BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 1

Cognitive Benefits, Academic Benefits, and Ability to Engender Cultural Awareness due to
Second Language Acquisition

Connor Bishop

Global Studies and World Language Academy

Global Connections

Instructor: Mr. Gregory Falls

December 8th, 2017

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Abstract

This paper attempts to uncover as well as label the noted, documented, and researched benefits

of second language acquisition, with the main effort to express three main benefits that acquiring

a second language could provide for American students. Those are academic benefits,

engendering cultural awareness, and the positive cognitive benefits that second language

acquisition possess. The author of this paper analyzed multiple studies from the 1960s to present

day research, along with a multitude of scholarly articles and magazines dating around the same

time period, and finally with additional support from foreign language teachers in Spain and

Switzerland as a different lens point from which possible benefits can be uncovered and added to

what the research shows, along with an interview with the current K-12 World Language

Coordinator of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Jennifer Carson. The results show a vast

supply of benefits in all three major points. Ranging from academic, cultural, and cognitive as

well as possible ways to implement second language opportunities into public schools and/or

extracurricular activities that can be used as a substitute for a classroom. An analysis of these

studies leads to the conclusion that second language acquisition is a critical, necessary

requirement of students to be enrolled in so that they are able to receive the benefits listed above

and that noted benefits will aid in the students’ entire life.
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 3

Table of Contents

Cover Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Theories/Methods of Second Language Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Academic Benefits of Second Language Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Increased Cultural Awareness due to Second Language Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Cognitive Benefits of Second Language Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Appendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Appendix D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Appendix E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Appendix F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 4
Introduction

Language: acts as the building blocks of humanity, of culture, of every single person

living, walking, and breathing on this planet. “Hallo”, “Bonjour”, “Hola” all ways to say hello, to

communicate, to understand an individual and that individual’s roots, their history. Yet,

American students only seem to know, “What’s up”, “Hey”, and “Sup”; lack a vital branch when

other students around the world seem to possess a whole tree. Is it not a surprise that America is

continually outperformed by countries around the world in everything ranging from test scores to

knowing which cheek to kiss while visiting a foreign country?

American students are running a race they have no hope in winning, due to the blatant

fact that they lack the essential, necessary skill that students around the world are taught from

day one. A second language or even a third language by the time they reach secondary schooling,

America’s European counterparts are ahead in this race due to the fact that their students are

starting to acquire a second language at the ages 6-9 (European Commission, 2012) while most

American students are starting when they are 14 entering High School (European Commission,

2012). Is it still a shock that American students are falling behind in a race they were already

losing? Is there still a possibility of recovery?

Of course, second language acquisition and the implementation of it more thoroughly in

American students’ academic career. Simply, second language acquisition is now a fundamental

skill, an integral enhancement to American students. American students would benefit

profoundly from second language acquisition. Learning a second language should reside at the

forefront of importance for American students. Second language study and acquisition both

profoundly improve academic success, engender cultural awareness in the language(s) of study,

and promote beneficial cognitive skills that aid in the mental development and continued optimal
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functionality of the student’s brain. Second language acquisition is the platform American

students are in desperate need of, second language acquisition, perhaps, is the only way

American students may be competitive in this international race.

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Limitations
This research topic provides an endless, boundless area for research and expedition;

however, one certainly cannot elaborate and discuss every inch of this topic. This paper will

simply focus on American students, not students from other parts of the world. This paper is

unable to elaborate proficiently on the benefits of learning a second language, opportunities,

and/or other advantages that it possesses within those countries and those students. It simply can

only focus on learning languages such as Spanish, French, German, Latin, and other foreign

languages taught within American schools and taught to American students.

As well, this paper is unable to provide a time-elapsed study of its own creation, due to

the time limit placed upon its completion. With that stated, this paper only has the ability of

taking other time-elapsed studies and discussing the information provided within such studies.

Continuing on that note, this paper is simply focusing on studies from three major topics:

academics, social and cultural benefits, and cognitive benefits. Other benefits such as aiding in

speech therapy, advancing language sensitivity, and distinguishing between different languages

more easily, as some examples, will not be discussed within this paper.

Lastly, this paper has information from three interviews conducted during the times of its

creation; two via email with teachers in Spain and Switzerland, respectively. While one was

conducted in a face-to-face manner, due to that, the information used from said interviews are

based solely on the words of the interviewee, no such scholarly articles, magazines, or other

outside information centers were available to fact check said statements.

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Literature Review

This literature review aims at deciphering the three main components, benefits that were

listed previously: academic success, cultural awareness, and cognitive benefits that the studies

discussed will aid in addressing. Even with that, hundreds of studies have been conducted upon

each individual benefit and the plethora of advancements, misfortunes, and neutral aspects it

brings to students. Due to that, this literature review will solely be focusing on 3-4 studies per

component, as well as, solely the benefits each component potentially offers students along with

some minor the pitfalls within each study presents; namely, data gathering, the populations used,

and data reviewing methods that could lead to potential biases within the conclusion.

Academic: According to a study done by Thomas, Collier, and Abbott (1993), which was

recorded in Fairfax County, Virginia, took students within primary schooling and placed them in

five years of immersive Spanish along with regular schooling to compare them to the general

population which either did not take a foreign language, took a foreign language but not at the

same level as immersion, and/or had taken a language previously but were not currently taking

one. The study found that the kids within the immersive program scored higher or at the same

level as all other testing groups. The kids within the immersion program continued to remain at

the top of their class throughout their academic career. Mindful, it is important to note that this

study was within one geographic area, the evidence for academic success may not correlate to

someone within Jacksonville, Florida or Sacramento, California. As well, it is notable to state

that this study’s results are from children around the ages of 7-11, which research has shown that

a child learns a language the more benefits that individual is bound to receive, so again this study

may not correlate to a group of 15 year olds in a year one language class. Although, a second

study done by Garcia-Vazquez, Vazquez, Lopez and Ward (1997), showed that proficiency in
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both English and Spanish produced significant correlations of higher GPAs and higher academic

test scores on nearly all subject areas, excluding Mathematics. However, this study solely

focused on 100 Hispanic students between the ages of 12-18, and gave academic test on the

standards based in Iowa. The test also failed to mention how much time each subject had spent

within the U.S., failed to use multiple methods of achievement, and did not provide an in-depth

analysis of what was achievement. All these items could lead to a biased r value which was used

to determine the correlation, yet even so, with all these flaws in mind this study still provides a

valuable base for second language acquisition and its academic benefits. It is beneficial to keep

this study in mind, due to the fact that it simply did not focus on a variety of students, but on a

minority that has statistically struggled in school, which gives light to those individuals that

second language acquisition could quite possibly bring them to the top of their academic class

and provide them with even more benefits. Lastly, a third study conducted by Rafferty (1986)

showed that third, fourth, and fifth graders within Louisiana school districts regardless of race,

sex, or academic level, students who received daily foreign language instruction outperformed

those whom did not on the language arts sections of the Louisiana’s Basic Skills Tests. Thus

adding to the academic benefits that even learning a second language can bring, not simply the

fluency of it but the process of learning it. However, this study is geographically isolationist, and

its findings may not be extrapolated to other locations.

Cultural: The first piece of information noted by the National Standard in Foreign

Language Education Project (1996, p.27) indicated that students could not truly master a

language until they have also mastered the cultural context of the language presented. How does

knowing the cultural context of the language benefit the student? A study by Kramsch (1993)

provides the answer in saying that culture is a fifth language skill, that language expresses a
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 9
cultural reality that the student is exposed to when learning the language, which aids the student

exponentially in understanding the culture of the target language the student aims to learn, the

student understands the dictionary definition of a word as well as the connotation it holds in the

countries that speak that language, it opens the students’ eyes to a world not of their own, which

place these two studies as building blocks in the area of cultural awareness in the benefits of

second language, however, they are both are older pieces that could leave them susceptible to

outdated information and ideals within modern times. Another foundational study was conducted

by Hynes (1972) stated that language users’ social background are conveyed by means of

language as well as speech events and speech characteristics are not universal, they are

fundamentally defined by the social structure, values, and beliefs which stem from language,

which should scream importance and benefits to second language learning students, this very

idea of speaking to someone in their mother tongue, understanding their culture, way of thinking,

etc. provides a platform on which no individual could fall. Which serves to convey the

importance of this study, it represents another fundamental building block within the study of

second language acquisition.

Cognitive: A major review of studies done by Robinson (1992), who reviewed around

144 studies which spanned over three decades concluded, that experience in two language

systems leaves children with a mental flexibility, a superiority in concept formation, and a more

diverse set of mental abilities. Thus, it leaves students with an arsenal of cognitive gains to

expound in other areas of life. Robinson’s entire study was on the principal of the expansion of

the mind through foreign language, which if, implemented at an early age or earlier in a students’

academic career, would expand the mind ever so much farther than when American school

systems do at the age of 14. Although, again, this study can only effectively be used as a
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10
foundational piece due to its date of publication, even if the information is outdated the ideals

have been seen throughout numerous other studies. Janice Stewart (2005) who named three

additional benefits: increased cognitive skills, higher achievement in other academic areas, and

higher standardized test scores when foreign language study had been introduced early in a

child’s academic career, mainly among their elementary school days, and the most important

benefit of the three aforementioned benefits were the cognitive ones. Although the issue with

Janice Stewart is that the studies were not analyzed in depth, simply the findings, so as to the

credibility of said statements, they could quite possibly be in jeopardy.

The studies shown are foundational pieces which will be expounded upon within the

body of this paper, although foundational, they preach a need for second language acquisition.

Then the need, benefit, and ability to use a second language within 2017 has increased by an

inexpressible amount.
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Discussion

Ideas and/or theories about second language acquisition have been around for over a

century, second language acquisition is not a new topic that is just now starting to gain traction

and attention within the academic community. The following section provides a brief overview

of second language acquisition methods/theories as to acquaint the reader with a background on

the topic.

Theories/Methods of Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition methods date back to the early 1900s in which the primary

method of acquiring a second language was grammar-translation, in which a student would be

taught in their mother tongue, the vocabulary, the grammatical structure, and whole texts of the

desired language and then students would proceed to translate the second language into their

mother tongue (2012, Malone). However, the means and ideals about teaching a second language

were greatly altered after the introduction of the behaviorist theory which was largely

contributed to by B.F. Skinner, a psychologist, who argued that language acquisition was

attributed to a learning process involving positive-negative stimuli and positive-negative

reinforcement. Individuals learned grammar and was positively reinforced if correct and

negatively reinforced if incorrect, a process referred to as ‘Operant Conditioning’ (McLeod,

1970; Nicholas, 1996). The introduction of this theory did not drastically change the overall

method in which language was taught, but again, the means teachers would teach a language,

instead of simply giving students text and expecting them to memorize and translate, the teacher

now focused on a more “skill and drill” exercise to provide repetition necessary for the positive-

negative reinforcement to be effective (Skinner, p. 161). As well as, questions which gradually

increased in difficulty, guided practices, and regular review of the material being learned.
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However Skinner’s theory was contrasted with a second theory. In the 60s and 70s language

theory took another step towards its evolution with linguist Noam Chomsky, theorized that

children are not taught language but are born with a predisposition to language, an innate

biological ability to acquire and use language (Malone, 2012; Nicholas, 1996). Chomsky was not

focused on the actual process of acquiring a second language; however, his theory called

‘Language Acquisition Device’ (LAD) which led teachers away from the “skill and drill” based

aspect of communication and more to the idea that the second language learners need to be

engaged in the second language, that tasked-based learning and story-and-activity based

programs should be implemented within repertoire of teachers’ available options (British

Council, 2008). This idea led to the development of Krashen’s Theory of Second Language

Acquisition which all but dominates the way in which language is taught, understood, and

presented in the academic setting in present day schools. Stephen Krashen theorized that there is

no fundamental difference between the way one acquires their first language and their

subsequent languages that if children possess this innate ability to learn a language, then said

innate ability could translate to a second, third, fourth, etc. language (Krashen, 1982). Krashen

created a model with 5 components, essentially 5 hypotheses that define language acquisition as

a whole, however, for brevity sake only the 2 most important will be elaborated on. Firstly, the

‘Acquisition-learning Hypothesis’ which states that acquisition is the subconscious “picking up”

of a language while learning is the conscious understanding of one (Krashen, 1982), this theory

states that at any age an individual has the access to native-like understanding of a language due

to their innate ability to learn a language. The second is the ‘Monitor Hypothesis’ which states

that learning only has one use and that is to monitor or edit language acquisition, it acts as a self-

correcting device in one’s learning; however, it is only viable when three conditions are met: 1)
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
13
time: having the necessary time to formulate the sentence or the thoughts, 2) focus on form:

focusing on the way in which the sentence will be presented, and 3) knowing the rule. Only if

those three conditions are met is that hypothesis an effective way to introduce language and its

acquisition (Krashen, 1982). It is exactly why school is the most appropriate place for it to be

implemented. Since students would have the viable time needed to formulate the sentence when

learning in class, students would have the ability to formulate the sentence, along with

instruction and changes made by the teacher, and students would understand the rules since the

teacher would have the opportunity at teaching those rules to students. The introduction of this

theory drastically changed the methods by which language is taught, as well as one of the solid

pillars that this paper is presented, this theory led to the primary method in which language is

now taught today, the full-immersion method. Immersion has been regarded as one of the, if not

the most effective ways of teaching a language, according to two foreign language teachers,

Mme Bardet, a teacher currently teaching in Switzerland, and Sra. Sanchez, a teacher currently

residing in Spain, and the current K-12 World Language Coordinator of Virginia Beach City

Public Schools, Jennifer Carson, in which interviews the author conducted with those three

individuals, all three pontificated upon the idea that in order to fully grasp a language and to

receive the benefits, that full immersion is the prime means of doing so, that it holds key

elements to allow students to unlock the plethora of benefits it possess, that the immersive

method allows students to grasp three critical benefits: academic, cultural awareness, and

cognitive. While the means in which full immersion is implemented is the Core Practices for

World Language Learning, which has 6 guiding principles to mentor and lead teachers in the best

possible ways of immersion teaching.

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Academic Benefits of Second Language Acquisition

Second language learning offers more benefits than simply being able to communicate in

a different language, it offers more than just a seal on a high school diploma, and a second

language is not simply a required class that is to be ignored and undervalued. Second language

acquisition offers a multitude of benefits, mainly within the academic area of schooling, second

language acquisition offers an entirely new enhancement in the way an individual could perceive

and improve their academic stature. As noted in a study done by Garcia-Vazquez et al (1997),

where students who spoke English were compared to students who either spoke Spanish, were

bilingual in English, and/or studying English; and the results showed significant correlations

between the students’ proficiency in English and their respective GPAs, their standardized test

scores, and as well an improvement in their overall Spanish. Another study done by Mouw &

Xie (1999), studied bilingualism in first/second generations Asian-Americans, and found a

positive correlation between bilingualism and academic achievement in all subject areas. It

alludes to this notion that a student need not be solely bilingual in a second language to receive

the academic benefits or increased GPA, but rather, continue their development with the

language and the acquisition of said second language will aid in the student’s development and

the academic benefits will henceforth follow suit. Thus the two studies already point towards the

academic benefits overall from second language acquisition, one pointing to the potential

academic benefits of learning, developing a second language, while one is more focused on the

academic benefits after the second language was acquired fluently. However, the No Child Left

Behind Act (NCLB) identifies foreign language as a core subject, although, only 1/4th of U.S.

public elementary schools report teaching a foreign language (U.S. Department of Education, No

Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 2001), and fewer than half of all high school students that study a
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foreign language (Educators Reference Complete, p.80, 2006). This is detrimental to American

students because it has been shown that starting language at an early age is crucial, that the first

three years are a window of an opportunity in a child’s life, that early childhood development in

language acquisition is a vital undertaking (Lach, 1997). A study showed when elementary

students who were taught 20 minutes of Spanish daily compared to a class not taught any daily

Spanish lessons, the students who were taught Spanish earned higher scores in language skills,

work ready skills, and arithmetic on the Iowa Every-Pupil Test of Basic skills (Johnson, Flores &

Eillson, 1963) and in another study two third-grade classes were used, one received daily 25

minute Spanish instruction and one did not, the results showed that the class that received

Spanish instruction attained higher mean scores ranging from arithmetic to English grammar

(Johnson, Flores & Eillson, 1961). With those studies examined, the knowledge that research

shows younger aged students have a natural gift for acquiring languages, and a bountiful amount

of benefits have been studied to occur from the teaching of a second language. Then why has

second language teaching not been implemented in every possible avenue? How has this vital

academic life jacket been tossed aside in the American education system? American students are

already starting too late and are unable to reap the full benefits of second language teaching,

being bilingual, or at least proficient in a language. According to the European Commission

(2012) most European nations start teaching a second language around the age of 6-9, while

some nations such as Belgium, start as early as three years old. Which explains why 54% of

Europeans are able to hold a conversation in a second language according to an article written by

Nardelli (2014), while according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2011) approximately 20% of the

American population can speak a language other than English. America is running behind, with

most students starting a second language at the age of 14 according to the European Commission
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(2012), which puts American students at a more than slight disadvantage when it comes to

benefits that could be reaped if second language teaching were earlier. However, even if America

desires to start at such a late age, American students are not unable to reap potential benefits. At

the time most students take a second language in America, SATs and ACTs are quite a

prominent thought in the mind, which multiple studies have shown the advantages of consistent

learning of a second language and the improvement of SAT/ACT scores. A study conducted

which compared the verbal section of the SAT and the ACT of high school students who had or

had not taken at least one year of a foreign language showed that students who had taken a

foreign language for a longer period of time scored higher on the verbal scores (Cooper, 1987).

An analysis of ACT scores of 17,451 students applying for college admission between the years

of 1981-1985, showed that students who studied a foreign language consistently scored higher on

the ACT English and mathematics sections than those students who did not study a foreign

language (Olsen & Brown, 1992). A furtherance for students beckoning to be grasped by high

school students, that simply one year of foreign language study could increase the student’s score

in either the ACT or the SAT. The potential score increase if that child was in their first year of a

third or fourth language? Second language acquisition academic benefits do not simply cease in

high school. That even studies of a foreign language in high school can translate to success in

college, as shown by a study where a strong correlation was found between students who studied

Latin, French, German, or Spanish in high school and their success in college was greatly

increased compared to those who did not take or study a foreign language (Wiley, 1985). The

countless other studies supporting the same point, that second language acquisition propounds

benefit upon benefits, ranging from simply improving one’s understanding of their mother

tongue, to improvement in GPA, and all the way down to aiding in one’s overall understanding
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of school and the academic curriculum. Second language acquisition is a vital tool that would

greatly aid in the improvement of America’s overall academic prosperity, America is ranked

33rd in mathematics, 22nd in reading, and 24th in science according to a 2012 Program for

International Student Assessment (PISA), while European and Asian countries dominate the top

of the list, and the common factor among those countries is the emphasis on second language

study. America needs to follow suit. The lack of an emphasis on second language teaching or

acquisition of a second language is a detriment to the entire student body of the nation. The

ability to opt out of a language class or trade it for another class as is done in Oklahoma and

California, causes students to miss out on the benefits second language could provide and could

perhaps be the measure that prohibits America’s task in reaching higher international ranking.

Second language acquisition offers an entire world of possibility, benefits, and opportunities for

American students, American students have an open door into the world of second language

acquisition and only need to walk in to receive those benefits, although, the school system needs

to offer a more encompassing system in order to provide that world of second language and keep

those benefits alive. However, academics are not the only benefits students could reap, and not

the only area in which this paper focuses on.

Increased Cultural Awareness due to Second Language Acquisition

Language and culture go hand in hand, they are two intertwined entities that cannot be

understood in isolation. When an individual sets out to learn a language, they in turn are setting

out on a journey to understand the culture of the people, the groups, and the countries that speak

said language. However, what is culture? Defined by Tang (1999), “Culture is language and

language is culture.” Peck (1998) expanded upon that fact and stated that, “Without the study of

culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate and incomplete.”. Which means that to
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understand a language, one must understand the culture. It goes on to speak of the importance of

acquiring a second language, that American students are so closely defined into their own social

thermospheres that they are ignorant to the global stratospheres of culture. Knuston (2006)

theorized that students’ cultural awareness starts by understanding and recognizing their own

cultural identity in relation to other cultures; Knuston (2006) also stated that teachers should

focus on real world and academic needs, which in terms of cultural knowledge would be

awareness or ability to function in appropriate ways. That sentiment is a valuable one, the

thought process that while acquiring a second language one also acquires the knowledge of the

“hows”, the “rights”, and “wrongs” of the culture, which would allow said students living in a

closed-off environment an opportunity to expand their horizons, allow them to grasp ideals other

than the ones they encounter every day. That acquiring a second language would entail a

forward, non-judgemental view upon other nations, that while ideals and cultures are constantly

changing language can be used to understand those changes (Byram, Gribkova, & Starkey,

1997). In summation, second language acquisition offers a gateway on ideals that a student might

find strange or “wrong”. According to the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Language, a

student is supposed to interact with another culture, to have the ability to investigate, explain,

and reflect about the relationship between the practice and perspectives of the culture studied.

Furthermore, the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Language states, that a student should

compare their own concept of culture to that of culture of the second language that the student

has studied or is currently studying, that the student should be able to find connections and

similarities between the two cultures. This idea of connection within second language acquisition

offers the benefit of expansion and the limitation of ethnocentrism. Levine and Adelman (1982)

argued that cultural conflicts occur as a result of misinterpretations and ethnocentrism, and that
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language learning is a viable weapon in the arsenal in order to combat that issue, that learning a

language and ultimately the culture of the language would allow individuals the understanding of

the attitudes, the reasonings, and thoughts of the nations in which that language is spoken.

Language offers an avenue of understanding, again, of an awareness of another group of people.

Patrikis (1998) alludes to the same point about the dangers of ethnocentrism and how it can best

be resolved, that when teaching a language, culture is a key component upon the basis of

language teaching, that if a teacher were to teach to teach “[a] course, for instance, on the Middle

East that focuses only on Islamic culture, and leaves out consideration of Jews, Christians, and

other minorities to the sin of dangerous incompleteness.” (Shemshadsara, 2012, p.97) This “sin

of dangerous incompleteness” is tantamount to a total lack of understanding, a lack of care, it

excludes whole subcultures and other crucial cultural aspects present within the society

(Shemshadsara, 2012). Which is what the acquisition of a second language would prevent, and

the teaching and learning of a second language aims at reducing, that the ability to teach culture

and language side by side would raise the knowledge of the students taking the course and create

an environment of minimal confusion, due to that understanding of the language and culture.

Second language acquisition not only aids in cultural understanding and the prevention of

ethnocentric thinking, but also increases one’s cultural sensitivity in that one is able to better

grasp the differences in culture, in lifestyle, and in thought while taking a language (Austin,

2002; Byram, Gribokova, & Starkey, 1997). Simply put, “[s]tudents cannot truly master the

language until they have also mastered the cultural context” (National Standard in Foreign

Language Education Project, 1996, p.27) i.e. every single benefit and every single inch of

possible awareness derives from the understanding of the target languages’ culture. Students

would be enlightened to this entirely new outlook on life, on cultural interaction. To know
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
20
another's language allows an individual to know that person, which is a vital ideal that second

language acquisition brings into the cultural awareness. Sra. Sanchez, a teacher located in Spain,

stated that, “[l]anguage does not occur in a vacuum, there are real people speaking a language

and they have different and similar customs to your own culture.” Sra. Sanchez also stated that,

“Furthermore, it helps to treat ‘the difference’ as something positive.” A teacher of second

language acquisition concludes with the same idea, that second language acquisition has so much

to offer in terms of cultural awareness, that plainly, culture and language are two faces of the

same coin, to learn one is to learn the other. However, cultural awareness still is not the end of

the betterments that acquiring a second language presents.

Cognitive Benefits of Second Language Acquisition

Cognitive benefits are not in scarceness when it comes to second language acquisition, 67

sixth graders were divided into 4 groups, one a control group that was given no foreign language

study and three others which were divided into 6.5 months, 15.5 months, and 24.5 months of 30

minute studies of French daily. Those groups of students were then evaluated on the Ross test,

total score of cognitive function on the Ross test, and total score on Butterfly and Moths test, the

results showed that students who had received foreign language instruction scored higher than

those who had received none, and a linear trend was found that students who received instruction

for a longer time scored the highest (Foster & Reeves, 1989). Another, more recent study was

conducted by Stewart (2005) that found that foreign language study in the early elementary years

improves cognitive abilities later on in life, and positively influences achievement in other areas

of discipline,resulting in higher test scores. In addition, another study which compared a

bilingual class versus a monolingual class with regard to their nonverbal problem-solving and

native language development, found significant differences in problem-solving in favor of the

BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
21
bilingual class (Bamford & Mizokawa, 1991). As noted by these three studies, second language

acquisition offers a seemingly endless supply of benefits that students could obtain, from a better

understanding of how items work and interact with each other to simply understanding nonverbal

problems. Second language acquisition not only opens possible avenues for short-term academic

gains as stated in the first section, but offers an avenue for a lifetime of continued benefits.

Problem-solving is not simply limited to the classroom setting but real life endeavors, such as

resolving a dispute between two irate individuals, solving a Rubik’s cube, or even doing a

sudoku puzzle. Robinson (1992) reviewed 144 studies from over three decades and concluded

that experience in two language systems leaves individuals with a “mental flexibility, a

superiority in concept formation, and a more diversified set of mental abilities”. Which would

greatly benefit American students struggling with a certain subject or unable to grasp a certain

topic; second language acquisition acts as this boost in the mental processes in the mind,

allowing a student to diverge from what they are typically comfortable with doing. Second

language acts as this bridge between disciplines, taking the patterns of verb endings and applying

them to the patterns within mathematics or taking the grammatical structure of the language and

connecting it to that of one’s mother tongue, second language acquisition offers these cognitive

benefits. In 2005, Janice Stewart the federal magistrate for the United States District Court for

the District of Oregon and long-time supporter of foreign language study, found that foreign

language study is associated with three major benefits and the most prominent being additional

cognitive benefits. Bruck, Lambert, & Tucker (1974) Hakuta, (1986), and Weatherford (1986) all

conducted tests that showed results that bilingual students who had taken years of a foreign

language outperformed their monolingual counterparts on both verbal and nonverbal tests of

intelligence. Knowledgeable and informed with the amount of research going in favor of the
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
22
multitude of benefits that second language acquisition offers, the lack of major emphasis on its

complete implementation is overwhelmingly surprising. Even when only 1/4th of public

elementary schools offer a second language or still only 54% of high school students take a

second language. When in the very state of Virginia, in Fairfax County, elementary school

students from multiple public schools were given five years of immersion teaching, and tested

against a control group of the same age and consistently tested better in achievement tests and

remained high academic achievers in schooling later on in life (Thomas, Collier, & Abbott,

1993). An interview conducted with Jennifer Carson, K-12 World Language Coordinator, found

that she herself believed that the teaching of a second language should be required, even

suggesting that it should be required within the pre-kindergarten years of schooling, she then

went on to name the multitude of benefits it presented in the cognitive area of students: problem-

solving enhancements, ability to recognize patterns improves, understanding of complex

problems greatly improves, etc. Furthermore, stepping away from the more analytical cognitive

benefits, the studies previously mentioned by Bamford & Mizokawa (1991) also found that

students taking a second language are more creative in their problem-solving compared to their

monolingual counterparts, that their ability to grasp and solve complex issues is not simply static,

that it has the ability to alter and change. The numerous other studies conducted by Barik &

Swain (1991), Genesee (1987), and Swain (1981) which show the same positive trend of students

in second language courses and their increased cognitive success across all spectrums, especially

in forms of art and creative problem-solving. Then again for the final time, why is second

language still struggling in the United States, why is it not a requirement as suggested by

Jennifer Carson, to be implemented across all states in an effort to promote these benefits to

every student possible? The cognitive benefits do not just extend into the classroom and
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
23
enhancement of cognitive function, but also as protection against the decrease in cognitive

function. Bialystok, Craik, & Viswanathan (2004) conducted a study that showed bilingualism

was associated with smaller a Simon effect (a faster, more accurate reaction time); people

responded more rapidly and with more accuracy when tested on working memory. This greatly

aids older individuals whose memory may not work as well as it did in their youth, but that the

study of a second language and the continuation of said study throughout life could quite

possibly act as a tool that helps offset age-related losses in certain cognitive processes. Another

study conducted by Kormi-Nouri, Moniri, & Nilsson (2003) conducted tests on a group of 60

bilingual children (30 girls, 30 boys, aged from 7-9, 10-11, and 12-13) and a group of 60

monolingual children of the same grouping (30 girls, 30 boys, aged from 7-9, 10-11, and 12-13)

and tested them on episodic memory and semantic memory. The results showed that positive

effects of bilingualism were found in both sets of memory at all age levels, that second language

acquisition aided in the students’ ability to recall and place in their memory a multitude of items.

So again, why is second language study struggling? Why is it seen as some easy, unimportant

class that is just needed to graduate in some high schools? The plethora of benefits second

language acquisition presents and is able to offer students, should place it as the top priority in

American schools that are constantly looking for ways to improve their students’ academics.
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
24
Conclusion

Second language acquisition offers a never ending, vast supply of enhancements to

American students. The fact that it is able to offer benefits in academics, cultural awareness, and

benefits in cognitive function, three distinct areas of life is incredible and not something that

should be overlooked. However, the fact that students are not receiving these benefits due to the

lack of foreign language instruction which are implemented or offered is detrimental to the well-

being and impeding the full ability of students within all areas of life: that fact is shocking.

Again, 1/4th of all public elementary schools offer a second language, while only 54% percent of

high school students take a second language. Second language should be treated as one of the 4

core subjects of learning, such as the NCLB defines it as, and implemented at the earliest age

possible, studies have already shown that the earlier a child starts a language the more benefits

they will receive, that the implementation of daily foreign language instruction has vast

improvement on students’ academic life as well as their understanding of the world.

The final point this paper aims at making is that second language acquisition is not

simply something everyone knows is beneficial yet still ignored, but that it’s full and mile-long

stretching list of benefits are known to very teacher, student, and administrative staff member.

That if those individuals wish to better their students’ lives, their school, and their students’

understanding of the world, then they must sit down and teach those students a different way to

say “hello.”
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
25
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29
Appendix A

Interviews: Transcript 1

The following is an audio log of the interview conducted with Mrs. Jennifer Carson, the K-12

World Language Coordinator of Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rb7izo7QC0Ea4tEZNQ-Lc6IdjnN1hG__

Transcript 2: The following transcript is an email exchange between the author of this paper

and Sra. Sanchez, who currently teaches in Spain.

1) Between you and your students, how do you perceive your students see the world due to
being taught a second language? Do you see them as more open-minded, closed off,
willing to explore,etc?
Answer: As I see it, learning a second language and consequently its culture is an act of
opening one’s mind in itself. You are learning about “others“ and that can be challenging
because they may be very different to you. If you learn a second language most of the times you
would like to use it, you want to communicate with people who speak that language as their
mother tongue, you want to visit their country, or even spend time there. My students learn
English but not only words, they learn about having dinner at 6 pm, about Halloween, about
Thanksgiving, about families. When you learn about other people, other customs, other ways
they are already altering their views and beliefs, they are becoming more open-minded and
willing to explore unknown things.
2) Why do you believe it is important to teach a second language? Are there major, key
points you believe make learning a second language important?
Answer: I think there a lot of benefits such as the one we talked about above, that is, to
open people’s mind showing them there are other ways, other beliefs, other thoughts, which are
also valid, which are not better or worse but different. In addition, knowing a second language
can help you get a job, or a better position, or a scholarship. It can make travelling much more
fun, especially if you are travelling to a country where that second language you have been
learning is spoken. Furthermore, research has shown that it also helps develop some parts in our
brain.
3) As well as, when should we start teaching a second language, because I personally know
that in Spain you start in primary school, while America starts in secondary schooling,
normally around the age of 14.
Answer: I believe that the sooner the better, probably when the kids start going to school
at age 3. However, I have students who have been learning English since they were little and
they can hardly communicate in English. I guess we also have to take into account how we teach
it. In my experience immersion is the most successful way.

4) Why did you become a foreign language teacher? Was there a single experience you had
that made you decide to do this, or was it just a dream you always had?
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
30
Answer: My mom took me to English private lessons since I was little so English was
my best subject and I liked it very much. When it was time to go to college I majored in English
Studies. After that I went to the US and got a scholarship as a teaching assistant teaching Spanish
while getting my Master’s. I learned about foreign language teaching and fell in love with it. I
have had my ups and downs but I don’t regret becoming a teacher because I feel I can make a
difference. I feel my job is very important. I do believe we are educating the future generations.
5) How do you believe your students would be lacking in culture if American activities were
absent from the curriculum?
Answer: If you do not include culture when teaching a foreign language, any foreign
language, you are missing a big part of that language. Language doesn’t occur in a vacuum, there
are real people speaking a language and they have different and
similar customs to your own culture. It also makes teaching a foreign language more real and
more fun. Furthermore, it helps to treat “the difference” as something positive. We learn about
other cultures and other people without judging them.
6) Do you believe that language should be a required class? Is it something that students
must take in order to graduate or should be optional?
Answer: It should be a requirement. If we want to change the situation and improve the
knowledge of a second language it must a requirement. Many Spanish university students must
have a B2 level of English in order to graduate.
*English test B2 (Upper-Intermediate) European Framework:
Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including
technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and
spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for
either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint
on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
7) If immersion is one of the best ways to acquire a language then does that mean schools
should offer classes but taught in different languages? Or is there another possible way in
your mind to fully immerse learners?
Answer: When possible other classes should be taught in the second language. When you
use the language as a tool in order to accomplish something else besides learning a second
language, learning occurs faster than when you only use it to learn about the language. For
example if you use English in the P.E class students will use the language to accomplish real
communication which is similar to the way children learn their mother tongue. There is a lot of
literature on the benefits of immersion.
Another way is promoting and helping schools to offer exchanges with students from other
countries. The best way to fully immersed in a language is living with a family from a country
whose language you are studying. In our globalized world living in another country for some
time should be mandatory for all students.

Transcript 3: The following transcript is from an email exchange with Mme. Bardet, a teacher
currently teaching in Switzerland, however, the full transcript is not available due to the time
constraint placed upon the completion of this research paper.

1) How is English taught in Switzerland, or more specifically, your school? Is it a read it

and translate type activity, is it a full-immersion type of teaching style? Or a mix between
both?
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
31
Answer: English is not taught as a read it and translate type of activity. It is rather a full
immersion type of teaching (although I will depend on every teacher), we tend to learn English
in context (newspapers, films, literary books, activities,...)
2) Personally, do you believe that you see an academic rise in children due to the fact that
they have taken a second, third, or even fourth language? As to say, do you believe your
countries high academic success is due in part to the nature of your language teaching?
Answer: I firmly believe that learning other languages increase the academic level of
children/teenagers but I guess that the high academic success is due to multiple factors.
3) Do you see a broad perception of culture within your students due to them being taught a
second language, and essentially being quasi-fluent in it by the time they arrive in your
classroom? Do you see not as much a stereotypical outlook on the culture, the country,
and the social activities of language being studied from said area. I.E. do your students
still think Americans are stereotypically fat or that we are a bunch of gun-toting fools?
Answer: I think students get a broad perception of culture (especially if you teach a
language using its cultural aspects). I hope their view of the world is not stereotypical, and I
think most of them do not believe in the stereotypes, growing up and learning in a society that is
so multicultural. But they are probably some that do.
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
32
Appendix B
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
33
Appendix C
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
34
Appendix D
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
35
Appendix E
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
36
BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
37
Appendix F