Why is it important that CHED promotes multilingualism and

What are the language diversity in the General Education Curriculum?

Protecting our languages is not only about

benefits of preserving our heritage. It’s more than that.
Before the mid-20th century, negative attitudes There are personal benefits of
towards multilingualism were common. knowing multiple languages,

having many
Methodologically flawed and biased studies claimed including cognitive, heuristic,
that multilingualism interfered with intelligence, and social-emotional. There
proper language use, and socialization. As research has are also societal benefits,
become more sophisticated, however, attitudes have such as health, economic and
changed. In the past few decades, cognitive scientists, cultural. Our languages are

languages? psychologists, anthropologists, linguists, and other

scholars have identified numerous benefits associated
with multilingualism.
thus important resources that
should be available to faculty
and students.

Benefits to thinking Benefits to language Benefits to sustainable Benefits to culture and

and health learning development and communication
Enhanced attention power Faster language acquisition.
academia Linguistic/cultural diversity
on problem-solving, puzzle- Enhanced metacognitive Linguistic/cultural diversity promotes diversity of voices,
solving, sorting, and other awareness about language leads to different localized opinions, ideas, and innovation
mental tasks learning, and improved ability needs, and encourages (Bokova, 2012; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2002)
(Bialystok, 2003; Bialystok & Martin, 2004) to learn differences in sounds, development of diverse, Languages encode unique
Heightened ability to monitor word order, stress, rhythm, locally-responsive industries philosophies, worldviews, and
one’s environment intonation, and grammatical Gorter et al., c. 2006; Onofri et al., 2010;
indigenous knowledge systems
Barron, 2012; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2004).
(Bhattacharjee, 2012) structures of new languages. (Wurm, 2001; Harrison, 2007; Boroditsky,
(Multilingualchildren.org; Petitto et al., 2012; 2011)
Various language groups
Better at resolving conflicting Kaushanskaya & Marian, 2009)
have local knowledge about Linguistic/cultural diversity
information Enhanced encoding of sound
(Costa, Hernandez, & Sebastian-Galles,
medicine and treatment, some provides more ways for
(Krizman et al., 2012) of which are effective and
2008). people to communicate.
Can engage more neurons undiscovered by mainstream When languages come into
Better at memory science.
generalization available for language contact, they borrow and feed
(McConvell & Thieberger, 2001).
(Brito & Barr, 2012). processing off each other, enabling more
(Shalinsky et al., 2009) Language and cultural flexible, nuanced, and inventive
Can more efficiently switch preservation can help keep communication.
between tasks Positive impact on reading and
certain social systems intact (Dalby, 2003)
(Prior & Gollan, 2011). intelligence
(Bak et al., 2014) that benefit community health. Languages are critical
Faster at detecting and (McIvor et al., 2009).
mediums for learning and
adapting to changes in trends/ Linguistic/cultural diversity is passing on cultural heritage
patterns related to ecological diversity, such as literature, music,
(Kovacs & Mehler, 2009).
Other personal benefits and the two can mutually dance, food, etc.
Enhanced mental flexibility and benefit each other. Indigenous Linguistic/cultural diversity
brain plasticity Greater access to information groups have deep knowledge enables interaction
(Peal & Lambert, 1962; Zou et al., 2012) (Grin, 2004) about environmental between people of different
Greater access to cultures stewardship. backgrounds, providing
More resistant to the onset of
and cultural output. In turn,
(Maffi, 2001; Posey, 2001; Ellis, 2000) learning opportunities to
dementia, Alzheimer’s disease,
this is likely to foster greater Linguistic diversity informs tolerate, appreciate, and
and other cases of brain
tolerance and appreciation for and enriches many fields of embrace differences
degeneration
(Dalby, 2003)
(Luk et al., 2010; Kave et al., 2008; Chertkow cultural differences discipline, both in the arts and
et al., 2010) (Grin, 2004) sciences. Languages reveal a
Reduces decision-making Heightened creativity huge amount of information
biases (Maddux et al., 2010; Leikin, 2012) about language development,
(Keysar et al., 2012) characteristics, and change
Can express oneself in more (linguistics); migration and
ways and explore different other events of human history
facets of one’s personality (history, human evolutionary
(Ervin-Tripp, 1964; Koven, 1998).
biology); how humans interact
Polyglots are more sought and think (anthropology,
after for employment. This psychology, philosophy); etc.
(Austin, 2008; Crystal, 2002)
is particularly true for the
healthcare, education,
Multilingualism [is] business, and travel industries.
essential to crafting (Grin, 2004; Boston.com, 2007)
While multilingualism can be beneficial to an individual
more inclusive People who speak more than person and also to society as a whole, it partly depends on
human development, one language tend to have government planning. Policies that are restrictive and do not
reflecting the needs higher salaries, wider choice of recognize or support diversity may turn multilingualism into
of every society. There jobs, and more interesting jobs
can be no ‘one size fits (Grin, Sfreddo & Vaillancourt, 2013) a liability rather than an advantage. Hence, it is important
all’ model. that governments establish inclusive language policies.
For example, CHED should recognize the teaching of any
Philippine language, alongside the national language, as
fulfilling the 6-9 Filipino units required by CMO No. 4 s. 2018.

Irina Bokova
former Director-General, UNESCO
multilingual.philippines@gmail.com