Daily Excerpt: Teaching and Learning to Near-Native Levels of Language Proficiency, Conference Proceedings, Keynote by HRH Prince Firas bin Raad of Jordan

excerpt from Teaching and Learning to Near Native Levels of Language Learning III (Dubinsky and Butler) 

Introduction of Keynote Speaker,
HRH Prince Firas bin Raad of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,

by Betty Lou Leaver, Executive Director, CDLC

 

            Because I have been a resident of the extraordinary Kingdom of Jordan since January 2004, it is a singular pleasure and honor to introduce our very special keynote speaker, His Royal Highness Prince Firas bin Raad of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. His biography and international and cross-cultural experiences coincide very much with the international orientation of our audience today. Let me give you a few examples:

 

(1) He was born in Amman, Jordan, attended boarding school in New Hampshire, earned a BA in economics and public health in 1991 from John Hopkins University, an MA in international studies in 1993 from the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins, and a Master of Public Health in 1997 from Harvard University, and is currently completing a doctorate in public health, also from Harvard.

 

(2) He has worked for UNICEF and the Ministry of Health in Amman, as well as serving for three years as private secretary to His Majesty for health affairs.

 

(3) He has served as patron, director, and member of many social welfare organizations, including the King Hussein Foundation, the National Council for the Welfare of the Disabled, Jordan National Cleaner Production Program, Middle East Association for the Management of Hearing Loss, Palestine Hospital, and the Jordan-Swedish Medical Association, among a number of others.

 

(4) He has been a Fulbrighter and was awarded the Middle East Fellowship by the Middle East Institute for Social and Economic Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the African Studies Department Fellowship at SAIS.

 

(5) He has authored two monographs, has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Europe, North America, and the Far-East Asia, currently works for the World Bank, and speaks Arabic, English and French.

 

            Please join me in welcoming our keynote speaker, His Royal Highness, Prince Firas bin Raad of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

 

 

Keynote Address

HRH Prince Firas bin Raad

of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

 

 

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

            Allow me at the outset to say what a privilege it is to be here at this Symposium and to partake in some of its deliberations. Indeed, I hope my participation rises to the level of “native-like” proficiency, but given the hour of the day and my somewhat discombobulated disposition, there are no guarantees. I do want to thank the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers and the American Councils for International Education for this kind invitation, and I do want to acknowledge the involvement of the Jordan Consortium for Distinguished Language Studies. It is always heartening to observe this kind of involvement from institutions back home, and I pay tribute to their transatlantic engagement on these issues. Lastly, on this day of fasting, I say to my fellow Muslims one and all who may be here today, Ramadan Mubarak.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

            When one looks around the world today, it is fascinating to contemplate the full richness of our human-to-human forms of communication; a total of 6,809 distinct languages exist according to Ethnologue, an organization dedicated to language development. These languages are divided into 250 different families and are distributed between 228 some countries of the world with 230 languages spoken in Europe and 2197 in Asia. Indeed, in Papua, New Guinea alone, there exists upward of 870 separate languages, with most children growing up learning to speak and read multi-lingually. Out of these living and slowly dying languages, only a few are considered as important “link languages”—those languages that provide entry into a broad set of civilizations and cultures. These languages could include Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Malay, Hindi, French, English, Bengali, Arabic and Turkish.

            Against the very texture of this rich backdrop, there are several obviously important reasons to promote the learning and teaching of languages to nativelike levels of proficiency, i.e. promoting bi- or multi-lingualism and supporting educational programs dedicated to those ends.

            One immediate reason is economic and developmental in nature. A vast literature exists on the connections between educational attainment and economic growth and well-being. This literature, more or less, at the macro-economic level, confirms the positive connection between the level of economic development and the existing stock of formally schooled human capital. What is less certain, however, as an aside, is what type and what level of schooling really matters for economic growth. This issue aside, what is also quite clear is the positive impact of bilingualism on overall cognitive and professional development of school attending children and youth.

            The benefits of bilingualism have been analyzed and enumerated in many research settings. Many findings point to the accrued communication, cognitive, emotional and professional benefits resulting from a bi-lingual education. As one academic recently put it: "The very fact that you can think in more than one code makes you more flexible intellectually, more stable emotionally, more cautious politically." On the accrued economic benefits, for example, a recent article in the Review of Economics and Statistics revealed a 2 to 3 percent wage premium for those who could communicate in a second language over those who could not—clearly a second or third language in a student’s quiver is a positive asset in the global marketplace, a marketplace becoming increasingly more and more integrated.

            What is important to remember, however, is the first language. Mastering a mother tongue is very important as a cognitive pre-requisite to effectively learning another and possibly a third language. Robert Tucker, a professor from Carnegie Mellon, phrased it this way: “the best predictor of cognitive/academic language development in a second language is the level of development of cognitive/academic language proficiency in the first language.” What should be avoided is the “jack of several languages and master of none” situation. Very good schooling in one will allow others to follow and be absorbed in a more structured way.

            Another important reason to promote the learning and teaching of languages to nativelike levels of proficiency relates to the cultural/political dimension. There is a great need to continuously and consciously universalize common values across cultures, bringing states and societies closer together, knitting them together in a network of core common beliefs in addition to a globalizing network of economic interests and benefits. In our post 9/11 world, this type of orientation is all the more critical. Opening up the cultural interchange and traffic between societies can allow moderating bridge builders to help bridge the gap between the publics of the developed and developing countries, particularly in the United States and the states of the Arab world. This type of outlook should help shift the focus from a public diplomacy frame of mind (centered on media outlets like Al Hurra and Sawa) to one focused on the notion of cultural diplomacy, which would allow for a more effective interchange of ideas.

            The key to such an interchange, naturally, is language. For through it, one peers into the soul of a given culture. After attaining proficiency and fluency, one can delve into the numerous cultural expressions of the language—the poems, the songs, the short-stories, the idioms. All of these allow for a much closer understanding of the inner-workings of a given culture or sub-cultures within an existing society.

            On a personal note, following Oslo I and the Wadi Araba agreement between Israel and Jordan, I was encouraged to see a greater interest by Jordanians in learning more about Hebrew and Israeli culture. A few language and research centers started offering Hebrew courses and initiated research projects into Israeli politics. This type of learning, in my mind, allows for a truer image of the “other,” appreciating his of her historical narrative, and opens up a common ground for militant moderates to move together across the existing divide. In fact, this type of human-to-human activity among Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians is still ongoing despite the always difficult circumstances.

            A remaining reason to support bilingualism, independent of the economic and cultural/political dimensions, relates to personal fulfilment. Instilling the joy of reading and the love for languages and literature opens up great horizons for children and youth around the world. Living among books or living in the past, especially those concerned with other peoples and cultures, can always trigger an inquisitive and creative mind. I well remember my own experience, travelling at the age of 14, to a secondary school here in the U.S. After arriving, I became enthralled with novels from Western literature (For Whom the Bell Tolls was a particular favourite), and as the years passed, my Jordanian English grew stronger and turned into American English. My brothers learned the Queen’s English and the difference at times could not have been starker. It reminded me of George Bernard Shaw’s saying that “England and America are two similar countries divided by a common language.”

            Ladies and Gentlemen,

            I thank you, once again, for giving me this honor to address you, and I do wish you a very successful symposium and say to you all, particularly to Dr. Jerry Lampe, salam, peace, on this Saturday morning. Thank you.

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