Close Menu
The Baylor Lariat
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    Trending
    • Baylor community unites in flash flood relief efforts
    • Baylor rescinds LGBTQIA+ inclusion research grant after backlash
    • Students react to emergency alert following campus lockdown
    • Baylor shelter-in-place lifted following police pursuit of robbery suspects
    • Baylor graduate charged after killing cats with pellet gun, hanging bodies over utility lines
    • Baylor Football’s Alex Foster dies at 18
    • Board of Regents confirms budget, renovations, new leadership in May meeting
    • How facilities responds to storms, flooding in campus buildings
    • About us
      • Spring 2025 Staff Page
      • Copyright Information
    • Contact
      • Contact Information
      • Letters to the Editor
      • Subscribe to The Morning Buzz
      • Department of Student Media
    • Employment
    • PDF Archives
    • RSS Feeds
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    The Baylor LariatThe Baylor Lariat
    Subscribe to the Morning Buzz
    Sunday, July 13
    • News
      • State and National News
        • State
        • National
      • Politics
        • 2025 Inauguration Page
        • Election Page
      • Homecoming Page
      • Baylor News
      • Waco Updates
      • Campus and Waco Crime
    • Arts & Life
      • Wedding Edition 2025
      • What to Do in Waco
      • Campus Culture
      • Indy and Belle
      • Sing 2025
      • Leisure and Travel
        • Leisure
        • Travel
          • Baylor in Ireland
      • Student Spotlight
      • Local Scene
        • Small Businesses
        • Social Media
      • Arts and Entertainment
        • Art
        • Fashion
        • Food
        • Literature
        • Music
        • Film and Television
    • Opinion
      • Editorials
      • Points of View
      • Lariat Letters
    • Sports
      • March Madness 2025
      • Football
      • Basketball
        • Men’s Basketball
        • Women’s Basketball
      • Soccer
      • Baseball
      • Softball
      • Volleyball
      • Equestrian
      • Cross Country and Track & Field
      • Acrobatics & Tumbling
      • Tennis
      • Golf
      • Pro Sports
      • Sports Takes
      • Club Sports
    • Lariat TV News
    • Multimedia
      • Video Features
      • Podcasts
        • Don’t Feed the Bears
      • Slideshows
    • Advertising
    The Baylor Lariat
    Home»News»Baylor News

    Bilingualism gives fresh perspective

    webmasterBy webmasterSeptember 9, 2015Updated:September 10, 2015 Baylor News No Comments3 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    By Sarah Jennings, reporter

    Almost all Baylor students are required to take foreign language classes, but few finish with fluency. However, there are many ways on campus and through Baylor to enhance formal language classes.

    The Baylor Modern Languages department provides exchange and study abroad programs in Argentina, China, Egypt, and many more. Other ways to meet foreign language speakers are the Baylor and Beyond LLC, Baylor Spiritual Life’s Cross Cultural Ministries and the Baylor Linguistics Club.

    Language learning provides more than the practical benefit of being equipped to converse with more people. Language is inextricably connected to culture. In addition, research such as the 2004 study by psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee suggests bilingualism expands the brain’s normal way of thinking.

    “Bilingualism will change you in ways that you can’t really even contemplate, just leading a monolingual life. It changes the way you think; it changes the way you approach life,” said Dr. Paul E. Larson, director of the Baylor in Madrid Summer Study Abroad Program.

    Larson said students interested in becoming bilingual should find a semester long study abroad program. He said a five week program is good for getting a taste, and students inevitably learn a lot. Nevertheless, it’s even better if they can get away from their cultural supports in English and go somewhere where they’ll learn new things.

    “My recommendation for any Baylor student is to first, go get your beginning language classes here,” Larson said. “Go every day, learn as much as you can. Then, sign up for a study abroad program, and it doesn’t matter what your field is. You have time. Go abroad. Six months, five months. A year is ideal. That’s how you learn to go outside of yourself and be another person.”

    In a world rapidly globalizing, having the ability to understand a stranger’s point of view is increasingly necessary, he said.

    “With monolinguals, you’re completely locked into one culture and one way of thinking,” Larson said, “The number one thing you pick up from living in another culture is that problems may have more than one solution.”

    Issaquah, Wash. senior Courtenay Klauber is a Language and Linguistics major at Baylor. She also suggested study abroad as a tool for becoming bilingual. She said that the best way to learn a language while at school is to learn it from another speaker. A conversation partner provides personalized input on pronunciation as well as explanations of idioms and other colloquial phrases.

    “Unless you have tapes, it’s hard to learn pronunciation from a book,” Klauber said, “The problem with learning from a textbook is that then, you sound like a textbook. Very formal and ritualized.”

    Klauber said success in learning languages is dependent on several factors: age, motivation, aptitude, transferred knowledge of a previous language learned, and affect– which is the willingness to speak up and make mistakes in public. Klauber is also a member of the Baylor Linguistics Club.

    “The [Baylor Linguistics Club] has meetings to build community and get to know other people who love languages,” Klauber said, “It’s not any specific language; we don’t all talk in Spanish. We have lots of different language backgrounds.”

    Baylor baylor languages second language
    webmaster

    Keep Reading

    Baylor community unites in flash flood relief efforts

    Baylor rescinds LGBTQIA+ inclusion research grant after backlash

    Students react to emergency alert following campus lockdown

    Baylor shelter-in-place lifted following police pursuit of robbery suspects

    Baylor Football’s Alex Foster dies at 18

    Board of Regents confirms budget, renovations, new leadership in May meeting

    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Recent Posts
    • Baylor community unites in flash flood relief efforts July 9, 2025
    • Baylor rescinds LGBTQIA+ inclusion research grant after backlash July 9, 2025
    About

    The award-winning student newspaper of Baylor University since 1900.

    Articles, photos, and other works by staff of The Baylor Lariat are Copyright © Baylor® University. All rights reserved.

    Subscribe to the Morning Buzz

    Get the latest Lariat News by just Clicking Subscribe!

    Follow the Live Coverage
    Tweets by @bulariat

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    • Featured
    • News
    • Sports
    • Opinion
    • Arts and Life
    © 2025 ThemeSphere. Designed by ThemeSphere.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.