Many children around the world often learn a second language early on in their school careers, often having English as a popular choice for other countries. The same cannot be said about American schools unfortunately. There have been countless debates on whether or not schools in the U.S, should offer more programs for elementary schools so kids can be more exposed to acquiring linguistic skills and thus make it more facile to be more fluent later on in their school careers. Children should learn a new language as not only do they have more opportunities when given this exposure early on, they also would have cognitive, creative, social, cultural, linguistic and academic benefits with learning a new language earlier. Students are being …show more content…
It can be argued that putting little kids to start being bilingual can hinder them and confuse them when jumping back and forth between the two languages, however, research shows that it can actually be beneficial with helping the kids to learn how to distinguish between the differences and the phonetics which ultimately would aid them in reading better. Thus, primary schools should offer languages taught to little children as it would only benefit them and outdo the supposed flaws in this. Foreign language programs are one of the first to be cut out when schools in the U.S. Experience budget crunches or face poor performance evaluations. However, it challenges linguistic, cognitive, and creative skills for young kids so they are developed better and over time as they grow older and become more fluent and better with the languages. Foreign language programs have been shown to help with reading and their ability to apply insights and experiences of one language to another widens their experiences of language learning and this advantage continues to grow as they grow older. Regalla discusses how foreign language learning leads to improved academic performance in students and delves into how low the percentage of elementary schools in America provide the ability to learn at an early stage. She uses a setting where a Prekindergarten class was studied in terms of teaching the
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
To learn a second languages is very important because people have better opportunities in life. For children from ages five and under it is the best time to learn as many languages. Angele Sancho Passe, the author of “Dual-Language Learners (Birth to Grade 3)”, talks about techniques for teaching English in a multilingual classroom and how reading in english to dual-language learners helps teach them oral language skills. Patton O. Tabors, the author of “One Child, Two Languages”, talks about writing case studies of children displaying different second language abilities. In the article, “Ways to Introduce Your Kids to Foreign Languages” by Grace Hwang Lynch, believes two-way bilingual immersion is a helpful way to introduce foreign languages
After watching this, I now feel that it would be very beneficial for a child to learn a second language because like the video says, it opens up more future opportunities for the child. In the article, “Chinese, English, Spanish” by Tom McArthur, it talks about how English is one of the most popular languages today, and how variations of English can be heard or read almost everywhere. Although English is a very popular language, it is always an advantage to know other languages. In the video, it states that knowing just English is actually a limitation in life because so many jobs want bilingual
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.
Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.
This is because rather than ostracizing large numbers of the population, the U.S. should embrace the diversity of its people by offering assistance to non-English speaking students. Therefore, although I will argue that secondary languages such as Spanish should be taught in public schools in the U.S., I do not believe that English should be replaced entirely by secondary languages.
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.
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.
They compared bilingualism in children with typical development and those with communication disorders. They emphasized that children become bilingual to a different degree; using different paths. For some, there is an exposure to a different language at a very early stage in life, and for some it only occurs once they are 3 years old, and enter the schools for education. In some cases when the home language is not supported in school, the child will have reduced opportunities to experiment the language thus becoming receptively bilingual, meaning they would understand their home language but lack in expressive skills in that language. However, Kohnert (2010) reports that continued support in the home language during preschool years is directly related to cognitive and academic gains in later age. While the research has ample advantages of a bilingual environment for typically developing kid but it changes when a kid has a developmental delay or communication disorder like autism. Most parents and professionals are still fearful of using more than one language with children who have significant communication problems. The authors elaborated that there is a significant scarcity in the literature comparing the performance of bilingual and monolingual children with communication disorders. However, they agreed to a growing body of research that maintains that bilingual children with disabilities can use their first language to acquire a second language if trained systematically. Authors maintain that children who are exposed to two languages may benefit to a great degree from a bilingual approach to intervention. (e.g., Kohnert, 2010, 2013). Finally on the serving needs of children who are bilingual and with a communication
Too many times growing up has the phrase been said, “Speak English! This is America”. If the United States has always been the home to hundreds of immigrants, with different nationalities, can we say English is the only language to talk in America? Absolutely not. For many years, the United States has preferred monolingualism, the knowledge of one language however from hospitals to courts, the assistance to interpret different languages is now offered. Schools have now begun to implement programs that consist of teaching in two different languages, known as dual language classrooms. All coming together to push forward the rewarding benefit of knowing more than one language, of being bilingual. Just like manners, the knowledge of a second language must be taught at an early age by our first teachers, our parents.
Linguists may support beginning instruction in a second language in elementary school rather than high school because childhood is a critical stage for development of language, this means that is easier to learn a second language during ages three and ten because a person is developing fluency and pronunciation in any particular language. If a person is older is going to be more difficult to have a good structure of a particular language and is not anymore an important period for language acquisition, also a person maybe is not going to have the fluency and pronunciation to sound like a native language. Although it is adequate to do it in the proper stage, the benefits of being bilingual never stops and can give a variety of opportunities in
They should encourage and support students to the attainment of bilingual or multilingual skills. They should also consider that students coming from homes where two or more languages are used will face difficulty in applying while in the school environment. The fact that so few Americans command any other language than English is largely a result of educational failure and cultural inadequacies.
am completely for bilingual education being in public schools. Foreign languages are (usually) a core requirement in high school, but I believe that if young children have more of an exposure to a second language it would improve most students’ overall fluency. I also believe that it would give students a serious advantage throughout life.
America is the boiling pot of the world. It is where people from all over the globe come to either visit short term or decide to take residence long term because of the freedoms that America makes possible due to the Constitution. Because of the vast amounts of immigrants that take refuge here in the states, on would think that many different languages are spoken everywhere in the US on a day to day basis. This, however, is not the case. Though English is understandably the most spoken language in the US, many Americans deem it “unnecessary” to learn any other country’s language. There are many reasons why America should jump on the proverbial bandwagon of bilingual and/or multilingual language learning. Firstly, I will give some background on bilingual education, then I will give my two main reasons that America should require language learning courses starting at a young age, which are that
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