Learning a foreign language and preserving endangered ones

Guests: Rosemary Feal, Ellen Bialystok, David Harrison

Americans are losing their foreign language fluency.  Fewer of us speak a second language with any proficiency.  This hour we’ll discuss why language requirements in schools have been declining and why learning a different language matters with ROSEMARY FEAL, executive director of the Modern Language Association of America.  Then we’ll talk with a York University’s ELLEN BIALYSTOK about the neurological benefits of being a bilingual or multilingual speaker.  We wrap up the hour talking with linguist DAVID HARRISON, a professor at Swarthmore College, who is trying to preserve the world’s endangered languages.