Some experts believe that it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
It has become a popular trend that children are forced to learn a foreign language at younger ages and some experts advocate that learning a second language at primary school brings more benefits than at secondary school, which constitutes a source of constant debate among parents. This essay will elaborate on both advantages and disadvantages and compare them in the end.
In terms of merits of learning a foreign language at primary school, it is worth mentioning that it is easier for a child to get the hang of a second language in his or her earlier years. At the primary school, pupils do not have heavy school tasks to deal with and they can spare more time on language learning, which boost their efficiency of grasping a foreign language, while at secondary school, students are burdened with numerous disciplines, such as physics and biology, so they tend to distract their attentions form language study. Also, it is common language that children at primary school are not deeply affected by their mother language and culture, since they just have a little knowledge of this world and their surroundings. In addition, children are known for acquiring an excellent language ability at this stage in their lives. Thus, it is the best time to shape their outlooks and develop their language ability.
On the negative side, some pupils at primary school may get confused by learning both native language and foreign language. They may not sure whether some words are used properly in native language or second language and they may mix both two languages in their formal speaking and writing, which may result in criticism from other people. Consequently, they often cannot learn both languages well. Furthermore, learning a foreign language at such a small age may, to some extent, reduce their culture identity which is often related to language study.
According to the above analyses, the advantages of learning a second language at primary school outweigh its negative sides. Children are gifted with an outstanding language ability in their early years, so they should make optimal use of their talents at the primary schools. Although, sometimes they may be confronted with confusions or difficulties in the process of learning, if guided well from teachers and parents, they can avoid adverse effects on themselves.
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Comments
Due to globalization, many
Due to globalization, many students prefer working or living in other countries. Learning foreign language has numerous advantages over student who are monolingual. So definitely learning foreign language is beneficial. This has certainly steered debates as when this needs to be introduced in school. Many people are of the opinion that foreign language needs to be taught in secondary school. However, I am of the opinion that foreign language should be introduced in primary school as the children can get sufficient time to gain control over the language.
Student who are bilingual have numerous advantage over their peer who are monolingual. This creates more job opportunities for bilingual student. Companies do recruit people who know foreign languages as this is beneficial for the company itself. There are examples where a person having Chinese as a foreign subject in school was recruited by a renowned Chinese school to teach English to their children. That person being bilingual could very easily relate English words with Chinese. This helped the children to learn faster.
Learning foreign language in primary school has its own advantages. Firstly, Children at such a tender age can very easily grasp information. This becomes very easy for them to learn new language. Secondly, children will have sufficient time till they graduate to become fluent in that language. The disadvantages are they being adolescence they will be heavily burden with an additional subject. They may also get confused with words and may end up mixing both the languages. Also many do not get to decide the subject of their choice.
However learning foreign language in secondary has advantage because students are comparatively matured enough to decide the language of their choice. They are also easily can relate to words which make them learn the language quicker as compared to primary children. The disadvantage is they have limited period to gain fluency of the language.
So to conclude, learning foreign language is definitely advantageous and it will be best if this is being introduced at an early age especially in primary school. Though there are disadvantages in learning the foreign language at such an early stage of life, the advantages over-weigh them.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 7.0 out of 9
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 14 15
No. of Words: 383 350
No. of Characters: 1910 1500
No. of Different Words: 191 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.424 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.987 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.512 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 114 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 78 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 27 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.357 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.009 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.929 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.402 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.585 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.135 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5