tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/native-language-60729/articlesNative language – The Conversation2020-01-16T13:42:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208142020-01-16T13:42:07Z2020-01-16T13:42:07ZWhy Ghana is struggling to get its language policy right in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286931/original/file-20190805-36390-1k1rmyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children reading in school</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 46 languages are spoken in Ghana. As with many other countries on the continent it is struggling to find an effective policy for language in education. At present Ghanaian children are taught for the first five years of school in their own language while they are gradually exposed to the the English language, before shifting to English as medium of instruction in the upper primary and beyond. </p>
<p>Using a bilingual (Ghanaian language and English) methodology, the country is implementing a policy to promote teaching pupils in kindergarten through primary grade three to read and write in their local language – one of 11 selected Ghanaian languages – while introducing them to spoken English, and by
grade two, to written English. </p>
<p>The approach is designed to be a transitional one in which local language literacy is used as a bridge to English literacy. The programme also serves to encourage and celebrate the use of local languages as a valuable aspect of Ghanaian culture.</p>
<p>However, many parents and education officials continue to agitate for English to be used as the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073805931000026X">medium </a> of instruction from the start.</p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>There is plenty of <a href="http://www0.sun.ac.za/taalsentrum/assets/files/ML%20Afr%20Lang%20&%20Cost.pdf">research</a> to suggest that the language of <a href="http://www.adeanet.org/adea/downloadcenter/publications/rap%20bie%2003%20eng.pdf">communication</a> is very important in teaching and learning. Policy makers believe <a href="http://www.web.net/%7Eafc/download3/Education%20Research/NALAP%20Study/EQUALL%20NALAP%20Implementation%20Study%20Final%20Report.pdf">Ghana’s approach</a> will improve learning as young learners firmly grasp <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291013758_Multilingual_language_policy_and_mother_tongue_education_in_Timor-Leste_a_multiscalar_approach">concepts</a> at the early stages of their education and also foster cultural pride and patriotism. </p>
<p>A former minister for education, Professor Naana Opoku Agyeman, has <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/October-16th/ghana-to-change-english-as-medium-of-instruction.php">attributed</a> Ghana’s underdevelopment issues – notably extreme poverty and income growth – to the use of English as the only medium of instruction in the lower primary schools. The argument is that this impedes learners’ active participation in the teaching and learning process which, in turn, has negative repercussions on their future learning. </p>
<p>We wanted to find out what ordinary Ghanaians thought about the debate. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2019.1631759">study</a> found that many parents were not happy with a mother-tongue based bilingual policy where young learners began with a familiar local Ghanaian language and gradually introduced to the English language. </p>
<p>Respondents also identified practical difficulties in optimising the module. The difficulty is that Ghana has 11 languages that can be written and studied at this level. For the policy to fully work, teaching materials would have to be designed and published in each of these languages. Parents were not convinced that this had happened, or that the right teaching resources were in place.</p>
<p>Our findings also indicated that the hostile response from parents to the policy was borne out of poor communication. </p>
<h2>The Study</h2>
<p>Ghana introduced the National Literacy Acceleration <a href="http://www.web.net/%7Eafc/download3/Education%20Research/NALAP%20Study/EQUALL%20NALAP%20Implementation%20Study%20Final%20Report.pdf">Programme</a> in the 2009/2010 academic year. This was after it was <a href="http://www.web.net/%7Eafc/download3/Education%20Research/NALAP%20Study/EQUALL%20NALAP%20Implementation%20Study%20Final%20Report.pdf">discovered in a baseline study</a> that only 18% of third grade pupils could read text in their school’s Ghanaian language. This followed a 2007 assessment that showed that, at grade six, 26% of pupils had minimum competency in English. </p>
<p>Research has shown that <a href="https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/The%20Challenges%20of%20Measuring%20School%20Quality.pdf">quality</a> education is best achieved when it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-makes-sense-for-children-to-learn-in-the-language-they-know-best-55346">transmitted</a> in a language familiar to the learners. Researchers suggest that the choice of language of instruction in schools, especially in the early years, is <a href="http://www0.sun.ac.za/taalsentrum/assets/files/ML%20Afr%20Lang%20&%20Cost.pdf">critical</a> for achieving educational outcomes. </p>
<p>Ghana’s programme specifies that a familiar local language - the most common Ghanaian language in the school’s community - is used for academic instruction during the first five years of schooling – from Kindergarten to Primary 3, and that teachers introduce children to English language as part of the curriculum. </p>
<p>From Primary 4 upwards, the medium of instruction transitions to English for the rest of the child’s education. Eleven major languages (Akuapem Twi, Asante Twi, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dangme, Ewe, Fante, Ga, Gonja, Kasem, and Nzema) have been selected to be used alongside English. Schools can select any one of these languages in addition to English for its medium of instruction, depending on its location and learners’ proficiency in the language. </p>
<p>The goal of the <a href="http://www.web.net/%7Eafc/download3/Education%20Research/NALAP%20Study/EQUALL%20NALAP%20Implementation%20Study%20Final%20Report.pdf">policy</a> is to move children gradually to English as a medium of instruction and to recognise their rights as stipulated in the UN <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Convention</a> on the Rights of the Child. It is supposed to help them succeed academically and take pride in their heritage. </p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2019.1631759">found</a> that Ghanaians opposed the bi-lingual programme because they felt the country lacked the teaching and learning resources to make it work. A very large proportion of teachers are not equipped to teach reading in a mother tongue language. This is true even if they are fluent in a language. </p>
<p>Our findings clearly show a need for further training to make the current system work. Teachers on the module require follow up support and a consistent refresher programmes. </p>
<p>The support of parents and the general public is also essential if the policy is to work. More sensitisation needs to be done to help them understand the benefits of the policy. </p>
<p>There are several benefits – social as well as cultural – inherent in the mastery of a local language for children. They associate and socialise better if they are able to converse in a shared language.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Inadequate public education on a new language policy has generated resistance from parents at the early childhood education level in Ghana.Joyce Esi Bronteng, Lecturer of Education, University of Cape CoastIlene Berson, Professor of Education, University of South FloridaMichael J Berson, Professor of Social Science Education, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1266312019-11-11T17:09:06Z2019-11-11T17:09:06ZBilingualism and dementia: how some patients lose their second language and rediscover their first<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301103/original/file-20191111-194641-14t8ggc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Being bilingual can delay onset of dementia, but sometimes patients revert to their mother tongue, leaving them isolated.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/living-alzheimers-disease-two-trees-shape-100688473">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many people with dementia, memories of early childhood appear more vivid than their fragile sense of the present. But what happens when the present is experienced through a different language than the one spoken in childhood? And how might carers and care homes cope with the additional level of complexity in looking after <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.24158">bilingual people living with dementia</a>? </p>
<p>This is not just relevant for people living with dementia and those who care for them. It can provide insights into the human mind that are equally important to brain researchers, social scientists and even artists.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-alzheimers-disease-24662">Explainer: what is Alzheimer’s disease?</a></strong></em> </p>
<hr>
<p>This relationship between dementia and bilingualism was the focus of <a href="https://ewds2.strath.ac.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=1306&articleType=ArticleView&articleid=13669">a workshop</a> we held recently in Glasgow. Bringing together healthcare professionals, volunteers, community activists, dementia researchers, translation experts, writers and actors, the workshop was organised around a reading of a new play performed by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scots-Gaelic-language">Gaelic language</a> group, Theatre Tog-ì. </p>
<p>The play, Five to Midnight, centres on a native Gaelic speaker from the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lewis+and+Harris/@57.7937291,-6.6915454,8z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x488d9f021d5b2073:0x1302d3ff6e73b999!8m2!3d58.2436089!4d-6.6672018">Outer Hebrides</a> whose English begins to fade as her dementia develops. Her English-speaking husband increasingly finds himself cut off from his wife as she retreats into the past and to a language he does not understand. The couple’s pain and frustration at their inability to communicate is harrowing. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_hptqJyTf8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Health, well-being and culture</h2>
<p>It soon became clear in the workshop that the minority-language subject matter of the play was not a rare, isolated case but rather one that connects to a broader range of important issues such as health, well-being and preserving cultural heritage for <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-09/my-grandmothers-disease-has-stolen-her-memories-and-our-common-language">future generations</a>.</p>
<p>We heard stories from people working in care homes in Ireland, Scotland and Wales that told how bilingual people with advanced forms of dementia and almost no linguistic skills, were transformed by care workers who could speak the patient’s mother tongue. As with many people living with dementia, <a href="https://www.dementiauk.org/get-support/complementary-approaches/music/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImKD3ksTY5QIVC7TtCh1kzg3WEAAYAiAAEgLG0vD_BwE">music and song</a> were often the keys that unlocked the flow of words and memories.</p>
<p>In Wales, where the number of Welsh speakers is estimated to be <a href="https://gov.wales/welsh-language-data-annual-population-survey-july-2018-june-2019">891,000</a>, the issue of ageing bilingual speakers with dementia is far more acute than in Scotland. One solution has been to place magnetic “Welsh spoken” signs on the hospital beds of Welsh speakers so that staff who speak the language themselves know they can communicate with patients in their mother tongue.</p>
<p>Bilingualism in the context of dementia affects millions of migrants all over the world. If parents have abandoned their original language to speak only English (or the dominant language of their adopted country) with their children, whole generations grow up cut off from their cultural heritage, unable to speak their parents’ language.</p>
<p>Which means first-generation migrants who develop dementia may find themselves unable to communicate with their own children as they revert to the language they used in their youth. At the workshop, a member of a local language-learning enterprise called <a href="https://www.lingoflamingo.co.uk/">Lingo Flamingo</a> explained this is why it organises <a href="https://search.volunteerscotland.net/opportunity/a0g1p00000FJxy3AAD/lingo-flamingo-volunteers">befriending programmes</a> for older people and patients with dementia, using languages such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Punjabi-language">Punjabi</a>, spoken by people of Indian and Pakistani origin.</p>
<p>The varied backgrounds of the our workshop participants meant a wide range of topics were discussed, including the issue of language and translation in <a href="https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/dementia-professionals/resources-professionals/publications/assessing-cognition-older-people-toolkit">cognitive assessment</a> and diagnosis, the <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92f4233q">brain science behind bilingualism</a>, language-appropriate and culturally relevant care, language and identity, the loss and rediscovery of culture and language, and the sharing of minority languages down through families.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301105/original/file-20191111-194624-yhx51m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bilingual dementia patients often improve if carers can communicate with them in their original language.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-elderly-women-wearing-blue-shirt-1465634576">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The workshop also explored the role of the arts in raising public awareness of the reality of dementia in relation to language, as well as providing creative outlets for bilingual patients and their carers. As Five to Midnight demonstrated, the human stories the arts can tell are an engaging and affecting way to educate the public about dementia.</p>
<h2>Linguistic diversity</h2>
<p>Britain often imagines itself to be a monolingual English-speaking country, but alongside native minority Celtic languages there are bi/multilingual speakers from around the world in most of the UK’s major cities. The same is true for many other countries: linguisitic diversity is in fact far more common across the world than the existence of a single language.</p>
<p>Loss of language skills is a common effect of dementia, and research suggests that the resulting challenges may be more complex for bilingual dementia patients and their carers. As our workshop revealed, identifying this complexity is a first step in addressing the issue at a practical and a policy level.</p>
<p>However, the workshop also explored the positive effects of bilingualism in the context of dementia. Research from countries such as <a href="https://n.neurology.org/content/81/22/1938?ijkey=6b2bd0ebadbb00ea1ccab65d172aa56f7425337e&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha">India</a> has shown that people who speak more than one language tend to develop dementia four to five years later.</p>
<p>These findings are in line with many <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.010418e">other studies</a>, suggesting a milder age-related decline in cognitive ability and a better recovery of brain function after stroke in those who are bilingual. So it is important that we do not see bilingualism as part of the problem but as a potential part of the <a href="https://www.meits.org/policy-papers/paper/healthy-linguistic-diet">solution</a>.</p>
<p>Whether we approach the issue from the point of view of health and care provision, brain science or art and literature, our workshop showed the need to appreciate all the languages spoken by one person as an integral part of who they are – in sickness and in health.</p>
<p><em>Are you a relative or carer of a bilingual/multilingual patient? Or bilingual or multingual youself? Get involved in our research by taking part in our survey on language preferences across lifetime <a href="https://edinburgh.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6ySpqYdw2yyH1s1">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126631/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ingeborg Birnie received small research grant from Soillse, the national research network for the maintenance and revitalisation of Gaelic language and culture (<a href="http://www.soillse.ac.uk/en/">http://www.soillse.ac.uk/en/</a>)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Thomas H Bak receives funding from AHRC Grant "Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS)"</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aedin Ni Loingsigh and David Murphy do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why the lives of bilingual dementia patients can be transformed by finding carers who speak their native language.David Murphy, Professor of French and Postcolonial Studies, University of Strathclyde Aedin Ni Loingsigh, Lecturer in French and Translation Studies, University of StirlingIngeborg Birnie, Lecturer in Gaelic and Education, University of Strathclyde Thomas H Bak, Reader in Human Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1016382018-10-15T13:16:32Z2018-10-15T13:16:32ZBilingualism: how to get your child to speak your language – and why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239905/original/file-20181009-133328-k2xamz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans have been migrating since prehistoric times – moving within and beyond geographical borders – in search of food, for survival or for better prospects in life. In the European Union alone, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics#undefined">the latest figures</a> show that in 2016 more than 4m people immigrated to an EU country, while at least 3m emigrated and left an EU member state.</p>
<p>Going overseas is not without its challenges. On top of the paperwork and getting your head around a new place, there is also the issue of language – what you speak now and what you need to speak to get by in the new country. For many migrants starting anew, maintaining their heritage language – the language <a href="http://www.linguas.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=pvMGYpDt200=&tabid=695&mid=1356&language=en-US">with which they have historical ties</a> – and passing it onto the children can be a challenge. </p>
<p>This is because, to achieve academic and professional goals, many migrant families know that it is their proficiency in the dominant language of the new country – and not their heritage language – that matters. So in predominantly English speaking countries like the US and the UK, when immigrant parents encourage children to use English and overlook their heritage language, they are simply conforming to the existing system that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00361.x">associates proficiency in English</a> with educational and professional success.</p>
<p>This means that heritage languages are not always actively promoted within the homes or communities of some migrants. And over the course of several generations, these languages may even be replaced altogether by the dominant language of the new country. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288247818_Responding_to_the_globalisation_challenge_A_project_for_migrant_families_to_maintain_their_language_and_culture">Research shows</a> that in <a href="http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume1/ej04/">English language-dominant countries</a>, substantially large migrant communities – like Chinese, Indians and Sri Lankans – are experiencing a shift from heritage languages to English.</p>
<h2>Staying connected</h2>
<p>But it doesn’t have to be this way. Take, for example, a Malayali community in England whose home language practices I researched <a href="http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/5550">during a three-year PhD</a>. The first generation migrants, the parents, had been raised and had completed their formal education in Kerala, on the south-western belt of India. </p>
<p>At the time of my research, all the Malayali parents were employed and their children – some born in the UK and others overseas – were being schooled and brought up in England. Their conversations at home (which were recorded as part of my research) show how the parents and the extended family played a key role in helping the children to learn and practise their heritage language, Malayalam.</p>
<p>The Malayali parents held kinship in high regard: vouched for by their annual visits and daily phone calls to extended family in India. To stay connected in this manner, the Malayali children in England had to use Malayalam – the preferred and most often the only language used by their relatives. </p>
<h2>Two languages</h2>
<p>Anju was one of several Malayali children who often featured in the audio-recorded phone conversations between her immediate family and her relatives. Born in India, Anju moved to the UK at the age of three with her family. She attended nursery in India and had just begun to learn the Malayalam alphabet at the time of migration. Since their move, Anju had not received any formal instruction in the language. Despite this brief exposure she had to Malayalam in Kerala, Anju, who was eight at the time of the research, used the language with ease when conversing with her relatives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239907/original/file-20181009-72100-g8seuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Talking with extended family can help to keep languages alive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar to Anju, was six-year-old Priti in her willingness and capacity to use Malayalam when required to do so. The younger child of another Malayali family, Priti was born in the UK and had no upbringing or language exposure to Malayalam in India. But she had adequate knowledge of the language which allowed her to interact with her extended family. Supporting my observations of Priti, are her mother Deepa’s words: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When Priti talks to the grandparents, she speaks Malayalam. She might be adding some words in English, but the sentence is spoken in Malayalam.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Under threat</h2>
<p>In my research, many of the interactions that took place between the parents and children were bilingual – and it appeared that the parents’ gentle endorsement of Malayalam was generally received favourably by the children. </p>
<p>This is mainly because within these Malayali homes there were opportunities, such as the daily phone calls with relatives, for the children to use, test and build on their existing knowledge of Malayalam. This offered the children further exposure to the language and helped them to stay connected with the extended family.</p>
<p>This then is yet more evidence that for migrant families, the home remains a viable environment for language preservation. And given that languages are said to be <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/languages-are-being-wiped-out-economic-growth">disappearing faster than endangered species</a> – with a different one <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/world/18cnd-language.html">dying every two weeks</a> – it is important that heritage languages continue to be spoken.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/language-197?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Language">Language</a> articles, written by academic experts:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-okay-for-bilingual-children-to-mix-languages-97448?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Language">Why it’s okay for bilingual children to mix languages</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/when-languages-die-we-lose-a-part-of-who-we-are-51825?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Language">When languages die, we lose a part of who we are</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/youre-never-too-old-to-become-fluent-in-a-foreign-language-96293?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Language">You’re never too old to become fluent in a foreign language</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>For more evidence-based articles by academics, subscribe to our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Language">newsletter</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Indu Vibha Meddegama does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Languages are said to be disappearing faster than endangered species with a different one dying every two weeks.Indu Vibha Meddegama, Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.