Languages in a Global World
Learning for Better Cultural Understanding
The rise of globalisation makes language competencies more valuable, both at individual and societal levels. This book examines the links between globalisation and the way we teach and learn languages. It begins by asking why some individuals are more successful than others at learning non-native languages, and why some education systems, or countries, are more successful than others at teaching languages.
The book comprises chapters by different authors on the subject of language learning. There are chapters on the role of motivation; the way that languages, cultures and identities are interconnected; the insights that neuroscience provides; migrants, their education and opportunities to learn languages; language learning and teaching in North America; and new approaches to language learning.
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Economic incentives for language acquisition
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation
This chapter reviews the literature on language proficiency and the economic incentives that potentially lead individuals to invest in the acquisition of language skills. The aim is to understand whether (and to what extent do) individuals respond to economic incentives to acquire non.native language skills. The empirical literature is limited and only provides indirect evidence on the impact of economic incentives. This chapter suggests that this is due to difficulties in locating variables capturing economic incentives, and the appropriate empirical methodology that would help identify the marginal effect of economic incentives on language acquisition, controlling for other determinants. We describe possible reasons behind this challenge along with a first reflection on strategies to better assess the impact of economic incentives.
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