Importance Of Teaching A Foreign Language

The language is defined as “human communication through the use of spoken or written words,” but that definition must include that language is also a cultural identity – “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is”. In other words, the language provides information about your roots; it is one of the most valuable resources to communicate with your mother culture.

First of all, children will learn easier and faster any language in this age. It is obvious that kids in this age have an incredible ability to learn anything than old one. They can learn any language and became as a native speaker very easy. Oppositely, it is harder with teenager or adults. For example, my kids speak two languages. They speak English as a mother language

Language is part of who a person is. Also like in spanish, by the way we speak we can tell where everyone is from. A big part of culture is language that's why it is used to distinguish.

Language is perhaps the most important key to understanding culture in general and the specific values, beliefs, attitudes, and opinions of a particular individual or group.

People start learning foreign languages because of various reasons and for different purposes. But despite all their personal factors and goals, probably most of them will agree that at this time knowing foreign languages is very important. It can be because of the number of reasons. The first reason is that knowledge of a foreign language is a necessity nowadays. This factor may be applied to many learners, for example, students who have to pass their college entrance exams or it may be a compulsory module at university. Sometimes people have to know foreign languages in order to have a good job and get a higher salary or if they must know other languages except their native one because of their work, for example, diplomats or interpreters. Another reason is a strong will to be a part of

According to Tony Wagner, collaboration across networks, adaptability, and effective oral and written communication are among the most important skills for which employers today are looking. In America, “the fastest growing segment of the U.S. public school population is English-language learners, which means that” learning a foreign language is not just beneficial in order to speak to people around the world – it is also beneficial in order to speak to our own American citizens (Cox). Therefore, globally, and even locally, the skills necessary for economic success cannot be complete without collaboration across global networks, language adaptability, and oral and written foreign language communication. Foreign languages and the knowledge that comes with them include much more than simply communicating with others – it includes exposure to “a different set of aesthetics, cuisines, philosophies, politics, histories, and traditions” that even further expands the speaker’s mind (Kim). In the globalized world in which we live today, foreign interactions are common in the workplace, on social media, and in politics as technology has made it easier than ever to have conversations with people thousands of miles away. Globalization has made foreign countries far more accessible for us to reach, communicate with, and create relationships with, in business or personally. Communicating with foreign language speakers is a definite step in the direction of true globalization, but in

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

In my country, English is taught as a foreign language. The school that I was teaching is a bilingual school. They use English as one of instruction languages. However, in a certain level, the instruction language is mixed between L1 and English depending on the need of students. I teach English for senior high school students. Their ages are ranging from 13 to 14. The students in this context are first-grade students in senior high school. They are divided into two level. The one that I am preparing the material for is the pre- intermediate level students. These students can understand a simple text even though they do not understand all vocabulary. They read graded reader book every week and have a test every two month. This reading activity aims for comprehension and vocabulary practice.t

My English teachers were literally obsessed with grammar and vocabulary. The lessons were about the things which I need to memorise rather than learning. Each teacher came up with different rules, regulations, and directives that my friends and I did not ever question or oppose, so it is not learning and inquiring indeed. Therefore, I would try an inquiry-based learning if I had a chance. My teachers probably forgot that an average person only need English for speaking and listening. Because of that, the media and the parents often accuse teachers and students with the statements like “The country where you still cannot speak English in a one-decade language training.”

This paper intends to display a summary of the article “Culture in Second Language Teaching” by Elizabeth Peterson and Bronwyn Coltrane, of Center for Applied Linguistics. In detail, it discusses the attached relation among culture and language and the implementation of instructional strategies for teaching the second language through culture to improve students’ linguistic comprehension. According to this article, Culture has many different dimensions which include ideas, customs, skills, arts, and tools that characterize a group of people in each period; it is moreover the views, principles, and material things that form our way of life.

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

The second reason that children should be taught foreign languages at a younger age is the academic benefits while learning the language. Multiple researchers have studied the advantages that children have if they have studied a language in the past. Almost all the findings have concluded that people that learn a language at young do better academically. In Blue Linder’s discussion on the importance of teaching foreign language in schools, she states that “Children gain a deeper understanding of English as they learn the structure and vocabulary of other languages. This understanding translates into more confidence in English and a greater command of the language. Furthermore, learning a second language fosters a flexibility of thinking that translates into math, creativity, and problem solving.” Here Linder is talking about the fact that children who learn a second language can expand their minds and the ways that they think. Seeing the differences in a language and how they connect to their native language enables them to see different patterns and correlations. Children are then able to apply this way of seeing connections to other areas of school. If all students were to learn languages in their early school years, it is believed that schools would see a major increase in the academic success of the students. This success would give students many opportunities they did not previously have.

Language is the pot that represents a culture. It reflects its personality, its character, persona, education, and its development. It represents a history the ancestors left, and inheriting it leads to the continuation of identity. Holding on to the mother language reflects a high sense of patriotism. All nations that are developed and advanced in the fields of science and technology use their native tongue in their educational systems, and find ways to spread the love of the native tongue and prevent it from everlasting waste.

Acquiring the first language is much easier than acquiring any second language as it comes “naturally” after birth. The child passes through different stages before acquiring the language till he masters it. Children follow a predictive language development through their language acquisition but it can vary from a child to another according to the external surroundings especially in the early stages.

A great deal of researches is devoted to discuss different teaching techniques through which teachers can maximize teaching efficiency and facilitate the process of learning a new language for the learners. To design and adopt such techniques we need to be aware of psychological and cognitive procedures through which a foreign or second language is learnt. When researchers decide to analyze such procedures, like other fields of human science, they need to deal with learners