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The importance of learning foreign languages
The advantages of learning foreign languages
Importance of learning foreign languages
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The promotion of foreign language education in America’s primary schools is vital to a child’s learning process, cultural awareness, and future in the workforce. Although they are scarce, there are some elementary schools across the United States that incorporate foreign language courses in the curriculum. This is most common in areas bordering other countries and relative to the language spoken, as French is taught most often along the border of Canada and Spanish along the border of Mexico. The process of learning another language is beneficial the learning process of all subjects because the methods used combine teaching procedures present in every class. The broad learning capacity gained from learning a foreign language and the ability to converse with other peoples helps people in careers as well, making them apt for any profession. Special schools have been created to promote a mixed-culture learning environment, such as charter schools and bilingual schools. The students who attend these specialized schools are exposed to different ways of life at the early age that is best for absorbing new information and living in two opposite cultures successfully. Foreign language education in primary school is necessary because during the years a child is in elementary school is the time in which children are most susceptible to taking in new information.
The benefits of learning a second language are vast and measurable in numerous ways. As Lynn Redmond, the executive secretary of the National Network for Early Language Learning and director of foreign language and associate professor of education at Wake Forest University, states, “Children should start learning a foreign language in kindergarten and continue through high school....
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“Foreign Language Education.” Encyclopedia of Education. Ed. James W Guthrie. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. N.p.: MacMillan Reference USA, 2003. 893-899. Print.
Jackson, Whitney. “Tongue-tied: Americans Lack Multi-lingual Edge.” Medill Reports. N.p., 9 Dec. 2008. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .
Piper, Karin. “Education 101: What Is a Charter School?” Editorial. Examiner.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2009.
Walker, Cheryl. “Foreign Language Study in Elementary School.” Wake Forest University News Releases. Wake Forest University, 26 June 2004. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. .
Ravitch, Diane. "The Success of Charter Schools is a Myth." 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Document. 20 November 2013. .
It is important to maintain children’s home language as it may help them learn and understand a second language. Barratt-Pugh (2000) discusses the benefits of bilingualism and maintaining it through early childhood settings, also mentions the concerns families have for their children maintaining two languages through schooling. Research within the article states that children who speak more than one language will have a higher level of understanding literacy content, form, genre, as well as understand the differences and translating within both languages. This demonstrates a contrast of strengths and experiences with literacy (linguist...
In the article, “Lost in America,” Douglas McGray efficiently attracts attentions to the issue of how American schools are more concerned with learning math and science than foreign subjects like language or foreign cultures. Ironically, McGray asserts that more schools in America are becoming less concerned with teaching language and cultures despite the growing globalization. McGray advocates that learning multiple languages will be beneficial for those working overseas as well as other careers. The article’s target audience is aimed at those concerned with changing school’s curriculum to include various language education. A well-known writer for multiple magazines, McGray published this article in Foreign Policy magazine intending for the
Raymond, Margaret E. (2014, February 1). To no avail: A critical look at the charter school debate. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol.95 (5) pp.8-12. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6aa05956-5bfe-43eb-9eec-b90be0fefa60%40sessionmgr113&vid=9&hid=125
Daniels, Harvey A., and Urbana, IL. National Council of Teachers of English. Not Only English: Affirming America's Multilingual Heritage. 1990. ERIC. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.
The technique relies on a holistic approach that adopts instructions that allow students to actively participate in the learning process. This is easier for children that feel that the society appreciates their diversity through bilingualism and biliteracy. The society and parents need to encourage children to take up bilingual classes because they offer a lot of benefit to the society through favoring critical thinking, rationality, and sensitivity to other cultures, empathy, and detached or balanced awareness. However, Sonia Nieto mirrors a society that is made to fake being American and become ashamed of their family. It helps appreciate that it is not by choice that anyone speaks any other language as the first language and that the society and community influence the language of choice. Therefore, bilingualism cannot be detached from any community that freely promotes and accommodate the language spoken by the other community. Children and community members learn each other’s language without disregarding each other favoring effective learning that influences bilingualism and biliteracy in the long
Howard, Elizabeth R., and Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary. Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 2007. Print.
Primary schools that introduce language learning at an earlier phase may do so for a number of purposes, but it is because of the benefits of learning a language at a younger age that this paper has chosen Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) as its target scheme of work. For the purpose of this assignment the focus language will be French (but the strategies to be discussed will apply to any MFL). The ideas within the scheme of work will be critically discussed as part of university experience, school practice and relevant research.
Teaching students a language that is foreign can really be challenging for students as well as for the teachers. The dynamic rule for implementing instructing in a diverse class to English-learners is to use resourceful life skills such as diligence, hard work and patience. There are also methods that are involved in teaching English as a second language that can be creative for the teacher, yet beneficial to the student. First building a strong foundation that is essential to English learners will promote the language acquisition process. To do this teacher’s should always start with preparation. Advance preparation is essential in order to provide necessary adaptations in content area instruction and to make content information accessible for second language lear...
When a baby is born, he/she comes into this world eager to learn. Always taking in information and absorbing it like a new computer. Every experience he/she encounters could possibly stick in that baby’s mind. However, some of the things that a child hears or perceives can either benefit or corrupt their learning. Teaching a child a second language has the same concept as putting in new software in a computer. Many advantages come with a safe and powerful computer and the same would come with knowing a second language. If a child was not taught a second language in their early years, that child might be at a disadvantage in their future, and as that child grows up not knowing a second language could potentially hold him/her back with grades and obtaining a job. Knowing a second language can benefit from those things and can also help with keeping strong ties with their family, culture, community, and even music.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of a foreign language immersion classroom experience. This topic is particularly valuable to parents and teachers of learners who are, or will be, part of a foreign language-based classroom that fosters both academic development and multilingualism. Foreign language immersion is an approach to learning that involves immersing students in an environment that uses a target language throughout the school day. Using a variety of instructional strategies, teachers teach academic subjects in the target language, so that students become proficient in another language, in addition to English, and develop a sense of cultural awareness. To understand foreign language immersion programs in greater detail, I will explore the varied types of language immersion models and the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of classroom experience.
But we always want to give our kids something extra to enrich their experience, to equip them better for their professional and personal life, to prepare them better for their journey — and bilingualism can be a great tool for developing your child’s full capabilities” . (Centeno, 2013)
Being multilingual has great importance. As previously presented, it keeps cultural diversity alive and creates better communication with the rest of the ...
In 2009, teachers of a New Jersey school banned foreign languages and stated, “any language other than English will not be tolerated" (Debaron 1). This situation was soon no longer allowed. While over ten percent of the total adolescent education systems contain emergent bilinguals, a whopping sixty percent of those students are educated in only English (Bale). Maria Estela Brisk, a Boston College Education professor, believes, “schools has wasted much energy in the search for a "perfect" model and the best way to learn English” when they could just focus on proving “quality education” to every student in the system (1). Teacher’s main priority should consist of effectively teaching their students to prepare them for the future, but currently there are a lack of certified bilingual education teachers. When students are taught more in different ways, they can educationally benefit their cognitive abilities, involving the brain with “mathematics, problem solving, logic and memory”, can be improved to create an overall better student. Even by learning another language at a earlier age can contribute to __________. Learning another language will be
As time goes by and as the global community develops, the world grows more and more international, making second or third language acquisition become necessary to the majority. With the growing importance of multiple language ability, more and more parents think of bilingual or multilingual education, which means acquisitions of two or more languages, for their kids. In fact, we do have many reasons showing why multilingual education is important and beneficial, such as aspects of interpersonal relationship, employment, brain health, and so on.