Your languages, your future

Research shows that children who speak more than one language have an advantage over their monolingual playmates when it comes to communication, understanding and social interaction. But the benefits go even further if children can be encouraged to take a formal qualification, such as a GCSE, as this short film describes. In England, 14% of secondary school pupils - that's about 400,000 - speak a language other than English as their first language. In English primary schools, one in six children don't have English as a first language. Together this amounts to about 1 million children throughout the school system. The Cambridge Bilingualism Network was set up in 2010 by Cambridge researchers to promote the public understanding of bilingualism through their work with schools and communities. This short film was made as part of their activities.