Turning to a more scientific argument in favour of multilingual education, I recently leaved through lecture notes taken in the course of my MA degree studies of Applied Linguistics, completed in 1995–2000 at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Reading notes on philosophy and psycholinguistics helped me refresh my knowledge of the multilingual teaching theory. While going through subsequent pages, I came across one particularly important name, i.e. that of Wilhelm von Humboldt.

Wilhelm von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher and linguist, who created the concept of the linguistic worldview, which refers to semantic universals and conceptual distinctions in languages. Von Humboldt claimed that every language reflects its speakers’ perception of the surrounding world by adopting a set of terms (terminology) helpful in describing various phenomena. To give one specific example: there are literally dozens of snow-denoting terms in Inuit language spoken by the Eskimo people, indicating a great variety of types of snow they can distinguished and a clear significance of snow as a phenomenon omnipresent in their lives. Likewise, other languages build up their own culture-specific vocabulary, echoing the perception of the surrounding world by those language users. Wilhelm von Humboldt argues that the more languages one masters, the broader his/her understanding of the surrounding world. In a nutshell: with every new language learned, we – its speakers – broaden our own horizons and those of our children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_von_Humboldt

– Mitä kirjasta, nettisivulta tms. opin?

The more languages we actively use, the more we learn of the world around us. It is of crucial importance to promote multilingual upbringing and education, which we – heritage language teachers – do as part of our professional activity.


– Mihin sen omassa opettajuudessani tai pedagogiikassani yhdistän?

Despite hurdles encountered in teaching bilingual pupils, it is worth overcoming the challenges, convinced that at the end of the day our students will gain extraordinary communication skills.


– Miten kokeilen sitä konkreettisesti omassa opetuksessani?

I ought to adopt language teaching methodology, which incorporates elements of both languages (Finnish and Polish) spoken by my students rather than stick to one language only. In practical terms, I can make use of exercises based on comparative approach to grammar and complete translation tasks.


– Mitä muuta kirjallisuutta tähän aihepiiriin mielestäni liittyy?

Studies in linguistics, pedagogy, psycholinguistics, glottodidactics, foreign language teaching methodology and philosophy.

– Kenelle erityisesti lukemaani suosittelsiin ja miksi?

I would recommend more in-depth study of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s work to teachers of heritage language classes and other professionals working with pupils and students representing multilingual and multicultural backgrounds. Despite challenges in our profession activity – dealing with pupils who constantly mix up the two languages spoken at home and at school – the effort put into the teaching will one day pay off, as having completed the course, our pupils will gain extraordinary linguistic skills and communication ability.