#002 I Mother Tongue Plus Two
Show Notes
Although multilingualism is constantly growing in the EU countries, the so-called Barcelona concept of 2002 "mother tongue plus two other foreign languages for every European citizen" has not yet been achieved.
This challenges us to rethink and practice language teaching and learning.
What does it mean to be multilingual? How many languages are represented in the EU? Why do we need to know foreign languages? You will find out this and so much more in this episode of BOLD & BILINGUAL.
In the episode “#002 I mother tongue plus 2: English and other languages” you will find the following points:
Diversity of languages in Europe
Mother tongue plus 2
Where do we stand today?
Has language learning changed?
Next episode: Monolingual, bilingual or even multilingual?
Links mentioned in this episode:
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bold-bilingual/id1618614100
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tf4R6OGfgpbIortNxtBDI?si=346f4c3eaaae41cc
Music:
Track: Ikson - Blue Sky [Official]
Music provided by Ikson®
Listen: https://youtu.be/zc4ET9viVQ0
Europa Parlament https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20061113IPR12527+0+DOC+XML+V0//DE
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
Die Muttersprache plus zwei: Kann Vielsprachigkeit zur Norm werden?
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Transcript
Mother Tongue Plus 2: English And Other Languages
We all know that in the age of globalization, multilingualism is becoming more and more important. Language skills make it easier to work, study and travel to other countries around the world. Language is more than just communication. Language is the way to understand other cultures.
I’m Sabine Edelhoff, mother of 4 children, project and process manager, and founder of blah - be lingual at home, the first online program for parents who want to raise their children bilingually with a foreign language.
It wasn't that long ago that I lacked the self-confidence, the resources, and the time to plunge into the adventure of our family language journey. But then suddenly I was brave enough and just started with English as our second family language.
Today our children can understand English without any problems and the two older children experience English lessons at school with so much more ease and fun.
I started the BOLD & BILINGUAL podcast to give you simple, actionable step-by-step strategies that will help you do the same.
If you've ever asked yourself, can I raise my children bilingually with a foreign language? and what is the best way to do it so that it will be easier for them to speak foreign languages in school, at work, or later in their everyday life?
Then you are exactly in the right place.
Let's get started.
Did you know that around 60 different languages are spoken in Europe and that there are 24 official languages? The EU is home to 450 million people from different ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. However, almost half of Europeans only speak one language - their mother tongue. The EU wants to change that and therefore decided on an ambitious goal in September 2002: mother tongue plus 2.
In today's podcast episode I would like to talk about the linguistic diversity in Europe and what it means being able to speak not just your own mother tongue.
Diversity of languages in Europe
Research in the EU shows that 56 percent of EU citizens can communicate in a language other than their mother tongue. 28 percent of the respondents of the survey said that they can have a good conversation in two foreign languages. Eleven percent of EU citizens even speak three or more foreign languages. But 44 percent of EU citizens don't speak any other language besides their mother tongue. If you take a closer look at the individual countries in Europe, two countries stand out in particular: the United Kingdom and Luxembourg.
In the UK around 60% can only speak their own mother tongue, while in Luxembourg around 99% can speak at least one other foreign language in addition to their mother tongue.
Ok, stop! Now you might say to yourself, oh wait Sabine, there are really too many numbers at once. Is this going to be a scientific lecture now?
No, definitely not, but firstly I found it really interesting to see how the different countries in Europe develop linguistically and what goals has the EU set itself and why?
Mother tongue plus 2
When the EU Commission met in Barcelona in 2002, they set the goal “mother tongue plus 2” for all EU citizens. So, every EU citizen should be able to speak 2 additional languages to their own mother tongue and if possible those of their neighboring countries. The idea behind this is to better the understanding across the borders and strengthen the social cohesion in Europe positively. And the goal is to be achieved by 2025.
Our children, like us, will get into so many situations in Europe in which they will be confronted with two or more languages, be it at home, in the neighborhood, in kindergarten, or school, or at work or on a wonderful vacation. In this multilingual world, the EU wants to promote multilingualism and wants to show that cultural and linguistic diversity should not be viewed as a burden, but rather to face the opportunity and if possible, to face it from an early age on. Learning foreign languages from early childhood is said to be the most effective way to contribute to multilingualism.
We all know that in the age of globalization, multilingualism is becoming more and more important. Language skills make it easier to work, study and travel to other countries around the world. Language is more than just communication. Language is the way to understand other cultures. The European education ministers have therefore decided that it is not enough just to learn English as a foreign language and therefore set the goal of “mother tongue plus 2” and not just “plus 1”. Multilingualism is the common ground for a successful European community.
Where do we stand today?
So, where are we today with the goal of “mother tongue plus 2”? A survey from 2017 showed that today we are at an average ratio of 2.32 languages per inhabitant in Europe. I totally recognize myself in this value! I can speak my mother tongue, German, very well and I can now make myself understood quite well in English. Today I can just read and understand a little bit of the Russian language. In this respect, 2.32 fits my personal language situation very well. If we look at Volker, my husband, we will see a different ratio. He estimates his language skills in German, English and French at 2.6, as he can communicate quite well in French, just as he can in English.
What would you say: how does it look for you? How well can you speak which languages besides your mother tongue?
Has language learning changed?
How does the situation look like today, in real life, at home, in the kindergartens and at school? How is multilingualism promoted there?
Predominantly we still find monolingual kindergartens around us in Germany. Bilingual kindergartens are still in the minority, but the number is steadily increasing because the need is there and parents are simply asking for it more and more. The situation is similar in the landscape of schools, with the only difference that English is already included in the timetable in elementary school and at the latest from the third grade on. Just like other foreign languages can be selected later. Bilingual lessons, such as history in English or math in French, are still the exception. In my opinion, there is still a lot of room for improvement here, because if you listen to the voices of pupils who are already taking part in bilingual specialist classes, they are consistently positive and in complete agreement that
a) it is not that much more difficult at all, because you get used to it very quickly and
b) it gives you an enormous advantage in acquiring the foreign language.
The goal of bringing the current ratio of 2.32 languages per EU inhabitant to 3.0 by 2025 is optimistic and will take a lot of work. A large number of countries (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, or Sweden) are already very close to this goal, or have already achieved it. It will be the task of the EU to develop a strategy to help all the other countries to develop the language skills of their residents. So it will be exciting to see how the numbers will change before the next survey.
When we, as parents today, look back on our own language learning journey, it is so much more colorful and diverse than when we look back a generation further and ask our parents: What was it like for you back then, in kindergarten and in the School: when did you start learning foreign languages? And how confidently could you use foreign languages after your school days?
Recap
In summary, we can say that the question is no longer whether our children should grow up multilingual, but how and how we, as parents, can support them in this acquisition process. In the next podcast episodes from BOLD & BILINGUAL we will be talking about this question and the options we have as parents.
Next episode: Monolingual, bilingual or even multilingual?
In the next episodes I will introduce you to the topic of bilingualism or multilingualism. What is bilingualism and when can you call yourself actually bilingual?
So that's it for today. We'll hear from each other again next week: same time, same place here on my podcast BOLD & BILINGUAL.
Until then, take care!
Sabine
