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Foreign language the importance
Foreign language the importance
Importance of language development and acquisition
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Being able to fluently speak two languages is a very demanding and competitive skill. The capability to articulate thoughts to people who may not speak the same primary language as you is very profitable not only in the work force, but also in everyday life. Learning a second language also helps to shorten cultural gaps between different countries. With the seemingly increased importance in learning a second language, schools nationwide have implemented learning a foreign language as a requirement, for graduation in High School. However, starting to learn a second language in kindergarten is the most effective and beneficial practice in leading a child on the path to fluently speaking another language. This practice is more effective and beneficial on the grounds that children learn faster and more easily during their first years of life, it produces a higher quality of creative thinking and also cognitive development. From the day a child is first born and is able to open their eyes, they are immersed into the world around them. Most babies will see the smiling expression on its mothers face and be able to mimic the action. This carries on into the toddler stage when kids quickly pick up different actions from various sources. Most children have mastered certain skills like knowing how to use the bathroom on their own, recognizing certain colors, asking direct questions and even relating a simple experience they have had lately, during this stage. Studies support that children aged one to five years old have the ability to learn a high capacity of knowledge. Due to this theory, learning a second language starting in Kindergarten is very effective. If done properly a child would be able to learn a proficient amount of another la... ... middle of paper ... ...as the demand for globalization increases. Works Cited Curtain, Helena, and Carol Ann Dahlberg. Languages and Children: Making the Match: New Languages for Young Learners, Grades K-8. Third ed. New York: Longman, 2004. Print. Graceffo, Antonio. "Children Learning Languages Faster than Adults: The Argument Continues in Vietnam." Foreign Policy Journal. 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 9 Oct. 2010. . Landry, Richard G. The Enhancement of Figural Creativity through Second Language Learning at the Elementary School Level. Foreign Language Annals,. 1st ed. Vol. 7. 1973. Print. Walton, Beth. "More Children Learn More than One Language - USATODAY.com." USATODAY.com. 10 Jan. 2007. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. .
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...
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 Richard Rodriguez’s memoir he explains how children who speak another language, excluding english, do not receive the best education, as in today, being a bilingual speaker is an academic enrichment (Potowski). In today’s time, language is an advantage for both children and adults. It is an advantage for children because they can communicate with more people and can be more open-minded towards different people and would grow up with better communication skills. Bilingualism at a young age also has many advantages for children's
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.
De Houwer, A. Two or more languages in early childhood: Some general points and practical recommendations (ERIC Digest). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. (1999)
One of the benefits of teaching children a second language is that their development and academic results will most likely flourish. Children are able to think more flexibly and more creatively because of their underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, the part in the brain where working memory is stored. According to Abdul Malik Muftau, “Due to the development of the prefrontal cortex, adults experience functional fixedness and that makes adults see everything exactly as it is.” (edlab). Children’s prefrontal cortexes allow them think creativity and learn new skills as long as they are surrounded by whatever said thing they want to learn. Because of this, when children are learning a new language, not only are they constantly exposed to it but develop
In Nagy's (2013) study all eight participants had been raised bilingually since they were born. She interviewed the subject's parents and found, according to the parents, that the subjects said their first words in both languages between the age of twelve and forty-two months. Nagy's (2013) data also showed that, compared to monolinguals and most bilinguals, only two out of the eight participants needed the average twelve months most monolinguals need to reach basic sentence level ability. Nagy’s (2013) analysis indicates that there was no severe delay in the subject's language development, but three out of eight cases started producing comprehensible words approx. the same time as the majority of monolinguals. At the same time another four subjects accomplished, no more than six months later, the same level which is still within the time frame announced by
Werker, J. F., & Byers-Heinlein, K. (2008). Bilingualism in infancy: First steps in perception and comprehension. Trends in cognitive sciences, 12(4), 144-151.
Being able to speak more than one language is proving to be a valuable skill in modern society. Many children across the world are at least bilingual, leaving many American parents wondering if they too, should learn to speak another language. While this debate remains ongoing, many adults are seeking to learn a second language either to communicate with a new client base or to attain higher status within a corporate setting.
The development of the brain of a bilingual individual is better than a monolingual individual. Few years ago, researchers from the University of Washington (as cited in Klass, 2011, para 4.) found that the brains of bilingual infants (from families where two languages were spoken) are able to discriminate the different of the phonetic sound of the languages they usually heard when they grew up than monolingual infants in where their brains were adapted to only identify their mother tongue only. Dr. Patricia Kuhl, one of the members of this research team thus believe that bilingual education can shape infants’ brains and keep them ready for future challenges. Concurrently, a renowned psychologist, Dr. Ellen...
With the increasing popularity of dual immersion programs in schools and the widespread notion that language acquisition is something that needs to happen early on life, is there an ideal age to learn a second language (L2)?
Language has pioneered many interracial relationships and historical milestones. Language is a necessity for basic communication and cultural diversity. Being multilingual is a skill proven influential to a successful future. Due to rapid globalization, countries all over the world are stressing the importance of learning a second, or even third, language. With the exception of time and lack of resources, adults have very few widely applicable disadvantages to learning multiple languages. However, language learning as a child presents more complications. Some of those include not having enough funding at the elementary school level to introduce a program for secondary language, academic overload for the youth, stress for both the parent and student parties, and the mixing of languages. Not all of these complications are true in any or all situations, however, and the absence of them provides multitudes of opportunity for future career and academic success. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parents or the education legislation to decide whether they encourage the learning of a secondary language at the young age necessary for retention. “The general consensus is that it takes between five to seven years for an individual to achieve advanced fluency,” therefore the younger a child begins to learn, the more likely they are to benefit to the maximum potential (Robertson). Keeping the language learning in high school or beginning the process earlier is a greatly controversial discussion that is important to address because of the topic’s already lengthy suspension.
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
Language acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language with natural communication while children are acquiring the foreign language. Children usually concerned with message which they are conveying and understand not with the form of utterances. These utterances are initiated by the acquired systems and the fluency of language is based on what we have ‘picked up’ through active communication. Both formal knowledge and conscious learning of the second language learning may be alternate to the output of the system, sometimes before and sometimes after the
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.