Essay about Foreign Language Education in American Primary School

In a globalized world, English is and has been universal language for communications around the world. For that reason, U.S. has never had an urgency to learn and appreciate foreign languages. Most of school systems treat language classes not important as the core curriculum. According to the current positions on bilingual education, schools in the United States teach languages at exactly the wrong time and exclude children from all the benefits that extend beyond pure communication. It’s extremely important to be bilingually educated to adapt into increasingly globalized world. Moreover, even necessary, for those who should reach out and speak at least one other language. Being bilingual comes with various advantages and immeasurable benefits.

national perspective, only 29 percent of teachers who have LEP students, have an actual LEP training. Spring classifies this as it possibly creating a cultural clash, specially when having an all white teaching staff, with students coming in “high percentages of cultural minorities.” (Spring, pg. 152) Just like Howard explained the role of European culture and history in our educational system, Spring dedicates parts of his Chapter 7: Multicultural and Multilingual Education, sharing similarities among their views. For example, Spring describes the differences between immigrant, dominated and dominant cultures. With the dominant culture being that of the European American culture dominating our public schools, and then the dominated cultures which are those cultures that were “forcefully incorporated into the United States.” (Spring, pg. 161) That includes African Americas, Native Americans, Mexicans living in the south, and even Puerto Ricans after becoming part of the United States in 1898. The immigrant cultures will then be those of the first generation immigrants, so any children or adult

“Less than 1 percent of American adults today are proficient in a foreign language that they studied in a U.S. classroom,” states Friedman in the Atlantic. “That’s noteworthy considering that in 2008 almost all high schools in the country—93 percent—offered foreign languages” (Friedman). This is because of, as Marshall notes, "widespread belief that adults will inevitably have problems and will certainly never become fluent, while children are supposed to pick up languages with ease". However, study after study has shown the procedure of language learning of the infants. The essential elements of learning a language lie in your ears and the way you process to the language. Although there is a widespread myth in learning a language – children aquire a language much easier than adults do – the innate ability of adults’ language acquisition are basically as same as that of children’s.

With the powerful influence of globalization transforming every aspect of our world humans must adapt to the new cultural environment being created. One major change is that of language evolution. English is the third most spoken language worldwide after Chinese and Spanish, but it is the most popular second language overall (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2014). The English language is taking over, so what, you may ask, is the point of putting in the energy to learn a second language? Why should you enrol your child in a language immersion school program? Well, as an English Canadian, learning a second language through an immersion program comes with a collection of cognitive benefits that can influence a variety of things, including mental health, academic performance, and employability, not to mentions that it plays a vital part in preserving the many cultures in our country, all while promoting acceptance diversity.

In many parts of educational development, bilingual education is treated as learning for non-American students. The use of their native language along with the inculcation of English to their vocabulary is the main aim of this program. According to educators, this is more likely an ESL program that would indeed assist foreign nationals living in the American territories to adapt to the society, especially with regards to children who are born in America. This would help the non-Americans to be ‘one’ with the American community in terms of language. To the educators, this is a way by which America could be able to overcome ethnic differences in the country. However, some language experts say that this is not an easy task for early childhood

First of all, let’s starts with some terminologies when talking about bilingual education/ program. Bilingual education is an educational program where students receive instruction in both their first language (L1), and second languages (L2) to keep them from falling behind in their content learning and to encourage the development of their first language while they are learning English. Most student who participate in Bilingual educational programs are consider English as a second language student (ESL). There are other terms that are very similar and has the same meaning such as English Language Development (ELD) and English Leaner (EL). These terms refers to non-native speakers who is learning English in school (Beddow). Most educators used these terms to coin student who are in the process of learning English as a new language. Typically, English learners speak a primary language other than English at home such as Hmong, Spanish, Chinese, etc, just to name a few.

Educators and policy makers have concerns about how to improve students ' test scores. Research shows that foreign language study, especially when the study of a second language begins in the elementary school years is a viable solution. Foreign language study improves cognitive abilities, positively influences achievement in other disciplines, and results in higher attained test scores. Additionally, younger children are more receptive to learning a foreign language. Therefore, foreign language study should be made available in all elementary schools in Oregon.

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

Language is a key part of any family, community, culture and the human race. Without language the world today would be much different. From cavemen, to the Egyptian use of hieroglyphics, to Old English, to more than 6,500 languages spoken around the world today, the advances that humans have made in language is remarkable and inspiring. The ability to speak, read, write and understand more than one language is also remarkable and expands the liberties in life, especially for young people. High school students should be required to take at least two years of a foreign language class in order to graduate, as many recent studies support the benefits of doing so. Students who have learned a foreign language in high school have proven to have a

Meaningful learning only take place when interaction exists between the teacher and the learner. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart” says Nelson Mandela. So mother tongue allows for proper social integration and helps to avoid maladjustment in schools. Therefore, in the maze of unfamiliar linguistic medium, the learner have at least the familiar mother tongue to hold on. For the same reason, mother tongue is the most effective medium to use in instructing learners if they are about to reach their potential. It has been proved that children learns well when they are highly skilled in the medium of

Foreign languages are a must in today's world. There are many needs for a second language to be learned by everyone. The growing need to learn more languages is becoming more apparent in the public world today. In order to fix this problem, the school system needs to teach multiple foreign languages in order to grow as a nation both mentally and culturally.

Learning a language is quite possibly one of the most difficult and time-consuming endeavors a person could ever undertake. Therefore, it comes as no surprise, that a limited number of second languages are taught in schools across the western world, and languages are sometimes failed to be passed on to children growing up in a different country than their parents did. Conversely, by remaining monolingual, skills and knowledge will become concentrated only in certain countries and as the transfer of knowledge will cease the rate of human advancement will slow. This report intends to discuss the interpersonal and personal benefits of learning a second language, and investigate different ways of learning. To accomplish this, I have conducted into the interpersonal and personal benefits of learning another language.These particular areas were chosen for two reasons: first, it is speculated that since spoken and written language are how people communicate, there must be benefits for those who can speak more than one. Second, the process of learning a language is the ultimate test of mental fortitude. It is a medley of memorization and application that to even suggest it has no effect on one’s mental capacity or ability is absurd. This is necessary since it will confirm the existence of benefits to adopting alias lingua. It may be that there is no benefit, and either the world adopts one language, or each country focus on its own tongue. For this report, this paper has been

Dual Language education is increasing throughout the United States giving students at a young age an advantage over their monolingual peers. Different research studies resulted in a major success by proving that "bilingual children outperform monolinguals in a wide array of cognitive and language-based tasks" (Wallstrum 16). Dual language immersion is defined as fifty percent of the non-English is used for the instructional part of the day, and the other fifty percent is spoken in English. The purpose of these immersion schools is to promote fluency in the foreign language while also performing at their grade level in that language.

In 1979, the President Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, recommended foreign language for all colleges and universities. Four year later, foreign language was recognized as a basic skill by the College Board. As the education landscape continued to expand, foreign languages became an integral part of the curriculum, with many recommending teaching the necessary skill during early childhood. Numerous research studies and academic scholars have touted the benefits and necessity of learning a foreign language, specifically in the areas of mental and cognitive health, education, and cultural diversity. The following sections will explore the benefits of foreign language fluency.

Many people believe that children have the ability to become with a native-like proficiency in a second language almost within a night because during childhood knowledge is absorbed like a sponge by children’s brain (Genesee, Paradis and B. Crago, 2004, p.133). In contrast, only few adults can achieve a desirable result in their attempt to acquire a second language (European Science Foundation, 1993, p.8). In addition the learning environment is separated into two the formal and the informal both of them are efficient, but the last one seems to be more accepted than the other as a better way of language learning because of its faculty to develop knowledge and skills to people without any predestinate rules. (Bahrani, 2011, p.372). However the process of acquiring a second language is not only affected by the age, but by the learner’s stimuli during this process as well.