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?
That children should learn a new language in primary level instead of secondary schools is considered justified by plenty of linguistic specialists. Although this has some difficulties, from my point of view, overall there are various positive impacts.
One of the first and foremost reasons for children to learn another language early is that it would be easy for them to acquire new knowledge in the age from four to nine years old. According to a new research released by Vietnam Ministry of Education, the ability to acknowledge language of children in these ages is as twice higher than older people. This is the result from their carefree mind as well as their astounding mimetic ability.
Secondly, students who expose themselves to a new language in primary schools would have more time to master it. To access to a second language early, children might be able to listen or watch television programs in this language, so they could horn their listening skill. Furthermore, they might have more opportunities to use foreign language in variety of practical circumstances; for example, primary school students could communicate with people from other countries, which helps to sharpen up their speaking ability.
Nonetheless, there are still some difficulties of learning second language in the very first grades that children would encounter. Because they are too young to be aware of the importance of learning foreign language, they may learn it perfunctorily, culminating in negative impacts on their studies. Besides, unprofessional second language teaching in some primary schools could form considerable fundamental mistakes, which would be firm to remedy, to children.
To sum up, in spite of some downsides of learning foreign languages in primary level, in my opinion as a proponent, its upsides could utterly outweigh these disadvantages. However, unflagging educational endeavours should be made to improve foreign language teaching in primary schools.
Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
That children should learn a new language in primary level instead of secondary schools is considered justified by plenty of linguistic specialists. Although this has some difficulties, from my point of view, overall there are various positive impacts.
One of the first and foremost reasons for children to learn another language early is that it would be easy for them to acquire new knowledge in the age from four to nine years old. According to a new research released by Vietnam Ministry of Education, the ability to acknowledge language of children in these ages is as twice higher than older people. This is the result from their carefree mind as well as their astounding mimetic ability.
Secondly, students who expose themselves to a new language in primary schools would have more time to master it. To access to a second language early, children might be able to listen or watch television programs in this language, so they could horn their listening skill. Furthermore, they might have more opportunities to use foreign language in variety of practical circumstances; for example, primary school students could communicate with people from other countries, which helps to sharpen up their speaking ability.
Nonetheless, there are still some difficulties of learning second language in the very first grades that children would encounter. Because they are too young to be aware of the importance of learning foreign language, they may learn it perfunctorily, culminating in negative impacts on their studies. Besides, unprofessional second language teaching in some primary schools could form considerable fundamental mistakes, which would be firm to remedy, to children.
To sum up, in spite of some downsides of learning foreign languages in primary level, in my opinion as a proponent, its upsides could utterly outweigh these disadvantages. However, unflagging educational endeavours should be made to improve foreign language teaching in primary schools.
