Flag for autism rights (Image credit: Deviantart)

In this post written for autism acceptance month, autistic anthropologist Gerald Roche discusses connections between the communication styles and life expectancy of autistic people, and encourages sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists, and applied linguists to help work towards a better life for autistic people. 

Content warning: This post discusses suicide, sexual and physical violence, discrimination, and negative attitudes about autistic people. If you are in Australia and find this post distressing, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online. Lifeline offers language support services. For non-urgent information about autism, call the Australian national autism helpline on 1300 308 699.

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Hi I’m simply dying to speak to you! I have so much I want to tell you about being autistic because I’ve learned so much since I found out that I’m autistic. I’d love to tell you everything I know but that would probably take too long, so let me just tell you one thing about being autistic. Let me tell you why I went online and searched up “autism life expectancy” soon after I was diagnosed.    

Around that time, I’d just published an article examining how linguistic minoritization reduces life expectancy. To write that article, I’d been reading across literatures in the anthropology of violence, genocide studies, and critical public health for several years, learning about how different minoritized populations are subject to structural violence that produces a ‘slow death’ and reduces their chances of living a long, healthy life. This creates ‘death gaps’ in the social fabric, where the ultimate benefits of privilege are additional years of existence. So when I found out that I was autistic, I had a sense that I might be living in a death gap. And I was right. 

Autistic people in Australia, where I live, have a life expectancy 20 years below the national average. Similar findings have been produced elsewhere. Studies from the UK, USA, and Sweden all show that autistic people die alarmingly early. A recent study in The Lancet has suggested that the ‘death gap’ might be closer to 7 years, showing that the figures are still being debated. But, the pattern of severely reduced life expectancy seems clear. Why is this, and what does it have to do with language?      

First, it’s important to understand that differences in communication styles and preferences are central to how autistic people experience the world. Whilst autistic people don’t speak a different language from allistic (non-autistic) people, our communicative practices are vastly different from those of allistic people. The differences are found across multiple areas of language, including acquisition, gesture, pragmatics, lexicon, and preferred modalities. Failure to acknowledge, accept, and accommodate these communicative differences plays a crucial role in reducing autistic life expectancy. 

The most direct connection between autistic communication and premature death relates to health communication. Autistic people experience increased rates of multiple chronic health conditions, including physical health problems across all organ systems, as well as increased rates of multiple mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. The impacts of all these health conditions is multiplied by failures to accommodate autistic communicative styles and preferences in healthcare settings. For example, one study from 2022 found that many autistic people struggle to make doctors’ appointments by phone (we generally have a strong preference against using phones), and then experience difficulties communicating with doctors, often feeling misunderstood. A 2023 study from Australia found that autistic people frequently felt that healthcare providers did not take their concerns seriously. These communication issues potentially result in delayed treatment, undiagnosed conditions, misdiagnosis, healthcare avoidance, and other problems that lead to poor health.  

Beyond issues of health communication, there are also more diffuse links between communication and the premature death of autistic people. To understand these, we need to think about autistic people as a minority group who experience “exclusion due to discrimination, stigma, and their perceived inferiority.” Since communication is part of what makes us different, it is also part of what makes autistic people vulnerable as a minority. 

Like other minoritized groups, autistic people experience personal and systemic discrimination from the dominant population. The press typically reports negatively on autistic people. Derogatory views of autistic people circulate openly online. Allistic people find us to be deceptive and lacking credibility, in part because of our ‘low quality and inaccurate’ facial expressions. They judge us as less likable, trustworthy, and attractive than allistic peers, and have reduced interest in pursuing social interactions with us. Even when allistic people express explicit positive views of autistic people, psychological testing shows that their behavior is guided more by their implicit negative views. Exposure to such bias and stigma is ‘constant’ for autistic people.

Rather than simply experiencing bias and stigma in the abstract, they manifest in our lives as violence. This begins in childhood, with autistic children experiencing much higher rates of multiple forms of violence than their allistic peers. This continues into adulthood, with autistic people experiencing higher rates of several forms of violence, including sexual harassment, stalking and harassment, sexual violence and physical violence, producing a condition known as poly-victimization. One recent study found that 99.6% of autistic adults had experienced at least one form of violence. Autistic women suffer disproportionately: in one study, nine out of ten autistic women reported being victims of sexual violence. Surrounded and overwhelmed by this violence, many autistic people normalize it as an inevitable part of our life, and even blame ourselves for it. 

Allistic people are able to target us for discrimination and violence in part because our communicative difference makes us visible to them. Perhaps not surprisingly then, many autistic people engage in ‘masking’ or ‘camouflaging’ – suppressing visible signs of autism, such as stimming, and changing our communicative practices to be more acceptable to allistics. However, this only defers the direct and immediate harm of allistic discrimination and violence. In the long term, masking is bad for our mental health, leading to higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as lower self-esteem. It also contributes to autistic burnout, a debilitating condition characterized by “exhaustion, withdrawal, executive function problems and generally reduced functioning.” 

Masking, discrimination, and violence accumulate in a form of ‘minority stress’ in autistic people that results in “diminished well-being and heightened psychological distress.” In research carried out with other minoritized populations, the impact of such chronic stress on the body has been described as a ‘weathering’ that reduces overall immune function and leads to higher incidence and severity of disease. Chronic discrimination and violence thus harm autistic people both physiologically and psychologically. 

But perhaps the most distressing and tragic impact of this violence and discrimination is autistic people’s increased risk of suicide. Numerous studies show that autistic people are more likely to think about, attempt, and commit suicide; a 2023 meta-review of this literature concluded that “suicidality is highly prevalent” in the autistic population.

When I look at all this information as an autistic person, even though I’ve only learnt the statistics recently, none of it is particularly surprising. It more or less accords with my own lived experience. However, when I look at this information as a researcher, I am surprised: not so much by the information itself, but by who produced it and how. 

We are looking here at a population that is minoritized, in part, because of communicative differences. They are then subjected to discrimination and violence, with tragic outcomes. Despite the centrality of language to this situation, research in this area is led primarily by psychologists, with some speech therapists, a few sociologists, and the occasional anthropologist. The cluster of allied disciplines that look at language and communication in relation to social justice, including applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and sociolinguistics, have so far had very little to say about this issue. 

It’s clear to me that our disciplines have a significant contribution to make here. We collectively know so much about the harms of language: slurs, labels, insults, jokes, and insidious discourses. We pay attention to the maldistribution of respect and resources to different language communities. We study how minoritization is produced and reproduced in everyday institutions, like schools, and how it enters into the most banal and intimate spaces and relations. We think carefully about how policy and practice stratify, exclude, and harm through and on the basis of language. And we also have plenty of ideas about what justice looks like, and the languages it uses. It therefore seems to me that we have an important part to play in conversations about what it really means to accept autistic people, and how to go about doing it. As a researcher, I know that we can, and as an autistic person, I hope that we will. Because right now, I’m dying to speak to you, and I wish that I wasn’t.    

First up is Tazin Abdullah’s inquiry into COVID-19 information aimed at international students in intensive English courses in Australia. Access to timely high-quality information is key during any crisis and it is widely acknowledged that English language learners in Australia have often been left out of timely high-quality information. But is there such a thing as too much information and does quantity compromise quality?

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(Image credit: Kristina Tripkovic via Unsplash)

“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant,” says Mitchell Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation. He may have, originally, addressed this to fellow IT professionals but that image of information gushing out strikes a chord with many. It rings especially true in the context of COVID-19, where the transmission of information has been the modus operandi for almost every institution. Today, none of us can envisage functioning without a steady flow of information but in some situations, does it drown in itself?

ELICOS students in Australia

Take, for example, the case of ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) students. ELICOS courses are offered by Australian universities to enable international students to fulfill English language requirements for university entry. The students have stringent visa conditions regarding attendance and academic progress. They must pass their courses, as failure to pass means they have to repeat that same ELICOS course, while their university entry is delayed.

Formal requirements are only part of the story

While all these formal requirements are outlined in black and white, the everyday challenges facing ELICOS students may not be so apparent. These students face the same challenges that have been identified for international students and language learners in other contexts (Piller, 2016; Barakos & Plöger, 2020; Li, Xie, Ai, & Li, 2020).

During their time in Australia, they are engaged in the process of getting their head around a new language. At the same time, they must read and write academically in that new language and sit examinations that test their language skills in relation to specific subject matters, e.g., accounting or current affairs.

The challenges of being a newcomer

Now, add one more layer to this complexity. They are in a new country, interacting with previously unknown systems, and in unfamiliar socio-cultural contexts. Consequently, ELICOS students must decipher all sorts of important and relevant non-academic information. In a new country, they must find out who to call in an emergency or how to go to a doctor. To do these things effectively, they must not only be able to read information but also to locate it.

Teaching institutes are legally required to provide information

This necessitates legislative frameworks such as the Australian ESOS (Education Services for Overseas Students) Act, under which ELICOS institutions carry the responsibility of making adequate support and welfare information available to students. Students must know where to find emergency, medical, mental health, accommodation, health insurance services, and more. The aim is to ensure that they have access to all kinds of information relating to living and operating in a new country. Given the linguistic difficulties that ELICOS students face, the effective communication of all of this requires great effort, even without COVID-19.

With the onset of the pandemic, this communication challenge took on a whole new dimension.

Providing orientation information online

As institutions moved online, the provision of support information also relied entirely on online mechanisms (Behan, 2020). One of the changes that has taken place is that orientation programmes have become virtual. They take place via the Zoom format of presenters speaking and sharing slides with links, contact details and videos. Students are being sent emails, also full of links and contact details for support services. At the same time, students are receiving voluminous emails regarding academic matters.

To observe the impact of these changes, it is useful to examine online orientations in contrast to pre-COVID-19 face-to-face orientations. Orientations always involve the provision of multiple links and contact details but the face-to-face format allows presenters to address the specific linguistic needs of ELICOS students.

For example, prior to providing contact details for mental health support, there would be an explanation of what mental health is. This will usually involve interactive games or activities that arouse the interest and hold the attention of students. Once an ELICOS student understands what mental health is and can contextualise the language around the subject, contact details for mental health support will mean more than just letters and numbers on a slide.

Face-to-face orientations are also structured to provide a large amount of information at a pace suitable to ELICOS students. In contrast, online orientations are compressed into shorter time frames. This includes all the usual support information plus specific direction regarding COVID-19, but minus the interactive activities that help a student contextualise and understand that information.

Drowning in emails

Then, there are emails. The volume of pandemic-time emails has inundated inboxes, with students feeling like they are drowning in a sea of information. In a survey I conducted at the Macquarie University English Language Centre (see also Abdullah, 2020), students lamented that they find it difficult to look at inboxes and distinguish where each email has come from.

When they open emails, they are confused by the number of email addresses and the variety of links to go to for information. Consequently, students skim to find what they regard as essential, e.g., the how to enrol or pay fees and they overlook information about support services.

Drawing attention to support services

So, how can support and welfare information attract the attention of ELICOS students? Student attention is already scattered over several online platforms and digital multi-tasking can reduce effective reception of information (May & Elder, 2018). As students are digitally multi-tasking at unprecedented levels, students themselves suggested being innovative with online communication tools.

For instance, GIFs and memes can be used to promote support services or provide contact details. Another idea is to use short animated videos that demand less time from viewers and also deal with each aspect of welfare at a time. These videos can be played at different times throughout the length of ELICOS courses, so students can be reminded gently of the support available.

Listen to the target community

This input from students that was provided in the survey is a meaningful reminder of the valuable contribution the target community itself can make (Carlo, 2020). Not only can they assist by highlighting their specific literacy needs but the ‘grassroots’ knowledge they possess will inform the design of communication that is most effective for them (Piller, Jia & Zhang, 2020).

Developing a base of community volunteers (Piller, 2020) who can assist in producing context-appropriate and relevant GIFs, memes or videos will help to develop communication tools and methods that are community-centred and thus, more inclusive.

Centering ELICOS students

It is important for ELICOS students to be seen as a community of their own within the larger international student cohort. They have unique needs when it comes to assistance with navigating any kind of information. Now, more than ever, support and welfare information is pertinent, as they endeavour for success in their university education during the international crisis we are facing.

It is imperative that institutions ensure that the message of support reaches, not overwhelms, ELICOS students.

References

Abdullah, T. (2020, September 18). How can we support you better? Looking after ELICOS students in uncertain times [Presentation Slides]. 2020 English Australia Conference. Australia. https://www.englishaustralia.com.au/documents/item/1072
Barakos, Elisabeth, & Plöger, Simone. (2020, May 25). Recent-arrival migrant students during the Covid-19 school closures. Language on the Move. https://languageonthemove.com/recent-arrival-migrant-students-during-the-covid-19-school-closures/
Behan, T. (2020, September 8). Bringing Back Our International Students: The Future of International Education across Australia and New Zealand [Zoom Webinar]. Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre. https://monash.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wvxIR2YFTB-no6I9b7Wf5A?fbclid=IwAR3wHidfa7D9zCSOit3HF2XPzoiCTc95G7ju3fZ-SoagFdcPxsB8J5H_NZM
Carlo, P. D. (2020, August 6). Message- vs. community-centered models in risk communication. Language on the Move. https://languageonthemove.com/message-vs-community-centered-models-in-risk-communication/
Li, J., Xie, P., Ai, B., & Li, L. (2020, August 17). Multilingual communication experiences of international students during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Multilingua, 39(5), 529-539, doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2020-0116
May, K. E. & Elder, A. D. (2018). Efficient, helpful, or distracting? A literature review of media multitasking in relation to academic performance. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. 15 (1) 1-17.doi: 10.1186/s41239-018-0096-z
Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity and social justice. Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001
Piller, I. (2020, October 12). Crisis communication in multilingual Australia. https://languageonthemove.com/crisis-communication-in-multilingual-australia/
Piller, I. Jia, L. & Zhang, J. (2020, August 28) Linguistic diversity in a time of crisis: Language challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multilingua 39(5): 503–515. DOI: https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/mult/39/5/article-p503.xml

Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources and Research Center for Standardized Use of Chinese Language, Beijing Language and Culture University

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Editor’s note: This is a translated and shortened version of an article first published in Chinese as “战疫语言服务团的故事” in the CPPCC Newspaper on March 9, 2020. Translated by Dr Zhang Jie, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, and Dr Li Jia, Yunnan University, Kunming.

In this article, Professor Li Yuming not only recounts the rapid linguistic response of Chinese applied sociolinguists to the COVID-19 epidemic but also outlines a program for “emergency linguistics,” a research specialisation devoted to language and communication aspects of disaster preparedness.

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Handbook of Hubei Dialects for Medical Assistance Teams

Doctor-patient communication in Hubei dialect, online resource

The outbreak of COVID-19 has required the whole of China to stand together against the epidemic with the mobilisation of national resources to assist Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. One of the difficulties in mobilising trans-provincial resources is the language barrier between doctors and patients in clinical communication. To solve the urgent needs of language communication between doctors from other parts of China and local patients, the medical assistance team of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University compiled The Guidebook of Wuhan Dialect for Medical Assistance Teams, Audio Materials of Wuhan Dialect for Medical Assistance Teams, and The Handbook of Doctor-Patient Communication within 48 hours after the team arrived in Wuhan. This is an instance of the provision of language services as part of the emergency response.

The example demonstrates the necessity for linguists to participate in fighting COVID-19. As linguists, we should not let medical personnel be distracted by also having to deal with language and communication barriers.

On February 10, 2020, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources of BLCU and the National Institute of Chinese Language Matters and Social Development of Wuhan University, together with more than a dozen research institutes and enterprises, initiated a program to join the fight against COVID-19 by offering language services.

Under the guidance of the Department of Language Information Management of the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Handbook of Hubei Dialects for Medical Assistance Teams was compiled to facilitate communication between medical assistance teams and patients in Hubei province. The Handbook includes 76 sentences and 156 words which are commonly used in diagnosis and treatment along with their equivalents in the dialects of Wuhan, Xiangyang, Yichang, Huangshi, Jingzhou, E’zhou, Xiaogan, Huanggang, and Xianning.

Although team members lived in different localities, they performed the tasks with tacit cooperation and managed to play to their respective strengths. With their devotion for three days and three nights, seven types of language service products were made available on WeChat, a dedicated webpage, converging media, video clips, Tik Tok, a 24/7 telephone hotline, and instant translation software.

The Handbook of Hubei Dialects for Medical Assistance Teams was of significant help to front-line medical personnel. Not only was it suitable for different groups of people in various scenarios, but also bolstered the confidence of medical workers. It was very well received. Almost 30 WeChat official accounts related to linguistics re-posted the handbook, setting a precedent for WeChat official accounts in fighting against the epidemic. So far, the total clicks of the handbook on WeChat have amounted to nearly 30,000; for the recording, around 340,000; and for the online version, more than 100,000. Furthermore, nearly 6,000 copies of pocketbooks published by the Commercial Press were distributed free of charge directly to the medical assistance teams in Hubei.

Bilingual Greek-Chinese diagnostic sheet

Apart from compiling the handbook of Hubei dialects, language services later expanded to foreign languages targeting international students and foreign residents who began to return and come to China with the effective prevention and control of the epidemic and the resumption of work and production. To better inform these foreigners of the updated information about the coronavirus and to protect their safety, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources of BLCU, as a core member of the program, developed A Guide to the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 Epidemic in Foreign Languages promptly and efficiently on February 27.

The Guide includes 75 sentences commonly used in daily precautions, entry precautions, medical treatment, and personal protection. So far, the Guide has been written in more than 20 languages including Japanese, Korean, Persian, Italian, Arabic, English, German, Russian, and French, with versions including video clips, multimedia cards, and software system.

Since the launch of the Guide, not only has it received attention and support from the Ministry of Education, the State Language Commission, the National Center for Disease Control, the Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, the Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, but has also been welcomed by overseas Chinese students.

As the novel coronavirus has been spreading in other parts of the world, the Guide has now also been shared by foreign communities over the Internet and won positive feedback from some Chinese diplomatic missions.

Through such practices, China’s anti-epidemic progress and experience can be disseminated abroad, serving as humanitarian assistance for the international community in the prevention and control of the virus.

The Guide will continue to be updated based on the latest development of the epidemic at home and abroad, with more languages being added.

Another project we are working on is named Plain Chinese. Plain Chinese was successfully developed and is currently being tested. The project is tailored to international students and foreigners in China in the hope that they could be better informed about COVID-19, even if their Chinese language proficiency is limited. It is also helpful to those Chinese people who lack proficiency in Putonghua.

During and after any public emergency, mental health and psychological well-being is vital. Therapeutic interventions constitute another area for the provision of language services, and therefore constitute another duty for linguists to take on. Psychologists and linguists are expected to work hand in hand to deliver strategies for “linguistic comforting” during and after the COVID-19 disaster.

It is too early to draw conclusions as the disaster is yet to end, but I do wish to offer my reflections based on our provision of language services over the past 20 days.

First, being a scholar should not confine us to writing papers and imparting knowledge, but must include having a sense of social responsibility, the awareness and capability to solve practical problems. In recent decades, a group of Chinese sociolinguists have been calling people’s attention to language in social life (yuyan shenghuo).

This group has been advocating for attention to language-related problems in social development. Collectively, these linguists are known as the school of language in social life (语言生活派 yuyan shenghuo pai).

Professor Li Yuming’s original article “战疫语言服务团的故事” in CPPCC Newspaper, March 09, 2020

The reason why the language services program was able to rally so many volunteers, at a single call, is that these scholars actually were spurred to action by their convictions, i.e. to put their academic strength into the practice of the great cause of the motherland. Apart from the mission for research and education, scientific and educational studies also carry a social responsibility. In the fight against the epidemic, we should not simply care about self-protection, but instead, contribute ideas and exert efforts for the containment of the virus.

Second, information technology needs to be given full play in the prevention and control of epidemics. The current epidemic is characterized by immobility of people and commodities, but free flow of information.

Without information technology, it would have been far more difficult to fight this disaster. As a matter of fact, members of the language services program have not yet met each other in person, but have done an outstanding job with the help of online group chat.

Moreover, the development and promotion of language service products effectively utilized the previously established corpus, the modern language technology developed, and the inter-disciplinary talents cultivated during the construction of language resources. The progress made highlights the significance of China’s achievements in terms of the Internet and modern information technology.

Third, a plan on language services in emergency response needs to be included in the prevention and control of public emergencies. It is a critical test for the national governance system and management competence to effectively handle public emergencies. In recent years, the prevention and control of public emergencies in China have made remarkable progress, with many statutes and contingency plans enacted, such as the Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China, the National Plan on Emergency Response, and the Regulation on Response for Public Health Emergencies. Meanwhile, particular units specializing in public emergency management and services have also been established. However, linguistic contingency plans are still absent from those solutions. Through the current public health emergency, importance should be attached to filling this gap as soon as possible.

It is proposed that the plan on language services in emergency responses shall include at least three aspects, namely:

First, we shall formulate the National Mechanism and Plan on Language Services in Public Emergency Response, or simply revise the current statutes, regulations and plans, such as the Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China, the National Plan on Emergency Response, by adding relevant content.

The details of language services in public emergency response, however, remain to be investigated. The following might be worthy of consideration: the selection of channels through which the information is released, e.g. telephone, radio, television, network media (Weibo and WeChat included); the languages that are supposed to be used in information dissemination, including Putonghua, plain Chinese, Chinese dialects (varieties), ethnic languages, signed languages, and foreign languages; possible communication barriers and concrete solutions; application of various modern language technologies; mechanisms and plans on language services in emergency response at different levels; and, other language-related content in various aspects of emergency response, such as prevention and preparedness, monitoring and early warning, emergency response and rescue, post-emergency recovery and reconstruction.

Second, a standing language service institution for public emergencies will need to be set up. During ordinary times, only a few in-service staff or researchers will be needed while others hold their original posts. When an emergency arises, they can be urgently summoned to offer various language services.

Third, greater importance will need to be attached to language-related studies in public emergency response. Language services in emergency response is actually a problem of language application within a particular sphere and for a specific purpose. It is a special type of language situation. We should draw on the practical experience of such language services at home and abroad and take advantage of the academic achievements made in applied linguistics, to actively conduct research in this domain and establish the discipline of “emergency linguistics.” In doing so, linguists are able to contribute more to public emergency response. What is more, research centers devoted to language access in emergency response shall be founded, which are aimed at dealing with different types of public emergencies such as natural disasters, accidents, public health incidents, social security incidents, and to cultivate specialized talents by integrating with the existing departments of public emergency management and services.

Bilingual kids are more resilient

October is Mental Health month here in New South Wales. The campaign runs under the slogan “Celebrate, connect, grow” and includes some fantastic tips how to look after your mental health. The key point is to build strong relationships and to engage in activities that give us purpose and meaning. One thing that’s often overlooked in the mental health literature is the fact that these things are done through language: the languages you speak (or don’t speak) determine who you can build strong relationships with and which activities you can engage in.

That’s where bilingualism comes in: a bilingual person can build strong relationships within more than one community. That migrants to Australia need to learn English to build those relationships and to engage in a broad range of activities is a no-brainer. If you are stuck in an abusive marriage and don’t know where to turn for help because you don’t speak English that’s obviously not a good place to be in.

However, as a nation we are so focussed on English language learning that we easily forget that other languages are important, too. If a child can’t communicate with their grandparents because they’ve never learnt the family’s heritage language, then that also poses a mental health risk. Or if you can never have an adult conversation with your parents because you haven’t learnt their language and their English isn’t good enough for a difficult conversation, that’s going to make both children and parents feel isolated and disconnected.

In a multicultural society bilingualism is an essential ingredient of mental health. A recent study tracking the development of anxiety disorders and behavioural problems among Asian-American kids from kindergarten to Grade 5 (Han and Huang 2010) confirms that. Problem behaviours increased for all children during that period but they increased least in those who were balanced bilinguals and in those who were dominant in the language other than English. Those who were monolingual in English or English-dominant experienced a faster growth rate in mental health problems and those who were monolingual in a language other than English experienced the highest growth rate.

The fact that not speaking English in the USA (or here in Australia) is not good for personal well-being is obvious and requires little explanation. However, the fact that bilinguals fare better than monolingual English speakers flies in the face of current educational practice, which is to mainstream migrant children into English as quickly as possible. At the same time, we shouldn’t be surprised: bilingual children get the best of both worlds and in addition to building relationships through school, they also have access to additional social and cultural resources in their community.

The evidence is clear: Monolingualism is a risk factor for poor behavioural and emotional outcomes in the early school years. Clearly, schools need to nurture bilingualism, not just English, for all to be able to lead healthy and productive lives and to strengthen the social and economic fabric of our society.

Want to learn more about bilingual education? Join me tomorrow for a public lecture at the German International School Sydney in Terrey Hills.

Wen-Jui Han, & Chien-Chung Huang (2010). The Forgotten Treasure: Bilingualism and Asian Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Health American Journal of Public Health, 100 (5), 831-839 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.174219