▶ Your Answer :
Thanks to globalization, people in modern
society have more chances to interact with foreigners so that the importance of
learning a foreign language has been emphasized. Different from other academic
studies, however, acquiring linguistic proficiency tends to become harder for
older people as they are accustomed to their mother tongue too much. In this
regard, whether or not teaching second language for children at primary school
is better than secondary school has become frequent topic of people’s debate.
As far as I am concerned, however, in terms of studying foreign language, the
earlier the better. This could be understood by looking at the assertions given
below.
To be first, studying other language in a
younger age is beneficial for pronunciation. Young children tend to mimic
everything including what they have heard from the others and never hesitate to
make mistakes. Moreover, their flexible tongue and imperfect understanding of
linguistic and cultural connection can help children absorb foreign languages
like a sponge. Of course, secondary school students are still young enough to
do so but the efficiency of learning cannot exceed that of their counterparts
as their speaking habits and tongues are not as flexible as primary school
students. According to an article released few weeks ago, there was an interesting
experiment regarding linguistic achievement between primary and secondary
school student under the same condition. Astonishingly, in many different
aspects – pronunciation, understanding of idioms and culture of the language,
the former group showed more accomplishment than the latter.
Additionally, when children start learning
foreign language from their secondary school, they might not able to feel
interest on it. Language is based on a communication or interaction between
people. Unfortunately, however, today’s school education puts too much
concentration on academic achievement for better grade. This phenomenon becomes
more and more apparent as children becomes higher grade. Therefore, even if
they have opportunities to study foreign language and carry out high
performance on examination, it is absurd to say that they are fluent at their
second language. For instance, In Korea, where everyone starts to learn English
academically only for better university of employment opportunity, many people
have great understanding of grammar and vocabularies of English. However, as
they approached to English for academic outcomes, they did not have chances to
actually use their knowledge. In this sense, providing opportunities to study
foreign language before children are obsessed with their grade, can maximize
the fluency of their second language.
To sum up, academic achievement in terms of
foreign language differs depending on one’s capability. Nevertheless, learning
foreign language at younger age is better for children because they can naturally
understand the language and have more chances to be interested in it.
|