. This is regrettable for an individual or an individual family, but imagine the loss of a language for all of its speakers.

According to a research report released last week, half of the world’s 7,000 languages will disappear in this century. (See the story in San Diego Union Tribune here.) A group of caring experts are working hard to try to maintain some dying languages. You might enjoy watching this brief film clip on their finding an Australian language thought to be extinct.

Is saving an aboriginal language as important as teaching English to our students? Leave your comments below.