The Benefits Of Learning A Foreign Language

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

What is your first language? Do you remember your first words? How about learning to pronounce or spell words of your first language? Would you ever learn a foreign language because it sounds like a lot of work. Today some students are required to learn another language. However all students in the US shouldn't have to be required. Some reasons may include students never using the language, not learning another language would free up time, and students may not learn as much as people think. This is why students in the US shouldn't have to be required to learn another language.

Though America does not have an official language, English is the most spoken language. First, English is the language of the forefathers; those who are the foundation and reason our country is still in existence today. Whenever the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution were written, the Englishmen wrote them in English. Nonetheless, English has been spoken for many, many centuries. To add to that, the English language is what ties the country back to it’s roots. Secondly, knowing the English language does not just stop at ordering food at a restaurant, it is the language that countries use to trade with one another. Immigrants who know English do not have as much trouble ordering food or trying to sell items to other people. English is the native language of the United States; therefore, learning the language should be a requirement.

The United States is filled with many different ethnicities, cultures, customs, languages, etc. Supposedly, our public schools are equipped with classes, teachers, curriculums and materials in order to educate that part of the student population whose first language is something other than the English language. Bilingual classes, transitional classes, ESL classes are just a few of the programs that have been developed to instruct non-English speaking students in order for them to acquire the English language.

​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

Spanish shouldn't be required in school. Being forced to learn a foreign language is a disgrace to being an American. Most high school graduates enter careers that don't require the ability to speak anything more than English. Spanish is irrelevant. High School students should be able to take Spanish as an high school elective class, not being forced into taking it.

Learning a foreign language is tough, but unbelievably rewarding such as better job opportunities. With the way the united states is developing as a country, a

Choosing to have one official language ignores the historical diversity of the United States and ultimately contradicts the values of the country. This is because, it is oppressive against the majority of immigrants living in the U.S. We are a country filled with various languages and cultures and so we cannot build a wall and expect people to comply. Our ancestors migrated to the U.S to obtain the freedom that others have. The freedom that enables us to keep hold of our rights, religion, and nonetheless our language.

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.

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.

Language is shared among the immigrants which comes from their culture. The United States benefits from nations of the many immigrants that migrate to the U.S. the diversity of different languages brings unlimited benefit to our nation. Nearly everyone in America speaks a shared language which is English. But with diverse persons coming from different nations, they bring laterally with them languages such as French, Arabic, Spanish, Urdu and several others. These languages give us a chance to learn a different language and benefit from its Culture. In modern days, languages, which stated previously, are assumed as a choice in a schools core curriculum. As said before, occasionally immigrants are accused that they don’t know how to speak English,

I am privileged to speak English as well as some German and Spanish. This opportunity to learn different languages has been encouraged by others and although I am completely fluent in only English, I have been provided with the resources to learn German and Spanish while in High School, at University, and even through online applications. I grew up in an English-speaking household and it was the only language I was introduced to until High School. It was not necessary for me to learn a foreign language to be successful in life or to be considered by American society, an American citizen. However, not everyone living in the U.S. is as fortunate as me. Minorities and immigrants find it crucial to learn English in order to communicate effectively, acquire a job, receive a better education, and to live life successfully here. Hence my surprise at learning that America has been

It is a long going controversy in American education- whether the future leaders of our country should be educated in one, or multiple languages other than English as a standard in every school. Why is the debate so ongoing in the United States? In most other countries, foreign language education is a must in the school system, not a privilege.

Speaking English only in America does not minimize the language barrier of the diverse Americans that live in this country. Many millions of Americans come from Spanish speaking countries, are they less American than those that were born in the United States just because they only speak Spanish. America needs to embrace the second language rather than shun it because it can be very beneficial. Spanish should be encouraged in educational systems and government agencies because millions of Americans speak Spanish at home, it promotes an acceptable lane of communications with others, and it also caters to a great amount of Americans.

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.