Here at Arlington High School, English is the predominant language spoken, yet the student body is comprised of students that have more diverse backgrounds.  There are many bilingual students that roam the hallways of AHS, along with a blend of multilingual students.

As opposed to the large, solely English-speaking majority, these multilingual students often have a different perspective on learning.

Junior Eric Acero is a bilingual AHS student, who is very active both in and outside of school. English is his secondary language, behind Spanish, which is what he grew up speaking.  He thinks in Spanish and speaks Spanish at home, but at school and while with friends, he speaks English.

When asked about his academic experience here, he described, “It was hard in the beginning when I first started learning English, but I’m used to it now.” Acero also said that he’d rather learn in Spanish than in English if he had the choice, but does just fine in the English learning environment.

Junior Edward Radion, who is also extremely involved at Arlington, speaks English, Ukrainian, and Russian.  He’s revealed that he doesn’t feel he has a secondary language, as he said, “Naturally, I learned, I’d say, all of them at the same time because growing up, I had siblings who went to an American school, yet in the house, we spoke Russian and Ukrainian, and then we also went to a Russian church, so it was just a blend.”

Jenny Butok, who is a freshman this year at Arlington, also took the time to give her personal multilingual account of academics.  She speaks the same three languages as Radion–English, Ukrainian, and Russian–yet she said her natural language was English.

Recently, it has become scientific fact that bilingual and multilingual people harbor strengths that aren’t as prevalent in monolingual people.  Articles have been published by sources, such as TIME and the National Institute of Health, relaying the findings of bilingual brain studies.  It was concluded that speaking multiple languages gives these diverse speakers many cognitive benefits.  Students here at AHS shared experiences that agreed with much of the findings of the studies.

“It’s pretty much easier to sound out words, like in Spanish,” said Butok.

Acero agreed that it is easier for him to pick up on new languages, as he is currently taking German at Arlington.

Radion also said that it’s easier to learn other languages, dealing with “mainly pronunciation.”  He went on to describe other more academic benefits of his multilingualism saying, “It’s ironic, but English comes easier because I feel like I can articulate my ideas more naturally.” He continued that being multilingual, “Your brain can think in different languages and that’s totally different because different languages have different structured grammar, which can really help you out.”

Acero described that being bilingual helps him in certain subjects, like English and Math. English, for example, comes easier for him because Spanish helps him with vocabulary and the prefixes of words.  “I can make the connection to Spanish, and it helps me know what the definition of the word is.”

However, Butok gave a different account, and stated that being multilingual doesn’t exactly help her learn better than any other person.  She described that no subject really comes easier for her bases on her multilingualism.

Although they share multilingualism in common, their learning styles and experiences are as diverse as their linguistic backgrounds.  Multilingualism is beneficial in many ways, but a student’s learning experience all boils down to their personal way of learning, which is different for everybody, no matter how many languages they speak.