Sapir-Whorf and Michael Gove
The BBC is reporting that British Education Secretary Michael Gove is calling for early training of students in foreign languages:
“Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.” He said learning languages improved people’s brain power. “Just as some people have taken a perverse pride in not understanding mathematics, so we have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English,” he said. “It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning.”
Huh? I’m all for learning foreign languages, but isn’t Gove’s reasoning simply a recitation of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
Perhaps linguists were holding their tongues because they did not want to jinx the possibility of more resources being put into primary education. But certainly, Newcastle University went too far when it put out a press release claiming that “Education Secretary Michael Gove’s statement that learning languages makes people smarter has a sound scientific basis” and, in fact, explicitly crediting Sapir-Whorf:
Early last century linguist Benjamin Whorf was the first to say that western languages make us see reality in a set way, and therefore learning other languages could be beneficial because it would free our minds from such linguistic constraints.
Now I know that Whorf has a few modern defenders, but I thought that conventional linguistic thought was far more critical of Sapir-Whorf than supportive; and certainly it seems disingenuous to claim unqualified support for Whorf – as if there were no controversy at all.
In any case, if anyone out there knows the actual basis of Gove’s claim that “it is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter” (whatever “smarter” means), I would certainly welcome hearing it.
BLT 
I thought it had been proved that learning languages increases the brain’s power to … learn languages! That is, it is easier to learn a foreign language later in life if one has already learned one or more foreign languages in school.
But I think Gove would have done better to stick to what seems to be his main point, that learning languages can “broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children”. If you can talk to the foreigners you meet, in your own country and when visiting theirs, and understand something of their writings, you are far less likely to fall into excessive nationalism and xenophobia. But then Gove probably knows not to criticise that tendency as much of his party’s support comes from people like that, and he wouldn’t want to get the right-wing press against him!
Early last century linguist Benjamin Whorf was the first to say that western languages make us see reality in a set way
Isn’t it a tad ironic that whoever wrote the above sentence — so set in its assumptions — did so with a straight face — in a western language? And isn’t it funny that they went on, even more ironically, to bolster their conclusions by comparing and contrasting the presumed firm realities of western words for lunch?
“If I ask you to think of ‘lunch’, you’ll probably think about a sandwich with crisps,” explained Dr Bassetti. “If I ask an Italian to think of pranzo – Italian for ‘lunch’ – he’ll think of a dish of pasta followed by meat and vegetables.”
So what would you think if you were an English speaker and you learnt Italian? Probably something in-between, such as a dish of pasta with some crisps.
Huh? Yes, this is exactly why I need to enjoy being bilingual: I get to become a Hegelian foodie!
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Peter,
How do you like this personal “example” from Gove for all the language learners of Great Britain? He refuses to read War and Peace because he doesn’t understand translation. Which languages has he studied to the degree where his appreciation for their subtleties and precision of thought so worry him when rendered into his native English? I’ve read elsewhere that he reads the Bible (at least he quotes from it). Does he cheat at reading it (in English translation)?
http://www.michaelgove.com/content/how-cheat-reading-war-and-peace
Have you seen Stephen Fry’s latest offering for the BBC? It also gives the impression that the whole Linguistic community accepts without question the Sapir-Wharf hypothesis as gospel truth.
Kurk, I might suggest that reading the Bible in a bad translation might have put Gove off translations for life. But as an Englishman married to an Italian, I know that whether she calls me to “lunch” or to “pranzo” doesn’t correlate with any difference in the food I find on the table.
Peter, Kurk — funny. I suppose Gove pines for the good ol’ days when Reader’s Digest Condensed Books were published.
Quirkycase — was this Stephen Fry’s English Delight or QI or …?