At Education Week professors shared ways to improve language skills through a careful study of culture and art.
Comprehensible Language Learning
by Emma Mafi
At BYU, 65% of the student body can speak a second language—and in response, the College of Humanities has increased the amount of foreign language classes offered to students. Now, 84 languages can be studied in the College. In a lecture given on August 20, 2024, titled “Strategies for Learning a New Language,” Professor Rex Nielson (Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature & Culture) shared research-backed strategies on how to most successfully study a second language.
According to Nielson, the purpose of language rests not on its grammar but on its function as a means of communication. He explained, “You don’t learn a language so you can conjugate verbs. . . we learn a language because it helps us do something.” With this objective in mind, he explained that practicing language by reading, writing, and describing events is instrumental in language development.
To help learners organize their studies, Nielson shared three primary focuses of language learning: comprehensive input (what they can understand in the language), comprehensive output (what they can produce using the language), and access to feedback. Creating a study plan that maximizes these aspects of language learning, he explained, will allow learners to most effectively use language as a means of communication. Nielson also encouraged language learners to observe cultures with an open mind and with curiosity to improve communication beyond words.
Above all, he encouraged students to get comfortable making mistakes and to be patient. He said, “As frustrating as [language] may be, [it] is also exciting—you never know when those language skills are going to connect [you] with someone and bless their lives and [your own].”
Culturally-Conscious Art
by Kira Christensen
For language learners, culture factors critically into the learning process. The customs, expectations, and practices of a country function as a form of communication just as much as the language. In Professor Rex Nielson’s (Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature and Culture) presentation titled “The Language, Art, and Beauty of Portuguese,” given on August 20, 2024, he used the works of four important artists (three writers and a painter) from Brazil to impress upon his audience the importance of understanding a country’s culture through its art.
With a vast country, complex history, and complicated culture, Brazil shows just how intensive the process of understanding a country can be. Nielson quoted Brazilian composer Tom Jobim, saying, “‘O Brasil não é para principiantes,’” which means, “Brazil is not for beginners.” Nielson asked, “Well, how on earth do you start if Brazil is not for beginners?”
Nielson’s own personal recommendations for a starting place include the names of four Brazilian creators, including the writers Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Graciliano Ramos, and Clarice Lispector along with painter Candido Portinari. Each captures the culture of Brazil in their own poignant way, examining poverty, power structures, and displacement from natural disasters like drought. Nielson finds their stories invaluable thanks to the things they reveal about not only the superficial, visible culture but also the deep culture that permeates the way people think and act. “We can read to understand ourselves better, [and] we can read to understand others better,” he said. “Literature [and the arts] give us access to the interior lives of other people.”
The Crystal Skull Problem
by Emma Poulsen
In Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones finds himself pitted against the KGB in search of a priceless artifact: the Crystal Skull of Akator. The movie, while enthralling and action packed, may present a fictionalized version of Peru according to Professor Brian Price (Mexican and Spanish-American Culture). In his lecture on August 22, 2024, titled “The Language, Art, and Beauty of Spanish,” Price said that we need to work to negate these harmful renditions of Spanish-speaking culture in media and the world.
Price has coined the term “the Crystal Skull Problem,” which refers to the tendency to reduce the complex and diverse Spanish-speaking world to a few easily recognizable stereotypes. The Spanish-speaking world has far more diversity and variability than what many people understand—especially considering that Spanish is the fourth most-spoken language in the world. Price urged others to learn about Spanish-speakers’ cultures. He said, “Learning is an act of empathy—you see things in a way you might not otherwise seen [them].”
To learn more about the culture of Spanish speakers, and maybe even learn some Spanish on the way, Price recommended starting small with poems and short novels. Price also suggested that learners seek out media that they like—just in Spanish. He said, “Any type of [media] you want is there in Spanish.” Price ended by inviting his listeners to “engage with the Spanish speaking world on its own terms.” He expressed hope that learners will go out into the world with open minds and learn to dispel harmful stereotypes. He said, “Don’t allow caricatured interpretations of this world—go and experience it on your own.”
The Language of Gathering
by Emma Poulsen
You may be surprised to learn that the African French dialects have the highest number of French speakers in the world—167 million people—and that number grows every day. On August 22, 2024, Professor Daryl Lee (19th-Century French Literature) gave a lecture titled “The Language, Art, and Beauty of French,” where he discussed the importance of learning foreign languages, especially French, for the gathering of Israel.
Lee sees French not only as a language but as “the biggest and most important network today.” The most important thing about learning French, Lee said, may not be to have the ability to navigate French-speaking countries better—it may be to connect with other children of God. Learning French right now could be vital to the gathering of Israel, since Lee said, “French is on the rise, not diminishing.”
Besides encouraging everyone to learn or retain French, Lee also introduced a variety of different artists and writers that he feels represent the diverse French-speaking population. He especially recommended some of francophone writer Gabrielle Roy’s short-fiction pieces like The Tin Flute—one of the many stories she wrote that brought French Canadians together.
Lee ended by inviting his audience to continue to not only learn French but any language and encouraged them to “engage with it and its associated culture” so that they can “appreciate and acknowledge the differences” between Latter-day Saints around the world. He especially reminded everyone to “focus on what we have in common.”
Empathetic Listening—in Italian
by Emma Poulsen
What language does the Spirit speak to you in? To Assistant Professor Dan Paul, (Italian Cinema and Gender Studies) the Spirit may speak in English and Italian. In his lecture titled “The Language, Art, and Beauty of Italian,” given on August 22, 2024, Paul used the work of Italian artists and writers to show that being exposed to new languages and new cultures can allow the Spirit to work in us and teach us valuable lessons.
To begin his lecture, Paul referenced one of Italy’s most classic pieces of literature: Dante Alighieri’s the Divine Comedy, in which Dante travels through Hell and has one horrible experience after another but eventually emerges and “sees the stars.” Paul asserted that Dante’s difficult experience could be considered parallel to our own. He said that, just like us, Dante had to “have that experience in Hell to [experience paradise].”
Paul also referred to many contemporary Italian artists, including the work of author Kossi Komla-Ebri, who approaches racism with humor in his book EmbarRACEments with the goal of creating an environment where people can listen to one another. This book, Paul said, demonstrates “a crucial part of Christ’s ministry, [which] is to sit with someone and listen to them.”
To end his lecture, Paul emphasized the good work that many Italian contemporaries do and urged the audience to seek out media and experiences beyond their own religion and culture, promising that doing so will expand their spiritual prowess and give them more opportunities to serve others. He says, “None of these [writers] are members of the Church but are good people and care about God’s children.”