The Importance Of Developing Language Proficiency

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

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.

“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.

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.

Learning a new language can either be based on necessity or the willingness to learn a new language. Whether a student/adult care for the language or not, it is becoming very important in the process of obtaining a better job, or the need to learn a new culture. There are many concepts and ideas that go alongside the process of learning a new language. For that reason, this essay will try to explain through research why and how people learn English as a foreign language with the help of a former student.

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 am an international student from China. English is required for every student to learn as a second language in China. I was exposed to English in the first grade. General grammatical structure and vocabulary are taught through primary school to high school. My parents also enrolled me to multiple English summer camps in order to put me in an environment where English is the only language spoken by students and foreign teachers. My oral skills were improved through the experience of summer camps. In the formal English class, the teacher would use numerous strategies to teach. For instance, the teacher used cassettes to play the textbook’s readings in order to help students to learn the correct pronunciation. In the morning, students were often required to read out loud and repeat the vocabulary learned on the previous day to memorize the vocabulary. Chinese and English were both used by the teacher to teach in class. Through my secondary school experience of learning English, I would say the things I learned in English class gave me a basic understanding of the sentence structure and a limited vocabulary expansion. By the time when I started studying abroad in the United States, I realized what I learned in China were not enough. I had a hard time to understand the teacher’s instruction and communicate with my host family. My host family encouraged me to join the school’s cheerleading team and other school activities. This experience gave me a chance to bond with American

Many researchers have hypothesized that language could be acquired only within a critical period, which is from early infancy to puberty. If this is true, this should be extended to second language acquisition as well, and, if so, young children should be better at acquiring the second language than adults, and the individuals who started to learn the second language in their early childhood should reach higher levels of proficiency in the second language compare to those who started to learn the language in their adulthood. If this prediction is true, it would importantly demonstrate that children should be exposed to language with rich vocabulary and grammar within the critical period, and foreign language exposure at school should take place in early grades in order to maximize their opportunity to learn the language effectively. However, the self-motivation and the value of learning the language may differ depending on the individuals and those factors can limit or expand the exposure to the target language. In this paper, I would like to discuss the correlation between the age that bilingual individuals are exposed to the second language as well as their motivation, and the value of learning the second language. I would like to suggest that regardless of the age that individuals are exposed to the second language, if one values the importance of learning the target language and maximize their exposure to it, they can reach to the native level of

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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)

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.