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The importance of foreign languages
Importance of foreign languages in the education system
Importance of foreign languages in education
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Children are vastly influenced by their elementary education. The fundamentals and basics of a child’s education begins with language, more specifically, reading and writing. These children are the future cognitively, socially, and physically and they should be provided with the most effective educational techniques available. While children are young, they should be provided with those techniques by starting at the beginning: foreign language. Children should learn a foreign language at the elementary school level.
Learning a foreign language trains children to be attentive listeners. When children have good listening abilities, they are more capable of comprehending and recalling what has been said. Also, since children cannot read and write fluently at the young elementary school level, it is especially important for children to be attentive listeners. How well children listen also constitutes how well they will listen for the rest of their lives. Learning a foreign language will improve their listening skills because they have to pay attention to how a word is pronounced in or...
...r they had all received the same language instruction for three years (kindergarten, first and second grade). These finding conclude that English language proficiency at the time of entering school does not matter. A good early literacy program works for both L1 students and ESL students who enter school at the kindergarten age. Students at that age are very susceptible to learning new languages quickly. The ESL children had difficulties in kindergarten, but by second grade they had caught up and were right on track with the L1 students and some of them even surpassed the L1 students.
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.
In the last few decades, New Zealand has seen a remarkable shift in demographic, resulting in an increasingly diverse social, cultural and linguistic composition. Where before New Zealanders may have only rarely come into contact with people of other cultures, or people who spoke other languages, this is no longer the case. The global world we inhabit demands more of us; it is no longer an option to be culturally naïve, nor is it an option to be absolutely monolingual. This bibliography aims to identify a number of key texts concerning the field of teaching world languages, while also investigating the relationship between the teaching of world languages, culture, identity and how educators can work to consolidate all three in their practice and instruction.
When schools offer children quality education in their primary language, they present them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that children get through their first language helps make the English they hear and read more comprehensible. Literacy is developed in the primary language transfers to the second language. The reason is simple: Because we learn by reading, that is, by making sense of what is on the page, it is easier to learn to read in a language we understand. Once we can read in one language, we can read in general.
When visiting just about any school across America, students who attend come from all over the globe. This raises the question across America about bilingual education. This can create many challenges in and out of the classroom. The classroom should be a safe place for all students regardless of what native language they speak. In the essay Lost in translation written by Eva Hoffman, describes a foreign student who tries hard to fit in. Instead, Eva begins to feel angry, hurt and confused because people laugh at her. In Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education by Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian Center for Applied Linguistics Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary San José State University David Rogers Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Guiding principles gives great ideas to educators to stop kids from making other students feel the way that Eva felt. After reading several articles about bilingual education, it is evident that all children in school should learn English but never lose their native language. When all the students speak one language, students will be less likely to make fun of each other. A good educator should learn enough foreign languages to aid them in effective communication in their classroom although; if an educator does not speak a foreign language, they should recruit within the classroom students to be peer mentors. However, a teacher should be willing to listen and encourage the students. Above all a good educator should be a good role model to their students by respecting their heritage and their language.
Students’ background will determine as well the abilities of students, parents’ level of education and origin will enhance students’ language skills or will limit them; once the students arrive at school if the teacher promotes the interaction within children through lesson activities that target the competence of language, students learn from other students. If the cultural diversity is promoted in the classroom by the educator, all the students’ cultures will be linked to the curriculum, and the language development plus a cultural enrichment will diminish the opportunity for students to fall
Memory as well is essential when learning another language because it requires to remember sound and written content. Learning skills are crucial for children get a hold of, because not only will it benefit them while learning a second language, but other subjects as well. Bilingual students should be able to pay attention while learning. In the article, “Does Being Bilingual Make You Smarter,” it mentions that bilingualism improves executive function, and in our brain, it is the control system that is responsible for focus, attention and planning (Smith). The way it works, is that because a bilingual student will look, for example at a dog, they have to make a choice in their brain to either call it a dog or a perro.
This is important because young children tend to have a hard time focusing on daily tasks and it might be harder when it comes to learning a new language. The next step is to find one language for the children to begin learning. The first language that the young children could be exposed to is Spanish. The curriculum needs to be interactive and keep the focus of the students on track while teaching those children colors and basic phrases. The best age for the school to begin this program would be when students are in preschool.
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.
In order to understand Bilingual education it must first be defined, as the compilation of multicultural views through which diversity is enriched and bilingualism becomes an ability to communicate with two or more languages with similar degree of proficiency language (Gallo, Pinuelas and Youngs 2008). Other perspectives state that the process of bilingual education is a process which educates students to be effective in a second language while maintaining and nurturing their first (Necochea and Cline 2000). In this process of educating students in a bilingual education many students do not completely acquire both languages. We would also have to consider the meaning of language acquisition, the process where children acquire their first language. Some children may attain one or more first languages depending on their environment children grow up in for example if a child grows up in an environment of only English they will only acquire that language, but a child that is exposed to both Vietnamese and English and are heard equally will acquire both languages. Other considerable research found that “young children do not learn another language effortlessly” that they do not learn faster with more exposure to the new language, that their oral fluency outstrips their academic competence, and that they require many years of grade level academic ability in the new language”(Berman, 1997.p17). It is important to understand the effectiveness of bilingual education in schools setting to better sever students in acquiring both languages and to smoothly transition to all English instruction.
As previously stated, “Second language acquisition is the study of how an additional language is developed within a child’s life” (Gass & Selinker, 2008). According to researchers David and Wei (2008) “evidence seems to suggest that bilingual children’s language development is by and large the same as that of monolingual children”(p.599), meaning these children go through the same process beginning with babbling, followed by one-word sentences and progressing towards a more develop multiword stage. They way in which a child develops his/her first language becomes a guide for the development of a second language. Children may use their language skills acquired during L1 (first language) learning to help them obtain foreign languages. Research has shown that “both L1 and L2 are tools that serve complementary and sometimes overlapping functions” (Kohnert, 2008). Whether to use first language verse second language m...
The cultural landscape in America is shifting and our educational system must change with it. Our approach to educating students who speak other languages has been inconsistent and our results mirror that fact. The education of Spanish speaking students has been a topic of debate for quite some time depending on the political climate of the era. The four main options used in schools in the United States are English immersion, English as a Second Language (ESL), Transition programs, and Bilingualism (cite). English immersion and ESL programs seek to immerse the students in English as much as possible with varying degrees of support.
Language plays an important in our lives, for children this is a critical time for them to learn how they can use language to communicate effectively from the when they learn through school and into adulthood. While a child goes through school they are exposed to Standard English, but there are diversities that appear in the classroom for example culture plays a part in language development. Gee and Hayes (2011) stated that there are many things that language can be including; a set of rules, a cognitive experience, a social tool or an object, but overall language is something that changed based on culture and social context. Acknowledging and accepting diversity in the classroom in relation to language and language learning is important
There are many different approaches to teaching language arts to young learners. It is important to understand that every classroom and every child is different. Different activities and methods should be used with different children and different situations. Learning the basics of language arts will follow with children throughout their years of schooling and throughout their life. Learning how to read and write for a young student should be a positive and fun experience. Through different methods, many teachers have made learning fun!
Early Childhood Care and Education, UNESCO (2007) points out the overlooked advantages of multilingual education in the early years. When children are offered opportunities to learn in their mother tongue, they are more likely to enroll and succeed in school and their parents are more likely to communicate with teachers and participate in their children’s