▶ Your Answer :Nowadays, secondary schools are teaching a foreign language.
It has been also suggested that primary schools should teach a foreign
language. Although there are opponents to this idea, and indeed there are
shortcomings to this proposal, I believe the advantages far outweigh the
disadvantages for the following reasons.
Most importantly,
psychologists have shown that the younger a person is, the faster he or she
learns a language. If they lose the optimal timing to learn it, it becomes
harder to absorb any language as they get older.
Some might disagree
with this view by citing some psychological studies which found that kids get
confused if they learn multiple languages at the same time. For example, if
their moms tell their kids both words “mommy” and “umma,” the Korean word
meaning mommy, they might speak “Good morning, umma.” Without realizing they
are mixing two different languages.
There is a grain of
truth to this argument. However, this side effect can be prevented by correctly
instructing them that they are learning different languages, or by letting
different people teach different languages to the children. In this way, they
can naturally distinguish the two languages.
Another reason to
instruct a foreign language at an earlier stage is that secondary school
curricula are largely occupied with mathematics and sciences, leaving inadequate
time for children to focus an acquiring a language skill. If instead we ask the
secondary school students to study a foreign language too hard, their
mathematical dexterity will be suffered. For this reason, primary school period
is the best time to educate a foreign language.
Opponents to my view
would also maintain that it is better for our country to concentrate on
instructing our own language, rather than a foreign one, to promote our culture
and identity. However, this nationalistic view is losing power in this
globalized society. Our culture can be made prosperous by interacting with
people from all over the world, and this interaction would be possible only when
the members of our country can speak at least one foreign language. Primary
schools teaching a foreign language will bring about more benefits than losses.
This is because it is human nature that people can learn a language more easily
when they are young, delaying the education until a secondary school would
cause a conflict with other courses such as mathematics, and it has become vial
to be able to speak a foreign language in this globalized world. |