WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Music 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:15.000 Well it is an honor and a pleasure to be here and in fact it's quite a humbling 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:21.840 experience because there are people in this room with a tremendous amount of 00:00:21.840 --> 00:00:27.000 experience dealing with very complex situations. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:37.880 It's my hope that I can share a little bit about what I've learned myself from my own context. 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:39.200 This is Estonia. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:41.200 I am Estonian. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:46.220 It may be a little difficult to believe when you hear me speak English, and that is because 00:00:46.220 --> 00:00:53.640 I actually grew up in Canada and have only spent 22 years of my life living in Estonia, 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.240 but that's been later on in life. 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:59.960 Estonia is a relatively empty country with 1.3 million people. 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:04.380 It's a little larger than Holland, a little larger than Denmark. 00:01:04.380 --> 00:01:10.000 And we have a difficult history, a complicated history, which has left us with a legacy of 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.700 a large portion of the population that does not speak the national language Estonian. 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:22.540 And we've developed in a very systematic and stakeholder inclusive manner a bilingual or 00:01:22.529 --> 00:01:27.989 your program in fact that has been highly successful and that has been 00:01:27.989 --> 00:01:32.689 voluntary and we've approached it exceptionally systematically trying to 00:01:32.689 --> 00:01:39.229 pull in knowledge from Canada from the United States Finland Ireland Spain from 00:01:39.229 --> 00:01:48.469 certainly the Western side and and it's been exceptionally successful that's 00:01:48.469 --> 00:01:51.949 London dropping in there I spent the last four and a half years in London 00:01:51.949 --> 00:01:54.749 researching the management of bilingual education. 00:01:57.249 --> 00:01:58.749 That's the Canadian part. 00:01:58.749 --> 00:02:01.589 I've had the experience of growing up in Canada 00:02:01.589 --> 00:02:05.589 and also getting to know bilingual programs in Canada. 00:02:06.229 --> 00:02:09.229 The first programs began in Canada in the 60s. 00:02:09.469 --> 00:02:13.469 And one of the key things to remember is it was not a government initiative. 00:02:13.709 --> 00:02:16.349 It was something parents had to fight for. 00:02:16.469 --> 00:02:19.649 And I do mean fight for and struggle for. 00:02:19.649 --> 00:02:21.909 It was a grassroots initiative. 00:02:21.909 --> 00:02:26.529 that has now spread across the country and has been exceptionally well researched. 00:02:26.529 --> 00:02:31.529 It's the United States, a very unusual place from my perspective where I've spent six years. 00:02:31.529 --> 00:02:37.029 Three states in the United States have voted English-only laws, restricted access to bilingual 00:02:37.029 --> 00:02:38.789 education. 00:02:38.789 --> 00:02:45.069 Then there are states like Utah which are going gung-ho with bilingual education and as 00:02:45.058 --> 00:02:48.418 establishing very successful programs. 00:02:48.418 --> 00:02:52.038 Had the pleasure of spending only a few weeks in Malaysia 00:02:52.038 --> 00:02:55.918 and working with people from several countries in Asia 00:02:55.918 --> 00:03:00.798 to talk about CLIL, the integration of content and language. 00:03:02.038 --> 00:03:06.618 Been working with a school in Paris as of late, Kazakhstan. 00:03:06.618 --> 00:03:09.318 That tower is the Baitarek Tower. 00:03:09.318 --> 00:03:12.998 Kazakhstan is very systematically establishing 00:03:12.998 --> 00:03:17.738 national trilingual program, Russian, Kazakh, and English. 00:03:18.338 --> 00:03:22.918 What we've been able to do with the Kazakh colleagues is on the back wall, 00:03:23.398 --> 00:03:28.478 there's a planning framework that where we were, I'd say, three weeks ago. 00:03:29.198 --> 00:03:36.278 It's much advanced from there, but it'll show you some of the factors that are being juggled. 00:03:36.918 --> 00:03:39.238 It's a way of organizing complexity. 00:03:39.238 --> 00:03:44.418 I've also had the experience of working for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 00:03:44.418 --> 00:03:48.778 the Estonian Ministry of Education, and that has all shaped my thinking. 00:03:48.778 --> 00:03:52.338 Actually, there are quite a few other countries they just won't fit in. 00:03:52.338 --> 00:03:57.398 Looking at trialing your programs in Ukraine, in Spain, etc. 00:03:59.238 --> 00:04:02.338 Those are the towers of Tallinn, it's not a completely empty country. 00:04:03.918 --> 00:04:07.598 And lately, I've had the pleasure of working with the international school 00:04:07.587 --> 00:04:12.987 in Geneva. So all of these things both have shaped my thinking and in a sense 00:04:12.987 --> 00:04:19.587 limit my thinking and will come to the brain shortly about why I say that. What 00:04:19.587 --> 00:04:26.067 are the key foci? I'm going to be looking at two things. First, just in broad 00:04:26.067 --> 00:04:31.287 brushstrokes, looking at the complexities of bilingual education and 00:04:31.287 --> 00:04:37.107 and how to organize those, just in a sense to set the stage. 00:04:37.107 --> 00:04:42.727 And then I'll concentrate on the cognitive benefits of bilingualism. 00:04:42.727 --> 00:04:47.067 And then hopefully we'll have 15 minutes for some dialogue. 00:04:47.067 --> 00:04:52.827 Now bilingual education has always struck me as something like this on the board. 00:04:52.827 --> 00:04:56.327 It is a very complex thing. 00:04:56.327 --> 00:05:06.427 And in the exact sciences, the average scientist would say five, six, seven, eight variables is something you can control for. 00:05:07.227 --> 00:05:18.427 But in bilingual education, McKee, for instance, found back in 76 already over 3,000 influences on learning in the bilingual classroom. 00:05:19.227 --> 00:05:20.327 How do you control? 00:05:20.447 --> 00:05:23.427 And that was just one aspect of bilingual education. 00:05:24.287 --> 00:05:25.367 You need to manage it. 00:05:25.367 --> 00:05:27.227 You have stakeholder relations. 00:05:27.227 --> 00:05:30.127 You have research issues. 00:05:30.115 --> 00:05:35.115 manage all of those variables. How do you lead with that? 00:05:35.115 --> 00:05:39.115 Well, I think it is possible to organize complexity. 00:05:39.115 --> 00:05:43.115 In Estonia, we started off by just trying to find categories. 00:05:43.115 --> 00:05:49.115 And categories help organize it, and we looked at management issues. 00:05:49.115 --> 00:05:53.115 We looked at learning materials or learning resources. 00:05:53.115 --> 00:05:58.115 And it's not as simple as producing those. All of these things are integrated. 00:05:58.115 --> 00:06:02.755 What is quality learning material? What is good pedagogy? 00:06:02.755 --> 00:06:08.215 You need all of those agreements in place to create the quality materials. 00:06:08.215 --> 00:06:13.075 And they must not just take into account what is good bilingual education, 00:06:13.075 --> 00:06:17.875 but what is good education, what is good assessment, 00:06:17.875 --> 00:06:21.475 how to make sure our materials are culturally sensitive, 00:06:21.475 --> 00:06:25.875 to make sure they're not sexist, to make sure they're not ageist, 00:06:25.875 --> 00:06:29.215 to make sure they're fostering creativity. 00:06:30.555 --> 00:06:34.735 Professional development, not just of teachers. That is, 00:06:35.655 --> 00:06:44.495 teachers are only one part of the puzzle and it is a, from my perspective, a clear mistake to put too much stress just on teachers. 00:06:44.755 --> 00:06:46.755 There are directors of schools, 00:06:47.415 --> 00:06:48.255 methodologists, 00:06:48.255 --> 00:06:50.055 university researchers, 00:06:50.055 --> 00:06:52.635 government officials, local, national, 00:06:52.644 --> 00:07:04.644 Parent groups, etc. Learning materials developers, all of these groups need professional development and opportunities for professional dialogue. 00:07:04.644 --> 00:07:08.644 It can all fall apart at any one of those places. 00:07:08.644 --> 00:07:12.644 Or it can all come together. 00:07:12.644 --> 00:07:29.164 testing and research. Certainly any program in bilingual or tri-lingual education needs to be researched because no matter how much research there is across the world, people will keep saying we're different. 00:07:30.584 --> 00:07:37.804 And we need to, and people need that research so you can show it and simply talk about it. 00:07:37.804 --> 00:07:57.864 And you needed to make reasoned decisions. I'll give you an example. In Estonia, for instance, we asked parents in the Russian language program, and these students were studying many subjects through Estonian, if they were happy with the level of their children's Russian. 00:07:57.864 --> 00:08:03.244 And the answer was no, a resounding no. 00:08:03.244 --> 00:08:08.384 And I must admit I shook in terror when I heard this, but I thought we're having an open 00:08:08.384 --> 00:08:10.844 dialogue, we'll assume it. 00:08:10.844 --> 00:08:13.224 Then we went and looked at the research. 00:08:13.224 --> 00:08:15.184 What did the research say? 00:08:15.173 --> 00:08:27.173 It said the children in the bilingual program were reading and writing Russian at a superior level to the children in the monolingual program. 00:08:27.173 --> 00:08:37.173 So in fact, the parents, we needed this research to show it to the parents and those parents seemed to have very high expectations. 00:08:37.173 --> 00:08:43.173 But they could make more informed decisions when they saw the research. 00:08:43.173 --> 00:08:49.773 In fact, they didn't have anything to worry about. 00:08:49.773 --> 00:08:54.893 Stakeholder relations, another issue, I would say this is one of the key things to make 00:08:54.893 --> 00:08:58.613 sure a lot of time and effort is going into this. 00:08:58.613 --> 00:09:05.833 A stakeholder is anyone who can influence your program or anyone who can be influenced 00:09:05.833 --> 00:09:07.233 by it. 00:09:07.233 --> 00:09:09.673 It's anyone who can cause you trouble. 00:09:09.673 --> 00:09:11.733 It's anyone who can help you. 00:09:11.733 --> 00:09:12.953 They're all your partners. 00:09:12.953 --> 00:09:18.553 need to be worked with and I don't think we take all of them into account that 00:09:18.553 --> 00:09:22.773 means in Estonia we went from the president's office down to the teachers 00:09:22.773 --> 00:09:28.313 and parents which we spent a year and a half learning and educating ourselves 00:09:28.313 --> 00:09:33.773 and then teaching and learning what is quality teaching and learning we know 00:09:33.773 --> 00:09:37.713 for instance that certain teaching practices are much 00:09:37.702 --> 00:09:41.962 more powerful than others and I don't know if we'll have time to talk about 00:09:41.962 --> 00:09:47.022 this perhaps somewhere in the break but we have examples from research of 00:09:47.022 --> 00:09:54.702 programs that accomplished exactly as much in half the time when it came to 00:09:54.702 --> 00:10:00.202 language learning as other programs and the reason they can do that it's good 00:10:00.202 --> 00:10:07.162 pedagogy and that good pedagogy is not just about issues like code switching 00:10:07.162 --> 00:10:22.382 It's about learner autonomy. It's about developing dialogic teaching. It's about scaffolding. It's about good pedagogy in general. Now, all of these issues, in fact, are tied with each other. 00:10:22.382 --> 00:10:30.782 now that was one simple model we looked at all of these and realized they're all 00:10:30.782 --> 00:10:36.762 they're all tied to each other and we try to organize the complexity under those headings 00:10:36.762 --> 00:10:43.622 but in fact there were there are certainly a thousand variables but you can only 00:10:43.622 --> 00:10:49.122 you can only concentrate on so much so these were the major categories and then we bored down 00:10:49.122 --> 00:11:00.242 under these let's go to another model because we need models or paradigms to organize complexity to react off 00:11:00.231 --> 00:11:07.051 of to help us think through what we're doing. 00:11:07.051 --> 00:11:10.011 And here's another model. 00:11:10.011 --> 00:11:11.891 Driving forces. 00:11:11.891 --> 00:11:21.511 These are ideas, they belong to the ideational realm, but these actually drive what goes on. 00:11:21.511 --> 00:11:28.031 They're principles like stakeholder inclusion, trust, etc. 00:11:28.031 --> 00:11:35.031 If you're not concentrating on those, the program won't necessarily work. 00:11:35.031 --> 00:11:37.311 Mechanisms are another thing. 00:11:37.311 --> 00:11:43.751 Changing education is not just about mechanisms, and very often the mistake we make is the 00:11:43.751 --> 00:11:45.731 mechanisms. 00:11:45.731 --> 00:11:48.091 We concentrate too much on the mechanisms. 00:11:48.091 --> 00:11:49.091 They're important. 00:11:49.091 --> 00:11:50.711 They're really essential. 00:11:50.711 --> 00:11:56.051 But it's the human side that always comes into play. 00:11:56.051 --> 00:12:03.371 It is the forces like trust, inclusion, being transparent. 00:12:03.371 --> 00:12:09.851 Those are the things that will give you the energy, in a sense, to drive those mechanisms. 00:12:09.851 --> 00:12:17.171 And a third concept as a kind of a paradigm of driving forces mechanisms is counterweights. 00:12:17.171 --> 00:12:22.771 We often don't know how much energy to put into one thing or the other. 00:12:22.760 --> 00:12:30.020 carried away with one thing. So there are a whole series of counterweights that we need to consider. 00:12:30.860 --> 00:12:36.620 We don't have time to run through these today. I'm going to give you a few quick examples. 00:12:37.540 --> 00:12:42.620 We'll make sure this is up in the internet for you so you will be able to access this. 00:12:43.540 --> 00:12:51.500 But let's look at these driving forces. Let's take this. One of the things that drives programs 00:12:51.500 --> 00:13:00.500 in certain countries like Canada or Estonia is there is a real need for that bilingualism. 00:13:01.260 --> 00:13:04.220 There is a belief in that greater good. 00:13:06.460 --> 00:13:11.400 So, and stakeholder inclusion. 00:13:12.220 --> 00:13:16.220 If you're really not bringing in the learning materials developer, 00:13:16.220 --> 00:13:24.100 agreeing with that person, with the teacher, with the university staff. What is quality teaching? 00:13:24.100 --> 00:13:31.920 What are the principles that we are really operating under? What is good pedagogy? I mean, 00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:39.180 how often do people actually put that down on one A3? I found that we operated actually for 00:13:39.180 --> 00:13:45.280 three years, all of us saying, well, we believe in this, we believe in that. We all thought we had 00:13:45.289 --> 00:13:48.049 had the same picture in our heads. 00:13:48.049 --> 00:13:53.049 But until we developed on 1A3 an agreement on this 00:13:53.049 --> 00:13:56.109 is what we believe to be good pedagogy, 00:13:56.109 --> 00:13:59.109 it became much harder to develop your materials, 00:13:59.109 --> 00:14:03.389 your training programs, even do your research. 00:14:03.389 --> 00:14:07.369 It is getting those agreements that are essential. 00:14:07.369 --> 00:14:10.249 But you see, an agreement is a mechanism. 00:14:10.249 --> 00:14:13.629 The principal stakeholder education is a force, 00:14:13.629 --> 00:14:14.949 and it drives it. 00:14:14.949 --> 00:14:18.089 And one needs to give a lot of attention to these forces. 00:14:19.029 --> 00:14:20.969 Just like a belief. 00:14:20.969 --> 00:14:26.249 We were just talking with Kerry, who is, Kerry's from the Philippines. 00:14:27.149 --> 00:14:35.689 And Kerry, we were talking about beliefs, how change is all about people's beliefs and attitudes. 00:14:36.149 --> 00:14:41.629 And we need to bring those out, put them on the table, legitimize them. 00:14:41.789 --> 00:14:43.709 Anyone can have any belief they have. 00:14:43.709 --> 00:14:49.109 but then we need to talk about them or things are not going to change. 00:14:49.109 --> 00:14:54.049 Thinking is not a purely rational process by the way. 00:14:54.049 --> 00:15:00.629 We know more and more from science now that thinking always involves the effective side or emotions. 00:15:00.629 --> 00:15:04.869 So we need to manage those things. We need to look at beliefs. 00:15:04.869 --> 00:15:07.809 Here I've used CLIL, oh well my goodness 00:15:07.818 --> 00:15:09.118 I wonder what happened there. 00:15:10.278 --> 00:15:14.738 My apologies, there's some kind of programming issue. 00:15:16.698 --> 00:15:18.518 I'll stay away from that one. 00:15:20.378 --> 00:15:22.898 So, and open access to information. 00:15:23.338 --> 00:15:24.878 I think this one is essential. 00:15:25.318 --> 00:15:29.978 If you're working with all of your stakeholders and you're putting it all out there, 00:15:30.358 --> 00:15:34.038 you're being upfront, this is what we believe is quality education, 00:15:34.038 --> 00:15:37.458 here are the criteria for learning materials development, 00:15:37.818 --> 00:15:54.958 Here's the research. Okay, we have a problem over here. Let's talk about it. Life is full of problems. The only way you're going to solve things is if you have open access to information, everyone instantly finds out where the problem is. 00:15:54.958 --> 00:15:58.238 You can have an open dialogue. You can solve problems. 00:15:59.018 --> 00:16:05.458 No one could possibly organize all of that complexity we saw on that green board. 00:16:06.358 --> 00:16:11.378 You have to begin. Life just forces you to start. 00:16:12.418 --> 00:16:19.578 So if you start and you have good dialogue, you have transparency, you can find the problems. 00:16:19.578 --> 00:16:24.198 you can make adjustments if your stakeholders can sit together again and 00:16:24.198 --> 00:16:30.338 decide how to adjust. So all of these issues whether it's you know learning for 00:16:30.346 --> 00:16:37.346 That's been essential, for instance, from the minister down to the teacher down to the parent. 00:16:37.346 --> 00:16:41.346 All of us had to admit we don't know enough, we never will. 00:16:41.346 --> 00:16:45.346 The only time I ever use this word in my life is in this expression. 00:16:45.346 --> 00:16:49.346 In Estonian we say, you study all your life and you die stupid. 00:16:49.346 --> 00:16:55.346 In the sense that we all need to keep learning, none of us know enough. 00:16:55.346 --> 00:16:58.346 But there are also negative forces out there, you know. 00:16:58.346 --> 00:17:00.306 You know, there's self-interested power. 00:17:00.746 --> 00:17:01.906 There are people out there. 00:17:02.246 --> 00:17:08.346 But if you're open and transparent, if you're stakeholders, you're always saying you're doing this for the students, 00:17:08.566 --> 00:17:11.566 it's easier to control people who are into power. 00:17:12.806 --> 00:17:14.186 You know, there's willful blindness. 00:17:14.406 --> 00:17:19.086 A lot of people just choose not to discuss huge pieces of the puzzle. 00:17:20.466 --> 00:17:22.286 It's essential to do that. 00:17:25.286 --> 00:17:26.746 There are also mechanisms. 00:17:26.746 --> 00:17:33.986 So these are the forces, but you do need really good mechanisms. You need this agreement on pedagogy. What is quality teaching? 00:17:35.026 --> 00:17:40.706 We need needs assessments. We need user-friendly plans. Now you'll see on the back wall 00:17:41.026 --> 00:17:45.786 Those are the largest plans I've ever developed with any group. Normally they're on an A3 00:17:46.666 --> 00:17:52.866 Three pieces of paper, let's say at the most that's an A1 poster and and we'll get around 00:17:52.875 --> 00:18:00.115 around to polishing that, but you need some kind of a group decision-making instrument 00:18:00.115 --> 00:18:05.275 where everybody can see what it is that you're going to do, how you're going to measure it. 00:18:05.275 --> 00:18:07.675 Those are essential pieces. 00:18:07.675 --> 00:18:12.315 Otherwise, you cannot have a serious discussion. 00:18:12.315 --> 00:18:19.275 So I'm a firm believer in really strong planning and knowledge about that and saying, here's 00:18:19.275 --> 00:18:24.235 Here's the outcome, the product I can touch, here's how I'll measure it. 00:18:24.235 --> 00:18:29.915 And here are the short-term products or outputs, and here's how I will measure it. 00:18:29.915 --> 00:18:32.715 That's essential. 00:18:32.715 --> 00:18:37.815 You need public reports, transparency, stakeholder learning and discussions. 00:18:37.815 --> 00:18:42.495 You need to actually create fora such as Cambridge is doing right now, which I think is a terrific 00:18:42.495 --> 00:18:44.495 idea. 00:18:44.495 --> 00:18:48.675 Jointly develop training for all. 00:18:48.675 --> 00:18:54.035 And as we were talking at this table with colleagues from Singapore, is that that training 00:18:54.035 --> 00:18:56.615 can't just be I'm training teachers. 00:18:56.615 --> 00:19:00.795 We found that we had to go into the classrooms and support teachers. 00:19:00.795 --> 00:19:02.415 We had to mentor. 00:19:02.415 --> 00:19:08.115 We had to have lots of opportunities for people to talk about their beliefs. 00:19:08.115 --> 00:19:09.635 Not in generalities. 00:19:09.635 --> 00:19:11.515 Let's get down to reality. 00:19:11.515 --> 00:19:15.395 Here's what we want to do, let's try and do it, it didn't work, let's try and figure out 00:19:15.404 --> 00:19:17.944 how to make it work. 00:19:17.944 --> 00:19:20.844 So you also need someone to manage the whole thing. 00:19:20.844 --> 00:19:22.704 If there's no one managing it centrally, 00:19:22.704 --> 00:19:26.744 it's going to be, you know, there's no head. 00:19:26.744 --> 00:19:28.764 It's collective irresponsibility. 00:19:28.764 --> 00:19:30.924 You need a management center. 00:19:30.924 --> 00:19:33.524 It's one of the things the Kazakhs have done very well with. 00:19:33.524 --> 00:19:36.884 It's one of the things in Estonia that was done very well. 00:19:36.884 --> 00:19:40.084 And it's one of the weaknesses of the Canadian programs. 00:19:40.084 --> 00:19:42.664 Everyone is inventing their own wheel. 00:19:42.664 --> 00:19:48.764 There is sharing, but you need some kind of centers of knowledge and management. 00:19:50.704 --> 00:19:58.124 Criteria for learning materials development, and all of these things work together, 00:19:58.444 --> 00:20:06.344 but it's the forces that fuel them, and that's how you're getting quality education coming out the other end of the machine, so to speak. 00:20:07.904 --> 00:20:12.064 And some of the, so driving forces, mechanisms, and counterweights. 00:20:12.064 --> 00:20:19.244 and briefly the counterweights are you if you're going to be researching your 00:20:19.244 --> 00:20:24.724 system don't just look at student achievement it'll throw the system out of 00:20:24.724 --> 00:20:29.164 kilter you need to be looking at how you're managing the program let's get 00:20:29.164 --> 00:20:33.904 some research on that let's get some research on how teacher professional 00:20:33.904 --> 00:20:37.944 development is taking place how school director professional development 00:20:37.933 --> 00:20:45.753 is taking place how methodologists how university training is taking place how 00:20:45.753 --> 00:20:53.173 learning materials are being developed on public relations research the your 00:20:53.173 --> 00:20:58.513 management body parent satisfaction student achievement in the long term I 00:20:58.513 --> 00:21:04.673 mean that's just some of the things you need to look at look for research on so 00:21:04.673 --> 00:21:10.653 you can have the knowledge to manage it. You can't measure it, you can't manage it. 00:21:11.813 --> 00:21:18.133 If you can measure it, you can do a much better job. Or if all you're doing is looking at student 00:21:18.133 --> 00:21:26.833 achievement, here's what's going to happen. Boing. That's going to come in. And that is going to 00:21:26.833 --> 00:21:33.753 cause you more trouble than you can think of. So you need counterweights. The reality is there 00:21:33.753 --> 00:21:39.273 high-stakes examinations in many areas I'm not saying they're bad things but 00:21:39.273 --> 00:21:45.993 they have been shown to cause certain difficulties we know from the research 00:21:45.993 --> 00:21:52.953 that the schools and where good pedagogy is at the focus of discussion they get 00:21:52.953 --> 00:21:56.793 better examination results so that's a counterweight 00:21:56.793 --> 00:22:00.473 you need plans like the ones on the back wall but you 00:22:00.462 --> 00:22:08.462 better be flexible enough to deal with emerging issues. You need teamwork but you need leadership. 00:22:08.462 --> 00:22:16.062 Somebody has to have some vision but you have to work together. So that's one sort of a model 00:22:16.062 --> 00:22:23.742 that I'm throwing out driving forces, mechanisms, and counterweights. But now let's move on to the 00:22:23.742 --> 00:22:30.062 cognitive benefits of bilingualism. Now one of the issues is that you actually need in-depth 00:22:30.062 --> 00:22:35.662 knowledge about a large number of things how to develop learning materials how to plan 00:22:38.302 --> 00:22:44.702 what is bilingualism but you also need to know about the cognitive benefits of bilingualism 00:22:45.422 --> 00:22:53.102 because if you cannot speak from the perspective of research then it's hard to lobby it's hard to 00:22:53.102 --> 00:22:59.342 convince it's hard to actually know should I do this or should I do that so 00:22:59.342 --> 00:23:06.902 what are some of these cognitive benefits of bilingualism now what I'm 00:23:06.902 --> 00:23:12.602 going to talk to you about is based on a literature review it was an extensive and 00:23:12.602 --> 00:23:20.042 massive literature review in the sense of with this team listed below led by 00:23:20.042 --> 00:23:22.982 David Marsh we try to 00:23:22.991 --> 00:23:27.211 We looked at everything that was written since about 1933. 00:23:28.531 --> 00:23:35.811 And we combed, in five languages, every single article that was a primary source. 00:23:37.971 --> 00:23:42.251 And that involved, first, identifying key terms. 00:23:42.831 --> 00:23:46.311 It's one of the issues, once again, we discussed with our Singaporean colleagues. 00:23:46.751 --> 00:23:48.451 You'd better define your terms. 00:23:48.951 --> 00:23:51.771 What is bilingualism? What do you mean by that? 00:23:51.771 --> 00:24:16.391 These are basics. So we looked at interdisciplinary sources from various disciplines. We did a research. We researched university library catalogs, of course. We put together the published articles. We had a peer review of the initial batch of published articles. 00:24:16.391 --> 00:24:20.091 articles, and we looked for source integrity. 00:24:20.091 --> 00:24:26.171 So we had several criteria to make sure whether a certain article was worth taking seriously, 00:24:26.171 --> 00:24:31.691 and we only looked at primary sources, people reporting on their own research. 00:24:31.691 --> 00:24:35.451 Then there was a secondary review of all of the articles. 00:24:35.451 --> 00:24:40.511 We pulled out key information into tables. 00:24:40.511 --> 00:24:45.511 Summaries were made of each article, key points, and that went into a peer review. 00:24:45.520 --> 00:24:53.140 review. So what I'm trying to say at the moment is it was a very thorough process of combing 00:24:53.140 --> 00:25:01.520 extensive literature. Now, before we go into that, because the brain, we're talking about the 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:11.220 cognitive benefits, I'd like to talk about the brain for a few minutes. So this 1.4 kilogram 00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:20.240 organ is the place where our intelligence lies. It interprets our senses. It is the command and 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:28.620 control center for people. Now, so the brain, it's part of the central nervous system. It's the primary 00:25:28.620 --> 00:25:35.560 receiver, organizer, and I should add processor, which isn't on that slide, processor and 00:25:35.560 --> 00:25:44.740 distributer of information. Now this is my interpretation of a neuron. Now 00:25:44.740 --> 00:25:49.120 it's the neurons are the primary building blocks of the brain. Now of 00:25:49.120 --> 00:26:02.000 course neurons don't wave and they don't have blinking eyes but one neuron can 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:08.040 connect with up to 10,000 other neurons in your brain. 00:26:08.048 --> 00:26:20.568 And in fact, there are more neuronal connections in one square centimeter of your brain than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy. 00:26:22.948 --> 00:26:29.508 This is going to be essential, in a sense, in this discussion about the cognitive benefits. 00:26:30.848 --> 00:26:37.768 So we could say that learning is both a social and a physical process. 00:26:38.048 --> 00:26:56.468 Learning is a physical process. Our brain changes as we learn. And we can continue to learn throughout our life and anyone's capacity to think can be improved dramatically. 00:26:56.468 --> 00:27:13.548 I'm not talking about that I'm capable of just getting a higher score on an examination or I can remember more, but your actual capacity to think can be dramatically improved by exercising the brain. 00:27:14.528 --> 00:27:23.448 So learning is a process by which the brain makes neuronal connections that act as information processing circuits and provide information storage. 00:27:23.448 --> 00:27:30.588 There are quite a few key quotes about this 00:27:30.577 --> 00:27:36.417 how we learn and one of them is that neurons that fire together wire together. 00:27:37.317 --> 00:27:39.677 Connections are what create meanings. 00:27:40.357 --> 00:27:47.497 Connections physically between neurons, as we said, one neuron can connect with up to 10,000 other neurons. 00:27:47.497 --> 00:27:53.477 It is those connections, when they're lasting and meaningful, that lead to learning. 00:27:54.117 --> 00:27:57.057 Connections of ideas lead to learning. 00:27:57.057 --> 00:28:05.057 For instance, we know when we read, write, speak, or listen that different areas of the brain light up. 00:28:05.057 --> 00:28:12.057 And in fact, when we use all four of those skills, which language teachers have always been doing, we're creating more connections. 00:28:12.057 --> 00:28:14.057 It's becoming more meaningful. 00:28:14.057 --> 00:28:18.057 So neurons that fire together wire together. 00:28:18.057 --> 00:28:23.057 So it's up to us to create as many connections and ideas as we can. 00:28:23.057 --> 00:28:26.057 And neurons that fire apart wire apart. 00:28:26.057 --> 00:28:34.197 part. Neurons that are out of sync, they fail to link. So teaching in silos is not a smart 00:28:34.197 --> 00:28:41.017 idea. Creating as many connections as we can is central, and that's part of the reason 00:28:41.017 --> 00:28:50.297 why bilinguals are at an advantage because they have created a more rich neural network. 00:28:50.297 --> 00:28:53.097 Here's how thinking is formed. 00:28:53.106 --> 00:28:56.806 There's a neurologist named Burton who says, imagine this. 00:28:57.806 --> 00:29:00.966 Imagine a gradual formation of a riverbed. 00:29:01.646 --> 00:29:03.586 Initially, the water flows any which way. 00:29:05.306 --> 00:29:06.766 There are no preferred routes. 00:29:06.946 --> 00:29:09.846 It's usually the route of least resistance. 00:29:11.326 --> 00:29:16.306 And then eventually, these creeks form together, and you get one mighty river. 00:29:16.306 --> 00:29:25.306 and once those patterns are set, I mean the brain is plastic, we can change it, 00:29:25.306 --> 00:29:29.086 but once those patterns are set, it's not easy. 00:29:30.586 --> 00:29:36.206 So consequently, there's a plastic paradox, which Doidge talks about, 00:29:36.826 --> 00:29:43.826 and so it's important for us to try to develop habits of thinking outside of the box, 00:29:43.826 --> 00:29:51.766 habits of lifelong learning, habits of critical thinking, habits of questioning our thinking patterns. 00:29:52.706 --> 00:29:58.326 Because, for instance, Hart et al., they've looked at how people make decisions. 00:29:58.326 --> 00:30:12.026 And, you know, we're twice as likely to hear and remember a fact that reinforces our current understandings than we are to even hear. 00:30:12.026 --> 00:30:15.626 Here. 00:30:15.635 --> 00:30:21.515 that is not in line with our current thinking. So imagine how difficult it is 00:30:21.515 --> 00:30:29.935 for us to actually absorb new ideas, to hear things from a different perspective. 00:30:29.935 --> 00:30:36.335 So the brain is plastic and that's so important because in education we need 00:30:36.335 --> 00:30:41.495 to get kids, young people to become autonomous learners, to try and always 00:30:41.495 --> 00:30:47.675 always question their thinking, to step outside of the box, to look at things from different perspectives. 00:30:49.955 --> 00:31:00.635 But now let's get to what we've learned or what the literature tells us about the cognitive benefits of bilingualism. 00:31:01.855 --> 00:31:10.275 Bilinguals are thought to have much greater control over their cognitive processes than monolinguals. 00:31:10.275 --> 00:31:17.275 Now the capacity to control one's thinking is called executive function, 00:31:17.275 --> 00:31:19.575 just like you're the executive of a company. 00:31:19.575 --> 00:31:25.795 If you're a bilingual, it is thought that you have greater control, 00:31:25.795 --> 00:31:27.995 you have better executive function. 00:31:27.995 --> 00:31:35.495 It allows, improved executive function is thought to help bilinguals 00:31:35.495 --> 00:31:38.175 to better focus their attention. 00:31:38.164 --> 00:31:42.104 and gives them improved problem-solving skills. 00:31:42.804 --> 00:31:48.044 And this from an earlier age through to a later point in life. 00:31:49.124 --> 00:31:56.964 And it is thought that this is because they develop this massed practice of using two language 00:31:56.964 --> 00:32:02.884 develops more durable wiring because it's a physical process learning. 00:32:02.884 --> 00:32:07.364 So there are more neuronal connections, better wiring in the mind. 00:32:08.164 --> 00:32:15.384 And Bielostock, who is one of the leading thinkers in this field and researchers, says the following. 00:32:16.324 --> 00:32:21.124 The executive functions are basic to all cognitive life. 00:32:21.984 --> 00:32:30.344 They control attention, determine planning and organization, and inhibit inappropriate responding. 00:32:31.824 --> 00:32:34.804 Now, bilinguals have an advantage, apparently. 00:32:34.804 --> 00:32:42.704 they have greater control, their executive function, they have greater control over their thinking. 00:32:43.464 --> 00:32:49.464 These executive functions are recruited by bilinguals to control the attention of two languages 00:32:49.464 --> 00:32:53.484 in order to maintain fluent performance in one or the other. 00:32:54.384 --> 00:33:00.684 The massive practice, according to Bielestock, that is involved in the application leads to the hypothesis 00:33:00.693 --> 00:33:10.073 hypothesis that these processes are bolstered for bilinguals, creating systems that are more durable, more efficient, and more resilient. 00:33:11.213 --> 00:33:18.953 Thus, for bilinguals, control over the executive functions develops earlier in childhood and declines later in life. 00:33:20.413 --> 00:33:28.833 Imagine that. You're better at giving attention to planning, to organization, and you can inhibit inappropriate behavior. 00:33:28.833 --> 00:33:46.473 So there's one huge, huge benefit. And it's an important aspect here is being able to decide which information is worthy of attention and which information is not. 00:33:46.473 --> 00:33:50.473 We're constantly being bombarded by information. 00:33:50.473 --> 00:33:53.473 It is getting worse by the minute. 00:33:53.473 --> 00:33:58.473 We don't get, I don't know about you, but basically with all of these devices, 00:33:58.473 --> 00:34:03.473 I certainly have had to learn to manage myself better, turn them off at times. 00:34:03.473 --> 00:34:10.473 People seem to be able to find you, get you anywhere, and news keeps coming in all the time. 00:34:10.473 --> 00:34:23.233 In fact, someone at Harvard University, Cotter, who works in the business school, they've looked at research that says we are hit by 10,000 people. 00:34:23.222 --> 00:34:31.742 various requests, messages, demands placed on us a week. That's 520,000 of them a year. 00:34:32.542 --> 00:34:38.682 Just try and stay focused. It's not easy. So executive function, there's a lot to be said for 00:34:38.682 --> 00:34:49.862 it. Apparently bilinguals can better decide what to concentrate on. So McLean, for instance, 00:34:49.862 --> 00:34:57.242 found that when monolingual and bilingual subjects were presented with complex tasks, 00:34:57.242 --> 00:34:59.142 bilinguals had an advantage. 00:34:59.142 --> 00:35:07.482 The distracting influences confused the monolinguals in his research, whereas the bilinguals were 00:35:07.482 --> 00:35:14.582 more able to resist distractions of irrelevant information in determining they were able 00:35:14.582 --> 00:35:20.562 to better determine topological sameness. 00:35:20.762 --> 00:35:24.882 So when that information came in, they were better able to choose what was appropriate 00:35:24.882 --> 00:35:26.582 and useful information. 00:35:32.582 --> 00:35:42.562 So Colzato et al. also concluded that bilinguals can maintain a focus on goals better than 00:35:42.562 --> 00:35:45.742 monolinguals when they're bombarded with extra 00:35:45.750 --> 00:35:52.990 information and that once again in this modern day age is really important now about one of the 00:35:52.990 --> 00:35:59.070 questions that somebody asked me last night was but what are we are we just talking about a select 00:35:59.070 --> 00:36:05.670 group of people here are we talking about the elite well let me give you one example Carlson 00:36:05.670 --> 00:36:13.050 and Meltzoff looked at kindergarten children and looked at Spanish English bilinguals that were 00:36:13.050 --> 00:36:19.550 bilingual basically from the start. They spoke both languages immediately, being in an English 00:36:19.550 --> 00:36:25.430 environment and in a Spanish-speaking home, and they compared those children to children who were 00:36:25.430 --> 00:36:31.590 learning Spanish in a bilingual program and those that were English speakers who were learning 00:36:31.590 --> 00:36:38.570 Japanese. And what were the results? Well, after statistically controlling for a large number of 00:36:38.570 --> 00:36:46.550 factors, native bilingual children perform significantly better on executive 00:36:46.550 --> 00:36:54.410 function tests than both other groups. And what's key here is the Spanish-speaking 00:36:54.410 --> 00:36:59.630 children would have come from socially disadvantaged homes in general. There 00:36:59.630 --> 00:37:03.770 would have been less time spent by parents reading to them, the parents' 00:37:03.770 --> 00:37:08.270 income levels would have been lower, the parents' educational levels would have been 00:37:08.279 --> 00:37:15.279 if they performed better, which means that with less you can do more. 00:37:15.279 --> 00:37:20.279 So bilingualism in a sense really offers a great deal. 00:37:20.279 --> 00:37:26.279 So you have enhanced control over the thought processes, 00:37:26.279 --> 00:37:31.279 one can better ignore distracting and irrelevant information. 00:37:31.279 --> 00:37:38.219 information. 00:37:38.219 --> 00:37:40.219 The flexible mind. 00:37:40.219 --> 00:37:47.199 I mean, these are artificial categories we've created here, but I think they're worth taking 00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:49.879 a look at. 00:37:49.879 --> 00:37:56.319 Well, first of all, there are quite a few people that would say that the mind is flexible, 00:37:56.319 --> 00:38:05.399 the sense that it's more like a muscle. Doidge, Dweck and others would say that the mind is more 00:38:05.399 --> 00:38:13.179 like a muscle. In fact, we know that the corpus callosum, the piece that joins the two hemispheres 00:38:13.179 --> 00:38:24.439 is thicker in bilinguals. We don't always know what these things mean, but what we do know is 00:38:24.439 --> 00:38:30.819 that the brain of a bilingual is different from the brain of a monolingual. Now we don't have time 00:38:30.808 --> 00:38:34.428 to go into this today but we could also for instance now they've started to do 00:38:34.428 --> 00:38:39.388 studies of looking at early bilinguals those that have learned in teenage years 00:38:39.388 --> 00:38:44.968 and late bilinguals and we don't I I'm certainly not a neurologist I should say 00:38:44.968 --> 00:38:50.308 that straight out my expertise is in managing and and pedagogy how to set up 00:38:50.308 --> 00:38:54.748 bilingual or trilingual programs how to manage them and what is quality teaching 00:38:54.748 --> 00:39:04.628 But I felt that we had to go into this simply because to convince other people we needed this knowledge. 00:39:07.628 --> 00:39:18.508 So the brain, we know that bilingual learning and use can have a profound effect on brain structures, according to Coggins et al. 00:39:24.748 --> 00:39:32.388 So Singleton and Aronen have stated the following. 00:39:32.388 --> 00:39:38.228 We note that multilinguals have a more extensive range of affordances available to them 00:39:38.228 --> 00:39:41.168 than other language users. 00:39:41.768 --> 00:39:46.308 And they argue that their experience as multilinguals provides them 00:39:46.308 --> 00:39:49.848 with especially favorable conditions to develop awareness 00:39:50.108 --> 00:39:53.348 of the social and cognitive possibilities. 00:39:53.337 --> 00:39:59.577 So in fact, they develop which their situation affords them. 00:39:59.577 --> 00:40:05.137 So in fact, it is thought that a bilingual is much more than just one plus one, 00:40:05.137 --> 00:40:10.337 that it provides you with additional competencies. 00:40:10.337 --> 00:40:21.837 And this is Cook that has talked about this and refers to it as multi-competence. 00:40:21.837 --> 00:40:33.837 The interpersonal mind. Bilingues are more likely to be sensitive towards context. 00:40:37.837 --> 00:40:50.837 And that pays off in many ways. That means that when they're solving math problems in school, they're used to stepping back for a moment and saying, wait a minute, what did that actually mean? 00:40:50.837 --> 00:41:00.837 So this is not just useful in intercultural dialogue, but it's generally speaking useful in learning. 00:41:00.837 --> 00:41:10.837 So for instance, this seems to help students to solve word problems. 00:41:10.837 --> 00:41:15.857 So according to Moore, the bilingual or pluralingual child, 00:41:15.866 --> 00:41:21.866 favorable contexts do not hesitate to use all language resources at their disposal, 00:41:21.866 --> 00:41:28.066 individually and collectively. They're more open to variation, they show greater flexibility 00:41:28.066 --> 00:41:34.426 in adapting to new linguistic systems, and such orientations seem to relate to greater 00:41:34.426 --> 00:41:41.266 awareness of language patterns and more efficient strategic use of the resources at hand. 00:41:41.266 --> 00:41:48.226 Basically, it's about critical awareness, analysis, and control, and this can be viewed as a kind of a type of competence. 00:41:49.146 --> 00:41:55.426 It enables the person to have specific types of ability to handle language dynamics and communication. 00:41:56.286 --> 00:42:02.766 Now, once again, speaking about, we're talking here about the interpersonal mind, intercultural communication. 00:42:02.766 --> 00:42:09.206 Here's another definition that actually people need to decide what does this mean? 00:42:09.206 --> 00:42:22.446 And fortunately there's Condellier who with the European Center for Modern Languages has actually developed a whole framework of what all of these attitudes, skills and knowledge are. 00:42:22.446 --> 00:42:29.126 I'm a firm believer in frameworks, just what is intercultural communication and competence. 00:42:29.126 --> 00:42:38.386 So basically we know that bilinguals tend to have greater capacity for sensitivity. 00:42:38.395 --> 00:42:55.895 They've developed interactional competence in communication. They read body language better. They're capable of suspending hope. I'm generalizing always. I mean, there are no absolutes in the world, right? 00:42:55.895 --> 00:43:04.595 but in general are more capable of suspending judgment for a moment, to wait, to hear. 00:43:09.255 --> 00:43:17.655 And there's a suggestion that they have a greater potential for creativity through social communication. 00:43:18.455 --> 00:43:21.595 Once again, there are no absolutes. 00:43:21.595 --> 00:43:26.835 This research is suggesting that this appears to be true. 00:43:27.235 --> 00:43:32.855 Even if you've done 20 studies, it doesn't mean that we always know that it's always 100%. 00:43:32.855 --> 00:43:36.455 But it appears that this is the case. 00:43:38.775 --> 00:43:40.475 The metalinguistic mind. 00:43:40.955 --> 00:43:45.575 Well, I see I'm having difficulty in meeting my timelines, right? 00:43:45.695 --> 00:43:47.175 How much do I have? 00:43:47.175 --> 00:43:51.935 I think we have another five minutes. 00:43:51.935 --> 00:43:52.935 Five minutes? 00:43:52.935 --> 00:43:53.935 Okay. 00:43:53.935 --> 00:44:00.935 Then I'm going to, I think, make less references to actual studies and just cover the points. 00:44:00.924 --> 00:44:16.764 Metalinguistic mind. Metalinguistic means I can step back and look at language. I can analyze the way it is used. Bilingues have a greater awareness of languages as a tool for thinking and communication. 00:44:16.764 --> 00:44:37.824 For instance, we know that even young children are able to tell bilinguals, able to tell earlier that people may be stretching the truth, that they need to listen hard and that what is being said might not exactly be true. 00:44:37.824 --> 00:44:44.384 So they have a greater understanding of how language is used to achieve specific goals. 00:44:44.804 --> 00:44:47.064 Exceptionally important strength. 00:44:49.364 --> 00:44:52.684 They understand that words can have more than one meaning. 00:44:53.204 --> 00:44:57.284 They're better at identifying ambiguity and subtext in communication. 00:44:58.464 --> 00:45:02.564 And it's about languages to learn and learning to use languages. 00:45:02.564 --> 00:45:09.564 I mean, the more languages I have, the more I can go and look at something from a different 00:45:09.564 --> 00:45:10.704 perspective. 00:45:10.704 --> 00:45:16.004 The more aware I am of how language is used, the more I can look at that math problem and 00:45:16.004 --> 00:45:23.444 say, now wait a minute, what do they really mean here? 00:45:23.453 --> 00:45:30.413 here's a very important aspect the learning mind in a sense and that is that those of us who are 00:45:30.413 --> 00:45:42.113 bilingual or multilingual it appears that we have some we have some opportunities to to improve we 00:45:42.113 --> 00:45:48.353 may be slightly more capable at learning and why is that well there are several researchers who 00:45:48.353 --> 00:45:55.613 have looked at memory and they found that bilinguals have improved episodic 00:45:55.613 --> 00:46:03.833 memory. Episodic memory is about episodes. It's about what, when, where and it's 00:46:03.833 --> 00:46:09.613 important to have that. Improved semantic memory about the how. Now memory is 00:46:09.613 --> 00:46:14.993 central to the learning process in general. I mean we have to hold a certain 00:46:14.993 --> 00:46:22.513 number of things in our short and medium term memory so we can analyze them we can talk about 00:46:22.513 --> 00:46:33.273 them etc so if a bilingual or trilingual has improved memory they probably have extra resources 00:46:33.273 --> 00:46:42.173 to learn in general that should have an impact on learning all the way around so there is I mean 00:46:42.173 --> 00:46:44.813 I mean, often we face this in Estonia and in Canada, 00:46:44.813 --> 00:46:45.973 I've heard the same thing. 00:46:45.981 --> 00:46:50.141 that, well, my goodness, you're trying to get these children to do so much more, 00:46:50.541 --> 00:46:53.421 and you're doing it through two languages or three. 00:46:53.541 --> 00:46:55.541 How can you possibly get it done? 00:46:56.281 --> 00:46:58.781 Well, it's through good pedagogy, 00:46:59.041 --> 00:47:04.361 and it's by some of these advantages that can be relied upon. 00:47:04.801 --> 00:47:07.361 I think Amy will be speaking about these things more, 00:47:07.501 --> 00:47:10.501 but, I mean, we only learn to read once, in a way. 00:47:10.601 --> 00:47:12.501 We can transfer a lot of skills. 00:47:12.501 --> 00:47:31.741 But perhaps one of the more exciting ones is the aging mind and Bielestock has looked at a relatively large group of people speaking a large number of languages and what has she found? 00:47:31.741 --> 00:47:34.321 and they have controlled for quite a few things. 00:47:34.461 --> 00:47:41.421 They've controlled for age, gender, socioeconomic background, education, etc. 00:47:42.681 --> 00:47:48.121 Meaning the results were the same for all of these groups. 00:47:48.981 --> 00:47:58.241 And they found that bilinguals were able to stave off the negative effects of dementia for basically four years. 00:47:58.241 --> 00:48:03.741 That does not mean that the disease or pathology is not present in the brain, 00:48:03.741 --> 00:48:08.501 but they are speculating that because the brain of a biologist 00:48:08.510 --> 00:48:15.370 bilingual is hardwired in a different way. It may have more robust neural networks. 00:48:16.110 --> 00:48:23.570 You know, it's just like the national grid, electric grid. If it's a robust grid and you have a power outage here, 00:48:24.050 --> 00:48:30.270 if it's a good grid, you can get power to the homes over here through a different route. 00:48:30.270 --> 00:48:40.670 and in fact that appears to be the case for bilinguals that they are able to bypass the pathology that is in the brain 00:48:40.670 --> 00:48:45.390 and continue to function for an extra four years. 00:48:45.390 --> 00:48:47.270 Now think of what that means. 00:48:47.890 --> 00:48:54.490 An extra four years of having family, I can continue to live with one of those aging people, 00:48:54.890 --> 00:48:59.690 I can hopefully have an extra four years being mentally active, 00:49:00.270 --> 00:49:09.950 It means hopefully that if I live that long, it'll be an extra four years before someone sticks me in a home at a great cost. 00:49:11.110 --> 00:49:17.250 For instance, there's an Alzheimer's Disease International report that came out in 2010, 00:49:18.190 --> 00:49:26.850 and it said that the cost of Alzheimer's to the world economy is $604 billion US annually. 00:49:26.850 --> 00:49:31.030 Can I imagine if you can stave off the negative effect 00:49:31.039 --> 00:49:37.219 for four years, the savings will be incredible. Now a lot of the world is 00:49:37.219 --> 00:49:41.359 bilingual, I mean it's normal to be bilingual. I'll bet most of you in this 00:49:41.359 --> 00:49:45.259 room are bilingual or trilingual or quadrilingual. I mean in the Estonian 00:49:45.259 --> 00:49:49.699 context it's quite normal to be trilingual and if you want to be 00:49:49.699 --> 00:49:54.799 competitive you better be quadrilingual. You need Estonian, Russian, 00:49:54.799 --> 00:50:00.199 Finnish because the Finns we have the closest economic relationships with them 00:50:00.199 --> 00:50:06.019 and English that that's become minimum and everyone considers it simply natural 00:50:06.019 --> 00:50:11.659 that's what you need so there are a tremendous number of potential benefits 00:50:11.659 --> 00:50:17.719 the list goes on and on and on maybe I can even find some more material that we 00:50:17.719 --> 00:50:23.719 can upload later on but certainly there's a paper in your that in your 00:50:23.719 --> 00:50:29.839 folder and in that folder there are a lot of the references to what I to the 00:50:29.839 --> 00:50:35.439 sources from which I drew these statements. 00:50:35.439 --> 00:50:36.839 I thank you.