The learning of other languages and their importance

Abstract

The conference is inspired by the speech of the writer Chimamanda Adichie, entitled The danger of a single story, and the concept of “place” of the writer Taiye Selasi to address the importance of learning other languages, since they are, among other reasons, which make the individual feel like a local, since the concept of country is a creation, but every experience is real and local. To portray the role of languages ​​in national construction/cohesion, the first author mentions Switzerland, a multilingual country that has four national languages, two of which are majorities which compete, among themselves, for the role of the first mandatory foreign language to be taught at school, along with English. The discussion also highlights the role of multilingualism in promoting and maintaining a language ecology, ending with the second author presenting a concrete proposal in this regard: the creation of the Iberoamerican Association of Applied Linguistics (AIALA).

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).