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This article is about what we talked about earlier in the semester - that in order to fully learn an L2, children must first be proficient in their L1. It reinforced the idea that being bilingual isn't something to be looked down upon and something that hinders education, but something that enhance learning.

Learning a foreign language has many more benefits than you would think. This article highlights many of the cognitive benefits associated with learning a foreign language.

This article gives a rundown on 7 cognitive advantages of bilingualism: 1. You become smarter: speaking a foreign language improves the functionality of your brain by challenging it to recognise, negotiate meaning, and communicate in different language systems. 2. You build multitasking skills. 3. You stave off Alzheimer's and dementia. 4. Your memory improves. 5. You become more perceptive. 6. Your decision-making skills improve. 7. You improve your first language (L1)

David Moser, of the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies and a L1= English speaker, reflects on his adult language learning struggles with Chinese, his L2. His takeaways as to why the language is so difficult, even for L1= Chinese speakers: 1. Because the writing system is ridiculous: need to recognize a whole lot of characters to be literate, specifically 7-8 years to recognize and write 3000 characters. 2. Because the language doesn't have the common sense to use an alphabet, which would make learning the components of words more simple. 3. Because the writing system just ain't very phonetic. 4. Because you can't cheat by using cognates. 5. Because even looking up a word in the dictionary is complicated. 6. Then there's classical Chinese (wenyanwen 文言文). 7. Because there are too many romanization methods and they all suck. 8. Because tonal languages are weird. 9. Because east is east and west is west, and the twain have only recently met. When you consider all the above-mentioned things a learner of Chinese has to acquire -- ability to use a dictionary, familiarity with two or three romanization methods, a grasp of principles involved in writing characters (both simplified and traditional) -- it adds up to an awful lot of down time while one is "learning to learn" Chinese.

(the website links to a PDF file)

This National Science Foundation Special Report provides a handy overview of many topics covered in Words R Us, including the physiology of speech, neuroscience and language, dialects, Creoles, sign language, L1 vs. L2 learning, endangered languages, and language evolution.

The English Proficiency Index ranks Swedes as the #1 non-native speakers of English. This Japanese study examines some factors that may've contributed to Swedesʻ successful language learning, including 1. Foreign language learning is compulsory and comprehensive in Sweden, and there are set minimum hours for instruction. Beginning in 1995, the Swedish educational system introduces English in Gr. 1, a second language in Gr. 6, and a third (yes, you read that right!) language in Gr. 8, 2) the perception that English= high status language (overall, in the EU, English is the most taught language and the most desirable for business and academic purposes), 3) Communicative Language Learning approach to teaching English: the foreign language class is taught in the target language 4)Higher expectations for teaching credentials; even elementary school teachers must have graduate school credits, 5) Linguistic similarities between L1= Swedish and target L2= English, as both share Proto-Norse as their linguistic ancestor, 6) High frequency of English terms absorbed into Swedish as a result of globalization, particularly pop culture, 7) Adoption of CLIL (Content and Language-Integrated Learning): in other words, English is the language of instruction for non-language disciplines.

There are around 340 million L1 English speakers, and 600 million ESL speakers, making the language accessible to an estimated billion people, English is also the primary or official language in 101 countries. However, Vyvyan Evans, British linguist, notes emoji are an even more intuitively accessible global communication mode. 3.2 billion people have regular Internet access in the world, and 92 percent-plus of those 3.2 billion people regularly send emojis. So from that perspective, Emoji leaves English in the dust, in terms of use and uptake. Most people think that when we communicate in default face-to-face mode, language is what's driving effective communication, and in fact it's not. Communication requires different channels of information - language is just one. The two other important ones are paralanguage, and that's how you're delivering the words, so tone of voice, and the really big one is kinesics, and that has to do with action-based, nonverbal communication. Emoji functions analogously to tone of voice and to body language in text-speak, and without it, we're reduced communicators.

English is the most used language on the internet. But it affects the way different language speakers interpret information. There is a disconnect in interpretation even though information is easily accessible in other languages. It is also interesting that many of those whose L1 is not English, prefer to post on Twitter in English.

This website, five years in the making, documents humorous uses of Chinglish: spoken or written English that reflects L1= Chinese influence. Radtke's collection of signage has been documented in two books: _Chinglish: Found in Translation_ and _More Chinglish: Speaking in Tongues_. Thanks to Kayla LaRieu for sharing!

Ironically, native L1= English speakers are worse at delivering their message than people who speak English as a second or third language. Non-native speakers, it turns out, speak more purposefully and carefully, typical of someone speaking a second or third language. L2=English speakers generally use more limited vocabulary and simpler expressions, without flowery language or slang. Consequently, their language tends to be shorter, clearer, and more direct. Anglophones, on the other hand, often talk too fast for others to follow, and use jokes, slang, references, and baffling abbreviations specific to their own culture. "The native English speaker… is the only one who might not feel the need to accommodate or adapt to the others." When trying to communicate in English with a group of people with varying levels of fluency, it's important to be receptive and adaptable, tuning your ears into a whole range of different ways of using English, Jenkins says. "People who've learned other languages are good at doing that, but native speakers of English generally are monolingual and not very good at tuning in to language variation."

In 2016, linguist Mark Forsyth tasted internet fame this week when a passage from a book he wrote went viral, talking about adjective word order in English. In this BBC article, Forsyth explains more language secrets that L1 English speakers know without knowing.

This is a Hawaii News Now article and video talking about a translation of the Bible into Hawaii Creole English (pidgin), and the audiovisual translation project that arose in conjunction with it. In it, the speakers touch on how pidgin is "one language of da heart," and how messages given in Standard American English won't resonate in the same way that the same messages in pidgin would, which reflects the importance of one's L1 in communication and understanding, particularly in an emotional sense.

Cartoonist LA Johnson employs a graphic novel-style approach to a story about a dual-language school: Bruce-Monroe Elementary School in Washington, D.C. In a dual-language classroom, sometimes you're the student and sometimes you're the teacher. Here's what it's like for 6-year-old Merari, an L1=Spanish ELL (English Language Learner).