How about a new educational policy? All children in the United States should begin learning a foreign language by age eight. Is this a radical proposal? Probably not when one considers that most other industrialized nations have cumpulsory foreign language requirements starting in elementary school. Many other countries even require two foreign languages be studied before attended a university. So, should we try to get this on the ballot? Ok. so maybe it wouldn't pass, especially given the amount of controversy that currently exists regarding bilingual education. But imagine the impact even trying to do so would have. We may just plant a little seed. Bilingual education should not just be for language minority students, it should be for ALL students. Every child in the United States should be expected to learn a foreign language. Lets give all our children the cognitive and social benefits of becoming bilingual. And for the all those nay-sayers, perhaps if we explain it will boost their child's SAT scores they just might vote in favor!
For more information see the following article presented by CAL: What We Can Learn From Foreign Language Teaching In Other Countries
No comments:
Post a Comment