Formal Paper #3

Elementary through high school age children are exposed to many different subjects during their school-aged years; mathematics, history, English, home economics, chemistry, biology and many other sciences, and that is only to name a few. Even though the children sit in the classroom for about eight hours a day and learn all these subjects they never really get the opportunity to explore anything new or different; they do not ever venture out into the world. The classroom is their cage, and many children sit at their desk and stare out of the window of their classroom peering into a world they wish they could be a real part of. Sure, history and geography class teach us about the world, but most school-aged children still do not even realize that there is a whole other world outside of their classroom, school bus and home. These children do not realize that there are billions and billions of people outside of America. Foreign language classes would help free these children, in kindergarten through high school, from their naïve bubble and show them a world of experiences they never knew they could have.

Kindergarten through high school is the time to provide students with the tools they will need to succeed in the real world. These school years are the best time for kids to learn about themselves and what it is they are capable of. Students should be challenged and given opportunities to discover the things about themselves they never knew. School aged children should be given opportunities to branch out and experience new things that can provide them with the confidence they need to succeed in whatever is it they desire. Learning a second or even third language can build that confidence within each student, and provide him or her with the buoyancy they need to succeed. Children actually learn faster and retain more of language than do adults and being bilingual even builds brainpower that is why it is very important to teach new language during the school age years. Students who attain a second language in school often perform better on tests than those that do not learn a second language. Studying a foreign language also provides students with better verbal skills and problem-solving abilities; tools they will need later in life.

Between birth and puberty when children are in the elementary and middle school ages they can learn multiple languages and echo accents easily. Studies have shown that children have an innate ability to hear differences in languages. The young human brain is designed in a way that allows children to pick up language naturally, however as we age our ability to soak up language diminishes therefore starting to learn multiple languages early in life at the elementary age is beneficial to children. In our fast paced and ever shrinking world and with our ever increasingly global economy, we should be raising the kindergarten through high school kids to be global citizens. It is predicted that by 2025 China will be the world’s leading economy, the future leaders of our country need to be able to communicate with people from other countries, without that ability the world’s economy will fail and our children will be left behind without the tools to fix the problems. Learning early how to communicate with multiple cultures of people is beneficial and can give a young student pride and confidence to be able to branch out to communicate with new people and even experience new cultures. Success in all of the majour subject areas is important to a child’s future just as much as learning new language is. Learning a foreign language can assist a student to be successful in the other subject areas like English, math, and the sciences. Understanding the structure and use of another language can even build a better understanding of the students’ own language as well. The ability to describe something in more than one way provides for better creativity and flexibility in thought patterns, which is useful in problem solving areas such as mathematics and also many sciences. Students who succeed in foreign language studies are more susceptible to acquire high grades in all of the other subject areas that they study in school.

Extra curricular activities such as sports, band, and art clubs are very important to help students gain confidence and other tools they'll need in life. These extra curricular activities are important ways of allowing a student to express themselves, but learning a new language should not be optional like the extra curricular activities are; it should be a mandatory part of the core curriculum throughout the elementary and high school years. Each student should have to have a passing grade in a certain number of language credits in order to even graduate. Many schools do not enforce learning a new language, which is very important in the Kindergarten through high school times of their lives. The students who are in a school district that does not provide foreign language studies tend to struggle later in life with finding a job or succeeding to their full potential in their chosen career field. Taking a foreign language class should be the norm and standard for every high school across our entire nation. My stepsons are in 6th and 7th grade, learning a language is not required of them, it is very strange and frustrating to me that they are not being taught a foreign language and are not being given the opportunity to learn to communicate with other people around the world. The United States of America is a very diverse nation and there are many non-English speaking people living in American cities and towns. Language barriers in America are frequent causes of confusion and misunderstanding amoung people living in a community together. In my primary education in New York, from elementary school through high school graduation, I had no choice but to learn a new language. I was able to choose which language, but I had to choose one nonetheless. Having a second language had always helped me succeed in my other classes and it also helped me succeed later in life when I was able to apply for jobs that required bilingualism, and when I was able to communicate with the Spanish-speaking people in my community.

There are over thirty five million people in America who speak Spanish as their first language, but today only fifteen percent of public elementary schools teach a foreign language. As global events change so too do the patterns of learning a new language. Marisa Cohen from Parents Magazine writes, “For instance, Russian lessons spiked during the Cold War, while Japanese became popular in the 1980s as Japan became a global business leader. Now Mandarin is becoming the must-learn foreign language, a nod to the fact that experts predict China will become the world's number-one economy by the time our preschoolers finish college.” Her description explains just how important the attainment of a foreign language is. Martha Abbott, the executive director of education on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages also argues in support of learning foreign language, she says, "In many cultures, business doesn't get done in the conference room -- it happens at social events, and in these settings you can't always rely on an interpreter being there." Her statement makes an argument supporting the teaching of foreign language to grade school children. Abbott mentions the reliance on an interpreter; if American children were being taught foreign language they could actually be the interpreter for someone else instead of needing an interpreter for themselves. The interpreter had to learn both languages to be able to do his or her job. Attaining a foreign language just makes sense, and schools across the nation need to implement a foreign language program into the everyday core curriculum.

*http://www.cal.org
*Parents Magazine