Monolingual America
English may be the most commonly spoken language of the United States of America, but it cannot get Americans everywhere in life. America is becoming more diverse every day, and the English language is slowly fading into the background. Sadly, our generation of today still only knows one language, English, and is falling behind with the diverse population faced ahead of us. Ultimately, it is time that our schools offered foreign language courses in early elementary education.
To begin, author Julia Tagliere states, “A well- known psychologist, Jean Piaget, has put forth arguments that learning a second language at an early age allows for the willingness and open-mindedness needed to learn a foreign language”. In elementary education, students are not required to take challenging courses, such as calculus or government. In high school these courses are occupying most of the student’s time, memory, and much of their energy. I can relate to this situation because I have taken four years of Spanish in high school and I had a very difficult time understanding the many concepts. My brain was crowded with learning imaginary slopes in Calculus and writing MLA, a completely foreign structure to me, in my English class. This left little room for the memorization and interest of learning a second language. As author, Birgit Harley, quotes psychologist Ausubel regarding younger children, “Their intellectual capacities are … more venturesome and less rigid in undertaking new learning tasks” (15). If I had been introduced to a foreign language early in education I would have had the willingness and ambition to learn something new rather than fretting the new information because my memory was already crammed.
In addition to retaining more information, learning a second language early in education would provide further experience with the language itself. Studying a second language when in preschool or kindergarten gives the students their whole education to develop and learn the language and become fluent. In high school, students only have four short years to learn a lifetime of rules and concepts needed to learn these foreign languages, and like my situation, it’s very rare to become fluent within only four years. A study from the University of London found that, “Older learners of a second language will not be as fluent as those who learned earlier in life” (“Language Learning”). The early learners understood the language better and could speak and pronounce it more fluently because they had been introduced to it earlier in their lives.
Not only do we have a lack of memory and experience when learning a second language later on in education, our country is also becoming more diverse every day, so it is even more important to learn a foreign language in general. At younger and younger ages, we are encountering people who speak English as not their first but as their second language. From personal experience, my roommate speaks Swahili as her first language and English her second. There’s diversity right in my college dorm room. According to the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, “More than 380 million people speak English as their first language.” The study abroad program reports, “As many as 470 million to a billion people speak English as a second language” (“Language of the Month”). This data depicts that English is actually falling behind the other languages of the world. We don’t want to end up being stuck not understanding our peers because we weren’t able to take a foreign language until high school, where often, we still don’t become fluent after the four years of studying it. By studying a second language early in education we can grow up with our fellow peers and actually be able to understand and hold conversations with them because we know what they are saying. We will not have to fall behind with the times because we are struggling to grasp a foreign language.
A foreign language that would greatly benefit someone and should be offered in elementary education is French. After all, French is considered a language of love and can hook you up with that certain girl or guy that you have been looking for. From personal experience, I ran into a guy that had a French accent and it made him all the more attractive. As well as helping land the guy or girl, according to Richard Shryock, a teacher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, “French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world…”. Our schools must have missed this memo since more and more other students around the world are learning the second language, French, and we are still stuck in our English language. In addition to being the second most taught language in other countries, learning French would also help when looking for careers. Richard Shyrock points out “… The importance of French can be seen in a recent listing of international jobs … distributed by the US State Department: 78 required or preferred French”. French was the most popular language wanted by international corporations. Employers are not looking for the monolingual American anymore. They are looking for the diverse, bilingual individual to represent their corporation. With French being the second most taught language, and seventy – eight international jobs required French, it would benefit those who learn it in early education.
Although having students learn a second language at an earlier age is a popular idea, some Americans may be afraid to introduce their children to a second language because they are in fear that it will affect the learning of their native language. This is simply not true. Research by La Jolie Ronde, and an organization teaching foreign languages, stated that “…studies have shown that no long-term delay in native English language development occurs between children participating in second language … classes and those schooled exclusively in English”( “LA JOLIE”). Therefore, it is shown that we would not have to worry about the confusion that others may think the second language will cause. In fact, it has been proven that the learning of a second language can improve overall school performance. Dr.William, a bilingual teacher, states, “Children who learn a second language do better on standardized tests in English. It has also been shown that children who are bilingual have better abilities to think abstractly” (“Two-Way“). We may now know why our monolingual America does so poor on standardized tests.
In conclusion, I probably would not have learned Swahili early in my education, but I don’t want to be stuck in this one language world. Monolingual America should be no more. By introducing foreign language courses earlier in education we will be able to expand our one language world. The introduction of a second language early in education will allow for the open mindedness needed to learn a second language. We will be able to understand the foreign language more fluently if studied over a longer time period and we will no longer have to be afraid of the diverse population growing before us. Our young students will not be afraid of the challenge of balancing two languages, but in the end will prove to actually improve their studies overtime. Therefore, the introduction of a foreign language courses early in education would allow the one language world we live to become acquainted with its fellow languages.
Works Cited
Arone, William Dr. “Two-Way Language Program. “ Brocktonpublicschools.com. 4
Nov. 2008 <http://www.brocktonpublicschools.com/page.cfm?p=1257>.
|
