Foreign language education has always been less of a priority than any other subject and has always been a thought towards the end of secondary school education. In schools, there is no exposure to any other languages other than English for most people until high school. If students do take a foreign language in high school, many don’t continue learning in college and therefore never actually become fluent in other languages. Foreign language education has shown to have benefits that would greatly help students develop. Learning a foreign language can develop cognitive abilities and increase cognitive processing as well as develop analytical skills, and these benefits can only be acquired when there is a good grasp of the language. Another problem is how foreign language education is largely focused on European languages such as French or Spanish. More than half the most commonly spoken languages in the world are Asian languages but foreign language education barely covers Asian languages. Learning Asian languages would help make interactions with businesses and governments of Asian countries a lot better in today’s globalized world. Schools are starting to teach more Mandarin but other Asian languages are still not being taught widely. Incorporating Asian languages into the education system can be a great benefit in terms of trade, communication, cultural knowledge, and diversity. There should be more of a focus on foreign language education at a younger age and also more
The United States is becoming more and more bilingual every day. It is important for students of the United States of America to keep up with the advancing world. The easiest way to learn a second language is when a person is young. This is why it would be beneficial for schools to start teaching a foreign language in kindergarten and continuing it through twelfth grade. Students are more likely to learn and remember a foreign language if they are introduced to it at a young age. A majority of other countries teach foreign languages to their students throughout their school lives. Most students coming out of high school in other countries are totally
In “language study as a National Imperative, “Colleen Flaherty writes about the language education of the in the U.S. She explains the report, which was written by the American Academy of Arts and sciences (AAAS). The Article was published in Inside Higher Education on February. The Reports explain that foreign language must be required in the school system starting in kindergarten. The Academy of Arts and Sciences or the AAAS believes that Second languages should be required it opens up more opportunities for getting a better job in the future. And also understand the other better like none English Speakers. AAAS also believes it could help economic growth and competitiveness. Flaherty also says the language learner will build a good Skill and improvement with other people around them. According to AAAS Report strongly emphasizes work with schools to promote language classes. Also In the report it says that the government should help teacher’s education and increase the more opportunities.
The benefits of learning a foreign language go beyond learning a different culture or being able to communicate with people of different backgrounds. It is essential that Americans speak languages other than English in order to compete internationally, keep the country safe, and prepare children to be world citizens. Several language organizations, educators, and policy makers have recommended the introduction of a second language at the elementary school level as a way of assuring a high level of language proficiency (Pufahl and Rhodes 273).
In the summer of 2017, a young man named Justin went to Mexico for the first time to visit family. Justin, speaking only English, struggled to communicate with those around him where the main language spoken in that country is Spanish. Here, being bilingual would sure be handy. Knowing more than one language, becomes beneficial in class, or when people are trying to communicate with each other, or possibly even to order food. Learning a second language should be mandatory for kids and also adults for the advantages they will earn, for a sense of belonging, and also to find ways of teaching others about another dialect.
Learning these languages early will prepare them for a better future, dual language programs show students a broader world view, whatever the foreign language of the student, and lead to greater opportunities for collaborative learning. Some jobs require a second language such as: Business Executives, Stenography Banking, and Finance International Operator Translator, Publishing, Teacher (K-12), Study Abroad, Coordinator, Textbook Author/Editor, Hotel and Restaurant Staff / Management Publisher of Tourist Literature Visitor, and Convention Bureaus. I believe that American students should be required to learn a second language. Learning a second language will enable American students an opportunity to better understand other cultures and languages this will result in our generation being better world citizens and continue our role as a global leader. 96% of the world's population lives outside of the United States. Countries that border our nation speak a language other than English; by learning a second language we will more effectively communicate with our neighbors. Employees of this new era must have the skills and ability to communicate fluently in several
Nowadays, most of the U.S. high schools required all students to take a foreign language class. Bilingual education is not a newfangled concept. In China, every student started to take the English class since they were in third grade. I took my first English class when I was in second grade. Schools are extremely encouraging students to learn other languages besides Chinese. It helped me feel a little bit of sense of safety when I first came to the United States. Because I was being able to understand what my teachers were talking about, I feel appreciated I had taken the English class in China. Although it will produce the stress for students and gives them a hard time to learn a new language, I strongly agree that the U.S. high schools should
Has it never crossed your mind how handy it would be to speak the language of the country you are being on vacations – let say Russian, Chinese, or (why not?), Kurdish. This is, indeed, a rhetorical question because wherever you are from, you have already had for sure a cross-cultural encounter that may had not worked as well as desired... If you grow up being bilingual, you probably know exactly about which transactional problems while speaking we are talking about, yet being bilingual has much more benefits than disadvantages. For instance, being bilingual or even multilingual is not only helpful for travelling or working but for your mental health. Psysiological studies show people speaking several languages are assessed as better while performing cognitive tasks .
The number of Languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a few languages are for wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world 's approximately 200 countries recognize two or more official languages, with a mere handful recognizing more than two. Despite there being lots of bilinguals and multilinguals, there is also a bunch of monolingual people in the world. The adult population is allowing their children not to learn a foreign language, drastically underfunding language courses in middle to high school level classes. Because they think it 's not necessary in this century, thinking they don 't require communication with other people from other countries. But the truth is that it can actually benefit in more ways than people think. The United States school system has started to not require foreign language class for graduation requirements, this places the U.S at a disadvantage in the world scene.
My senior paper is about what I want to do in my future, but as well as the realization that there is a much bigger world out there. We have dyeing languages and cultures out in the world and people do not even realize it. There are more people learning English than there are people learning another language besides English. English is becoming the universal language. So, I will be sharing with you the benefits of learning a new language as well as why there are only a limit on foreign culture we can learn about in schools. There will also be the discussion of the form of work that you can do as a translator/ interpreter and more benefits that you can have with any job with knowing a second language. What I will
In most other countries, children begin learning a second language very early in their schooling. Most American schools, however, do not begin foreign language instruction until middle or high school. It is clear to see the detrimental effects of this. If you ask anyone who took a foreign language class in high school, chances are that they have retained none of it, unless they continued to study it in college. This is because by the teenage years, it is much harder for the human brain to learn a second language. If more schools began teaching a second language in elementary schools, it is more likely that students will retain more language skills. As a result, more individuals will have the language skills required in this global market to succeed with international relations and
As the title suggests, “Speaking in Tongues: The Many Benefits of Bilingualism” is an article that examines the advantages of bilingualism. Due to the nature of the world, a great number of people have acquired the ability to speak more than one language. The author explores the benefits such an ability offers, arguing that bilingual children develop social, linguistic and cognitive skillsets that not only provides a chance to explore different cultures, but raises a child’s awareness of how language functions. The author also weighs on the cognitive aspect; applying the works of Ellen Bialystok to their ( the author’s ) argument. In the author’s view, bilingual children are better at dealing with conflicting cues and assessing information.
By knowing a second language broadens employment opportunities. Nowadays China is getting stronger and their businesses are growing throughout the world. Australia is the only nations that are locate near to china, so I personally would recommend our school to introduce Chinese as a second language for sure. According to my background, I am a student who come a from a bilingual country that speak at least 3 different language. Personally I have the feeling of language empowerment; language is the main tool for communication so by having the ability to speak more than one language can always empower us and our
I found an artcle on hufflingtonpost that talks about the benefits of being bilingual. The article states that people who speak multiply laguages have a higher level of mental flexibility than people who only speak one language. In the past bilnguals were looked down on. When you're swichting languages all the time, it strengthens your mental muscle and your executive function becomes enrached. There was an experiement performed on both spanish and english speakers to see if both lagunages were active in their minds at all time. At first the subjects 512 sentences in either english or spanish, switch between the two every two sentence. They had to read cognates out load in red as quicky as possible. The results show bilnguals rarely said a
At the college level, 51 percent of colleges and universities have a foreign language requirement for graduation. There are many studies that foreign helps many things. But many schools across America doesn’t have foreign language options. Which is bad because elementary, middle, and high school students are missing out on which could change the course of their life. Elementary schools should have foreign language classes because students get better job opportunities and you’ll have higher academic scores in the future.
A survey done by the Center for Applied Linguistics in 2008 found that "The findings indicate a serious disconnect between the national call to educate world citizens with high-level language skills and the current state of foreign language instruction in schools across the country"(Cal:Research). This is concerning as all of the competition for the U.S. is gaining a step and we 're doing nothing . If the U.S. expects to continue to be competitive in the global market we need to have bilingual citizens. In order to ensure this, we must require a foreign language be learned in high school.