Should we encourage schools to teach foreign languages in primary school?

Question

I am a product of private education, and my study of language began at an early age. I think I have benefitted greatly from it. Study of language increases a student's awareness of other cultures and it also enables them to express themselves more eloquently in their own language. It develops cognitive development which will benefit the student in other fields as well.

What do you think?

Answer 1

I would prefer we begin by teaching students with greater success how to speak, listen, read, and write in English. Other languages are great, but students in the United States should build a strong base in English before beginning second languages. (Of course, many students take English as their second language.) I do think languages (along with music, art, physical education, computers, etc.) are integral to the educational process. All these help students to achieve greater success.

Answer 2

I work in the public school system. What you are saying is absolutely true, the problem is that there are so many students that come into the system as kinders that don't speak any English. Their families are from other countries and they speak that language at home. This carries on up through the higher grades as well, but is predominant in the younger students. These little ones need to learn to speak English, alot of our money goes to this.

There are so many standards for students to learn in the public school system. The State Tests are all based on these standards and if the students don't do well on the tests, the schools are punished.

I agree with you, it would be nice. We do have one school that is dual immersion, that is: all of their students learn in both English and Spanish. I have not been at this job long enough to really see how that affects their students compared to others in the District.

The biggest difference seems to lie in the education level of the parents and that seems to go hand in hand with socio economic status. Parents who have little or no education either do not feel it is important for the children, or they are unable to help their children with their education. Parents who are low income, well it is the same thing. Often they are simply unable to help the students because they are working long hours or two jobs.

It is sad, there are kinders that come into class who have never seen a book! No one has ever read to them. Those kids will never get up to speed. The schools that are in high income attendance areas, their students do far better than ones in lower income areas.

I am of course not saying that is true 100% of the time, but I would bet that your parents are well educated and make a decent living. At the very least I am sure they value education greatly.

It really starts at home, that is where the idea for you to learn another language started. What do you plan to do? Perhaps you should get into this field...your way of thinking could make some positive changes in the lives of children.

Answer 3

I agree with you. Children's brains are set up to learn languages much faster and more efficiently than at any other time in their lives. In fact, most research is showing that if a child doesn't start to learn a language before puberty, they will always have an accent in that language. To obtain native pronunciation, the language instruction has to happen before the teen years, and teen years are (unfortunately) when our school system decides children are "ready" to learn another language.

Much of this idea, though, is based on HOW language instruction is done in the US. The predominant methodology in second language acquisition is grammar-focused and, therefore, would not at all be suitable for children.

This is slowly changing, but will take several years for it to become an acceptable methodology at the college level, which is where language teachers are being taught how to teach others. Many college teachers refuse to consider other methodologies than what they were raised with so the incoming crop of new language teachers are not being allowed to explore other methodologies.

As long as grammar instruction is the goal of teaching languages, it will remain a course for the upper teen years. When the goal changes to actual proficiency in the language, elementary instruction will be much more acceptable, and the US will become competitive outside of the English-speaking world.

It's a shame that most Americans don't think learning other languages is a high priority. Sadly, we're pretty linguo-centric. We're working on it, though, and hopefully one day, everyone in the US will be at minimum bilingual.

Answer 4

I agree. It has been proven that language is learned from an early age. I have already started teaching my girls ages 4 and 3 what I know of spanish and german(pretty fluent). They can already do there numbers and colors in all three languages and can tell you w/o prompting what the translations are.

Answer 5

I believe the awareness of other cultures is secondary to the plasticity of the brain's ability to pick up the language at an early age, and not forget it. Think of all the things you learned at an early age. It is like learning to ride a bike; you never forget. My Hungarian grandmother, although she came to the US at age 8, could start speaking Hungarian if another person could speak it to her. She just never forgot it. I learned to count to 10 in Spanish at age 7; haven't forgot it 32 years later. My father learned 17 languages in his early 20's; each language builds upon each other, elements of language can be taught early, and apply worldwide. So, yes, I truly believe in the earlier we teach basic comprehension skills, the easier it is to commit to learn a lifetime of information.

Answer 6

I think that it is beneficial because I for one am currently attending a high school that is majority latinos.I am partially hispanic but I can't speak spanish.had i learned it at a young age, maybe I would be able to speak it now........................

Answer 7

I think you've answered your own question