The disadvantage
Cultural Discrepancies (sự không thống nhất)
For many older adults, the choice to learn a foreign language is one of interest, for reasons of
business or as per school requirements. But when children learn a foreign language, the
reasoning tends to stem from a parent’s desire. Some parents wish their children to learn more
about their origins, such as Hispanic American parents wanting their children to learn Spanish.
Other parents wish to prepare their children for future opportunities, as is the case for many
parents in China who send their children to English schools. Either way, due to the intimate link
between language and culture, your child will get a taste of a foreign culture. This can result in
cultural confusion in some cases, especially when a child is of a multi-ethnic background. For
example, a Japanese child living in Hawaii might be surrounded by other Japanese Americans,
attend Japanese school and even have Japanese extracurricular activities. The result of living in a
Japanese community but still being American can cause a child to question his identity,
especially in the teen years when self-identity becomes crucial and deeply linked with social
circles.
Advantages:
1. Young children pick up (absorb) languages much more easily than
teenagers.
- Programmed to acquire mother tongue, facilitating learning another
language, adolescents not have - (self-consciousness)
- Have a blank mind, taking advantages of this in leaning a foreign
language.
2. The greater flexibility of the primary timetable.
- More frequent and shorter sessions and play-centered approach stimulate
and maintain learners’ enthusiasm and progress
- The curriculums at primary school are far easier than secondary school
and designed with flexible and suitable schedules – devote more time to
focus on learning a foreign language.
Disadvantges:
There are some stumbling blocks:
1. The most important downside: Not comprehend the necessity
of knowing a foreign language, so if rigorous language
training , learners will probably detest- long term effect:
obsessive, allergic
2.
Many educators claim that children will benefit if they start studying a second
language earlier than high school. I entirely agree with this view, although certain
professionals voice worries that a foreign language could harm children’s mother
tongue.
Those who oppose introducing foreign languages into primary school curriculum
support their view with several arguments. First, certain paediatricians contend
that early exposure to a foreign language can damage child’s pronunciation
features in the native tongue. Second, some parents worry that their offsprings may
get confused, not being able to differentiate between several language systems.
Third, some teachers assert that schoolchildren need to master other, more
important subjects, such as mathematics or writing, which means that children will
merely not have enough time to study a foreign language.
Despite those concerns, numerous scientific studies provide ample evidence that
the earlier children get exposed to a foreign language, the better they develop
intellectually. Not only do they master other tongues more easily than teenagers
due to flexible myelin structure in their brain, they also consistently display
improved cognitive skills, better memory and higher test results for other subjects
compared to schoolchildren who never learned a foreign language. In addition,
reliable scientific experiments disprove the myth that languages can mix and show
that even infants acquire new languages as separate systems. For those reasons, I
would argue that children do need to absorb several languages as early as
possible, while their brains are still flexible, in order to boost their academic
performance.
