The Global Child: How Experts Would Change Education

The author interviewed education researchers, neurolinguists, psycholinguists, and sociolinguists on four continents to arrive at a consensus for improving education to benefit all children. Historically, Europe, Asia, and North America have received millions of immigrants every year and the numbers are rising. School systems need to integrate these children into the fabric of their diverse populations and prepare all children for higher education. Newly arriving children will need first language support. Education leaders need to realize these children will outperform monolingual children in foreign language classrooms because they already know how to learn a language. Learning a third language is faster and more efficient than learning a second language, but every language that a child has learned needs to be supported. In the case of minority languages, education leaders need to reach out for community support. Education leaders might also consider placing children who speak non-standard dialects of official languages into the same classrooms as the non-native speakers. Better yet, integrate children into mixed ability groups in classes and de-stigmatize speaking differently.