The Importance of Learning Foreign Languages Essay

Obviously, knowledge of a foreign language opens up doors to opportunities unimaginable with just one language. For example, a student who’s fluent in both English and Spanish can broaden her job search to South America, Spain, and countless other geographical region where Spanish is spoken. Even if she chooses to stay within America, she will have access to the rich culture and warmth of the people of Latin American descent, which may not have happened had she chose not to keep an open eye to the hispanic community by focusing on English only. The same story applies to a student who acquires proficiency in Chinese language. Because language is a key to getting immersed in another culture, bilingual education will naturally lead students to explore and learn from a foreign culture, enhancing their understanding of the world and diverse

One of the most common things that America is known for is having a combination of so many cultures and languages. Although spanish is the second language people think of being spoken in the United States, languages such as german, chinese, japanese, french, and russian are commonly spoken as well. It is important that all US high school and college students are required to learn at least two years of a foreign language so that teens can be more open to travel, can compete for jobs, and are able to expand their knowledge about the world.

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.

Bilingual people are smarter than monolingual people. In fact, it is proven that bilingual people are more cognitively developed and receive higher scores in academics. However, this can be improved among monolingual students by teaching more foreign languages in American public schools. By raising foreign language requirements, monolingual students are forced to exercise new regions of their brains, thus improving brain function and academic performance. It is imperative to the cognitive and academic betterment of American students that multiple foreign languages are taught in public schools.

Children all over the world are taught every day that communication is vital to life in this modern world, but they are being kept from learning any language beyond their native tongue. In Europe alone, there are twenty-four official languages and that count does not include the more regional languages that are dotted across the continent. There are forty-four countries in a land that is of comparable size to the US. Twenty-four languages in forty-four countries, yet each new generation that comes along has been taught that it is fine to seclude themselves to knowing a single language. A child in the US could be able to talk to a child in Finland, Vietnam, or South Africa in a literal moment, but that connection often never happens, because they don’t speak each other’s language. Without the knowledge gained from a well known second language, they will be unable to reach their full potential in expressing themselves in a world where they have the potential to be constantly interacting with people from other countries, cultures, and language backgrounds. “We Americans do a less than adequate job when it comes to teaching our children a foreign language. We start too late and we do too little to convince our children about why learning a foreign language is so important. “ Children need to be exposed to as many forms of the world to expand their minds and allow them to convey what they experience. To not allow this to happen, would be akin to attempting to write a paper with

The United States education system lacks a national foreign language education requirement, which has resulted in a decline of foreign language learning opportunities. (“Education,” 2010). Foreign language requirements and opportunities in the nation’s schools are decreasing due to budget cuts (Skorton & Altschuler, 2012). Out of the 50 states, only 10 states have a foreign language graduation requirement set for students (“Education,” 2010). From 1997 to 2008, the number of elementary schools offering a foreign language decreased from 31% to 25%, while the number of middle schools dropped from 75% to 58%. Foreign language opportunities in high schools remained the same at around 91%; however, from 1994 to 2010 the percent of colleges that required foreign language study dropped from 67.5% to 50.7% (Skorton & Altschuler, 2012). The result

Frank Smith, a psycholinguist recognized for his contributions in cognitive psychology and linguistics, expresses the advantages of bilingualism —“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” However, only 18% of Americans can speak more than one language, while 53% of Europeans and 99% of Latvians are bilingual. The United States does not have a standard foreign language mandate at any level of education; some states permit individual school districts to set their own language requirements in high school, but primary schools rarely offer foreign language classes. This is unfortunate as with the ability to speak more than one language comes a global consciousness that opens

Students argue that a foreign language is pointless and they aren't going to need it in real life. This be obvious to think because three-quarters of Americans speak in only their mother language (YouGov). However, reality proves them wrong

The foreign language deficit in America serves to be inimical to the future of American society. America’s foreign language curriculum displays a more than lackluster approach in relation to those upheld in other countries. Unlike our European counterparts, most American school systems only require that students acquire two foreign language credits to graduate. Most of the time, these courses are either taught by some athletic coach who could really care less if you know how to conjugate the verb “ir” correctly, or by an overly passionate foreigner who spends the class time intensively explaining said conjugations to a class full of seniors who just want to graduate. In some states, this requirement is even nonexistent.

The United States embraces a medley of numerous languages. From Spanish to German, many people in the U.S. speak another language or have been taught another language during their academic careers. Furthermore, language immersion begins either in middle school or high school. Schools offer a wide variety of languages, from Arabic to German, to their students. Over the years, studies have shown that learning a new language improves the brain’s memory and other cerebral skills. In addition, studies have shown that the bilingual brain possesses better cognitive skills than the monolingual brain. Moreover, some studies show that if students learned foreign languages at a younger age, it would benefit them even more. Therefore, should foreign languages be introduced to students at a younger age? After analyzing the scientific, cultural, academic, and artistic aspects of bilingualism at a younger age, the benefits of being bilingual at a younger age aid students in the long run, neurologically, and can possibly increase their IQ.

First and foremost, I will talk about the advantages of learning a foreign language from the cognitive perspective. It improves your mind like a child starts learning the language for the first time. In that case, your brain will match between your mother language and the foreign language, then you will be able to switch between the two or more languages more quickly and immediately which emphasizes your intelligence and your high cognition skills. According to Alison Mackey who is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and Lancaster University that “learning a foreign language can increase the size of your brain. This is what

“In boxing, they say everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, in language learning, we could just as easily say that everyone has the perfect conversation in mind until they speak to a real native.” says Why Language Classes Don’t Work author Tim Ferriss. Communication is not the focus of a foreign language class these days. Memorizing words and short sentences is not a natural function. Taking a foreign class is not effective and it’s outdated because it’s like placing a group of people, who don’t know how to calculate the area of a circle, into a room and seeing how much they know. According to Jay Mathews,“How students still look good on their report cards is easy to explain. Because much of the world is striving to learn English, Americans wonder why they should bother to learn other languages. We talk about the importance of foreign language learning to our national security, but we don’t mean it. If we need speakers of exotic tongues, we import them”.

In a similar way, a foreign language course can increases studying abroad. Students would interact and effectively communicate with people on campus, off campus, or out of the country. Psychologist John B. Carroll, mentions that “Even brief time spent abroad had a potent effect on a student 's language skills” (1967). Students understand the experiences of new culture, language, and people are important because they encounter how to deal with respecting and learning to assimilate in different cultures.

I am going to explore the relevance, benefits and the place of Modern Foreign Languages within the curriculum as well as the ‘framework’ associated with MFL which supports other subjects. I will focus more on cognitive, health, education benefits as well as economic values. I will also touch upon cultural, personal and social advantages. These different aspects will help to outline what ‘learning a foreign language’ consists of and justify the status and significance of Modern Foreign Languages within the curriculum.

Students that have foreign language experience and knowledge increase the chance of having job opportunities and career options. First off, research shows individuals that knew a foreign language improved on a few skills that a majority of businesses would consider important to possess (Doherty 2016). According to a study from the Pennsylvania State University, the skill of switching between two ways of speech, structure, and writing makes those people good multitaskers. In one of Pennsylvania State University’s studies, bilingual and monolingual people took part in a driving simulator while doing distracting tasks. The results of the research found that the bilingual individuals made fewer errors in their driving than monolinguals (Merritt 2013). Some research also suggests people that were taught another language are better at solving complex problems and are more creative than others that received no foreign language instruction (Doherty 2016). Some people may argue that the number of bilingual jobs