The Importance Of Developing Language Proficiency

Soft-skills guide us to the path where we want to head toward, and help become a better member of the future business world. The soft-skills learning triangle developed by Dr. Jean Adams illustrates the interactivity among the three factors: the learner, context, and content. Dr. Jean Adams pointed out that the soft-skills cannot only be developed by the “book learning”, but also a real-life experience should come along to actually apply the skills and learn further from it. Thus, seeking for both the theory and the real-life experience is

In “Why Foreign Language Education Matters” Representative Rush Holt expresses the idea that the average American is generally deprived of what is known as cultural enrichment in their day-to-day lives, even though others believe that English should be the primary and only language Americans should speak. Holt conveys the overall concept that being bilingual, trilingual, or multilingual is a benefit not just for oneself but for our society. Rush Holt presents the argument with extreme concern for our upcoming generations and the consequences it may cause our nation’s economy to decrease in federal funding’s for education programs, as well as our global marketplace and national security who is highly dependent of translators, specialist, and

For instance, a Business Development (BD) executive with thorough knowledge of its company’s services or products will surely have success, but the level of success is not as per the expectations. On the other hand, with strong interpersonal skills that BD executive will be able to close more deals and retain its clients. Similarly, a person on a responsible position should be a good listener, effective speaker and a creative thinker. Every job role has its own requirements for some soft skills to make hard skills worthy and useful.

“During the first two or three years of development, a child requires interaction with other language-users in order to bring the general language capacity into contact with a particular language such as English.” (Yule, The Study of Language, 2010)

According to statistics, there has been a stupendous immigration population growth in the United States. In recent years, America has grown into a multilinguistic nation that compromises different cultural communities. The degree of diversity in the country has escalated, and the language barriers have become more dominant in the society. The importance of learning a second language has also intensified. An acquired knowledge of a language, other than English, would be able reduce the evident cultural barriers in the country. The fact that St. Louis College of Pharmacy is not offering electives for second language for its seven year program students is unfavorable to the current diverse population. The Pharmacy students should have an opportunity to be educated in a second language because it would enable them to communicate with people that are outside their cultural circle.

In the era of internationalization, great value is placed on global understanding. The acquisition of foreign languages and multicultural awareness has become an essential asset for new generations. Furthermore, learning a foreign language has been shown to provide students with various additional benefits: students gain access to the cultural and intellectual heritage of other cultures while obtaining a new perspective on the structure and complexity of their own language and culture. For most students, fulfilling the college foreign language requirement is not an issue. However, for students with disabilities, achieving this requirement might be more difficult or even impossible, since students identified as having one or more disabilities have traditionally been excluded from the foreign language classroom. According to Shifrer, Callahan, and Muller (2013), only 26% of students labeled with a disability completes one foreign language high school credit; in contrast with 79% of not labeled students. Because of this, students with disabilities have been customarily denied the benefits foreign language acquisition provides, including admission to post-secondary education institutions.

In the current national and international corporate set up, English has become a language of survival at the workplace which plays a key role in the successful journey of young aspirants. English language communication is one of the important educational investments which promotes one's personality to meet the demands of global market. It enhances the social mobility among employees through better communication skills in English. It raises the confidence among them in achieving desired goals in life by enriching the personality of individuals. In this context, the English classroom has to provide the skills and strategies required to compete with their peers in the job market. At graduation level, English language learning should be done by blending the established theoretical principles and pragmatic findings of the present situation which strengthens the academic spirit of an individual. Hence, the sustained efforts and innovative learning activities adopted by the learner in improving English language becomes the window to prosper in the corporate world.

The United States is further behind in education than many other countries. They are lacking behind in math and science compared to Asian countries. They are more below in arts than European countries. They are also further behind in foreign language than the rest of the world. Children are more receptive to learning when it begins at an early age. To obtain a positive and better quality of learning, foreign language should be considered in being implemented in primary school.

Learning a foreign language is becoming more and more popular everywhere in our day and time, and Mexico is not the exception. Many Mexican students, young and old, are motivated to learn English for education, work, travel, or even just for the love of learning a new language. Alejandro Estrada is an English student from Guadalajara, Jalisco. His goal in learning English is to further his education, and thus his quality of life. In this essay, I will create explain Alejandro’s concerns with studying English, and what I can do to help him achieve his language goals.

I have always wanted to make meaningful contributions to our society, and this is my primary reason of choosing to do research. I wish to purse a Ph.D. in Education within UC Davis School of Education with an emphasis on bilingualism on young children. It is fascinating to me how children at young age are able to learn more than one language. I hope to learn more about second language acquisition and make language learning and teaching more efficient and effective.

Every day in human life we communicate with one another and how the communication is expressed varies based on the culture or social experience of the individual. Language comes in various definitions and is defined by Lyons (1981) as a conventional symbol system, an object, and “a cognitive phenomenon” (Clark, 1996), a social process. Language comes in two modalities, speech, social, and writing, object and is made of seven functions which are shown through personal, regulatory, interactional, imaginative, representational, heuristic and instrumental dialogue (Halliday, 1975). The study of language can be voiced as an object to be analysed and a social process that develops over time as we learn from one another. The social-cultural nature of language needs to be presented within the classroom to ensure education is inclusive to all levels of literacy. Language as an object and language as a social process will be defined within this text supported by quotes including Green (2006), Gee & Hayes (2011), Halliday (1975), Britton (1982), Clark (1996), Kay (2010), Crystal (2013) and Wittgenstein (1921). Language is dynamic as it is continually changing, words including ‘hath’, ‘thou’ and ‘natheless’ have been altered to develop with society (Oxford, 2017), a social process. This text will clarify how language is analysed as an object but also a social process with examples of how to apply the social-cultural nature of language to the classroom.

Humans are equipped physically and mentally to learn any language with equal ease. All human children go through same stages of language learning regardless of language they are learning.

“I can’t wait to put this language that I have spent four years learning in high school to good use!” exclaimed every foreign language student. But expectations do not align with reality and upon entering the country where the foreign language is spoken, the student realizes that they can barely converse and understand only the most basic phrases. Why is this? It is because the foreign language classes offered in high school only cover vocabulary and grammar. Because they overlook the other essential parts of language, the course leaves students with inconsistent abilities. Introducing foreign language studies at the high school level is ineffective because it diverts resources for courses that may have minimal impact on students’ academic successes.

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

As English being my first, and only language it has had a larger impact on my life than anything else. It is how I have learned to express myself, the way I listen, and how I think. From my point of view English isn’t just a language it is a way of thought, it’s a major factor of our personalities, and has heavily influenced our society. I see English as a language of options, you have up and down, left or right, and day and night. Making choices like this is how we develop into the people we are, I think every decision that I have ever made has helped formed my personality. English does have words to describe the middle ground, but they don’t seem as strong as other words, they seem like a path to stay out of the way. Some may see this a bad thing, but I think you can never really have the best of both worlds so you may as well choose one. Not only has English been a great way for me to express, and think for myself, it has also been one of my biggest downfalls.