Bilingualism will someday be a skill that is necessary to succeed in life. Already, most colleges in the United States expect incoming freshmen to have studied a foreign language for three or more years. High school students are sometimes surprised by these requirements because it is difficult to master a foreign language that they have only begun to study in their teenage years. Foreign language education is important worldwide today because it improves children’s growth patterns and helps children understand cultural aspects of the foreign language. There are three main types of foreign language programs: Foreign Language Experience/Exploratory (FLEX), Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES), and immersion/dual-language programs. …show more content…
National reports about elementary school foreign language programs suggest “Language learning began in the elementary school and continue throughout a student’s schooling” (Dahlberg). Already seven states have mandates for this recommendation, but considering the fact that there are fifty states, seven is not a large number. It is more beneficial to start a foreign language program with elementary school students because if it is started in middle school, curricula would have to be completely changed. This is because the students are in the middle of a change between high school and elementary school, a very critical change that does not leave any room to start learning a new language. If a program started in high school, the students’ minds would already be mostly developed and it would be really hard for them to take in another language …show more content…
It improves many skills that are important to succeed in life such as academic gains, strong social skills, stronger creativity, and success in reaching adulthood and finding a fitting career (Selling, 19). Also, right now, the United States is in the minority regarding bilingual education, so if this change does happen, this country would be more in line with other western countries. In addition, these programs would provide the children with cultural benefits, and future benefits in life in general. But, this program has to start in elementary school in order for it to be productive. Finally, bilingualism is important for the world and would produce better developed children
Compared to other Countries, America stands less developed in bilingual abilities due to language requirements taught within our school systems curriculum. Being bilingual is an important skill to have in America, with multiple different prominent languages spoken within our country other than English, we are constantly surrounded by language. The problem that our country is dealing with now, is that we started with the idea that anyone that moved to America should adapt to our languages, instead of us Americans, taking the initiative to learn a new languages. In a report by Hyon Shin and Robert Kominski, showed the number of citizens in America that spoke a language other than English. The “data on speakers of languages other than English
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
The need for bilingual education is not directly related to the need for the student to have a more pleasant learning experience, but based more on the increasing need for these individuals to learn about their heritage, how they can present themselves to others in different scenarios, and being knowledgeable in both languages at a dual equivalence. The key
In my opinion bilingualism plays a major role in the educational development of children. This is because research has shown that children who are fluent in their home language are more successful in learning a second language. Furthermore, being bilingual offers greater sensitivity to language, more flexibility in thinking and better ear for listening. It also improves a child’s understanding for the native language. Moreover, knowledge of other languages increases a career of opportunities offering several job options.
The United States is a nation filled with a multitude of different cultures which come alongside with a variety of languages. These languages are what help society to communicate with one another and to expand their horizon of thinking. As the United States progresses so does the culture. The culture of the United States is no longer what it once was. A nation of a predominately Caucasian race, who only speaks one language, is now a thing of the past. The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (English Language Learners) states that from the 1997-1998 school year to the 2008-2009 school year, the number of English Language Learners in public schools increased from 3.5 million to 5.3 million which comes to be a 51 percent increase. They also reported that the overall student population grew to a 7.2 percent increase during this time. A huge generation of a multicultural society is rapidly growing and it is our responsibility as a nation to educate this new generation to its fullest potential. We as a nation can wither choose to ignore the reality of this new generation by forcing one language on students classified as English Language Learners, or we can choose to cultivate the knowledge of language so that this new generation may prosper in more ways than one. We do not want to become a society that promotes, as R.A. Berman summarizes in his statement from his article The Real
Bilingual education is a program in which children are taught their native language as well as their dominant language in society. Such a program would be beneficial in society because it would teach students academic material in their native language. If the problem was also bicultural, it would teach children the culture revolving both linguistic groups.
The continued growth of speakers of languages other than English is reflected in the rapidly increasing students in U.S. schools for whom English is a second language. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2005) show that the number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English reached almost 10 million in 2004. Such a dramatic increase continually challenges educators to provide effective language programs with quality instruction for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Some educators choose to view these challenges as opportunities by offering a dual bilingual program as an educational option for meeting the needs of monolingual speakers.
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
Presently, the majority of schools in different states are comprised of foreign students who have limited knowledge about the English language more so in the United States and Canada. In the majority of instances, a good number of students fail to acquire the necessary assistance from the schools they enroll in to enable them to learn adequately. Consequently, such students lose their heritage owing to the actuality that their primary languages are suppressed in the process of attaining a new language. Bilingual engagement programs bring together the native speakers of other languages and the native speakers of the English language for the purposes of acquiring academic instructions through either language in order to advance the competitive
The United States of America is host to a large population of immigrants from all over the globe. For this reason, bilingual education has been a topic of discussion for decades, as children who have migrated with their families need an adequate education that will allow them to succeed. In order to provide English language learners (ELLs) with the best educational experience, it is important to recognize that bilingual education and bilingualism can support academic achievement and brain development.
The goal of a bilingual education program is to develop both academic and core content skills through the use of both English and the first language, and through this development, strengthen all aspects of English language learning. ESL programs focus on using strategies designed for learning a second language to develop a student’s English language learning. The goals for both programs are that students will be able to speak, listen, read and write English competently and that these program will comprise just one piece of the school setting for English learners. They are also alike in that they both focus on the English language
While some people may believe that learning a second language may only create controversy in our society, many strongly believe that one has the freedom to speak any language they choose to. Since there are a variety of different nationalities in the Unites States, bilingual education can promote learning for people who share distinctive ethnic backgrounds. Bilingual education gives students a sense of cultural pluralism, not only that, but it has been proven that learning a second language starting from a young age hold cognitive and academic benefits. Children who are bilingual, establish more adequate skills in their first language causing them to learn other languages at a faster rate, raise a sense of confidence and self-esteem, and have an easier time transitioning into a new environment making it less intimidating; therefore, the advantages of bilingual education most certainly outweigh its disadvantages.
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.
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
Surrounding my high school there are dozens of large trees which line the parking lot and sidewalks. In the autumn, red, orange, purple and brown leaves thickly cover the ground making a leaf collage. Although the leaves come from different trees, they all have one thing in common: they’re all leaves. This can be likened to both the students at my high school and the world’s people as well. No leaf, or person, is exactly the same. Colors, patterns, place of origin and future are all different. During the school year, I am surrounded by over two thousand students of varying backgrounds. One difference between myself and any other schoolmate could be our primary language. Every day at school, I am surrounded by those speaking Russian, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese... The list goes on. Although different backgrounds, languages and cultures could create separation between students, there is one language by which everybody can communicate and connect: English. Not all people that go to my high school speak English to the point of fluency, but they all do speak fluently enough to gain an education in an English speaking school. In other words, they’re bilingual. Bilingualism is like grafting a plumb tree branch onto a peach tree. The plum branch will grow on the peach tree, but neither the branch nor the tree will ever be the same. The peach tree is no longer purely a peach tree, and the plumb branch is not just a plumb branch either. They have been infused