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?
范文
Traditionally, children have begun studying foreign languages at secondary school, but introducing them earlier is recommended by some educationalists. This policy has been adopted by some educational authorities or individual schools, with both positive and negative outcomes.
The obvious argument in its favour is that young children learn languages much more easily than teenagers. Having just begun to learn their mother tongue, children will more likely find that learning a language is interesting. Meanwhile, unlike those secondary school students, children are usually too young to feel shy, which makes it easier for them to learn a foreign language.
Comparatively, children have more time and their timetable is more flexible, so it is possible to give them more frequent, yet shorter foreign languages classes and include more language games. This is very beneficial to keep their interest to make sure they make progress. Once they have learned a foreign language at a young age, they will find it easier to learn other languages when they grow up, so they can gain a better understanding of many different cultures.
There are, however, some disadvantages. First, primary school teachers often do not have the necessary language skills themselves to ensure the quality of their teaching. If better teachers have to be brought in to deliver these classes, the schedule flexibility discussed above will be sacrificed. Second, as the foreign language teaching is not standardised in different primary schools, secondary schools will have a difficult time making their teaching plans because they will be faced with students with different foreign language levels.However, these problems can be solved if the right policy is adopted.
Anything which helps language learning benefits society culturally and economically, so the younger age at which a child learns a foreign language, the better. Young children should make the best use of their advantages to acquire a foreign language before they go to the secondary school.
