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? - Ielts Essay

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?

 

Ielts Essay - Foreign Language at Primary Level 

The growing influence of globalization into almost every walk of life, has prioritized multilingualism; as it is considered to be highly advantageous. But, there is a certain debate as to when to learn it, some suggest learning the language at primary level, while others feel, secondary school is the right time to grab skills of a foreign language.

Learning a language of another country in the foundation schools is believed to be laden with multiple benefits; as the children are young and fresh, and they do not have too much pressure of studies. Besides this, the teaching methods applied in  elementary schools involve games and other interesting activities to instill knowledge and understanding that makes learning and picking up linguistic skills fun and quite easy.

On the top of that, ‘Catching them young’ is the primary objective behind the concept of teaching kids about linguistic skills of an alien language. It is an established fact that when a language is learnt from the basic schooling level, the kids are able to get a wider exposure and seasoning that often goes a long way in improving and boosting the expression and the comprehension skills of the users, for instance, it is commonly observed that kids learning an alien language at elementary school fare better in the use of language than those who start later.

Nevertheless, teaching an alien language in secondary level would be a better option, as the kids grow up by then, and can easily differentiate between two languages. They can easily pick-up skills of multiple languages into their learning process; as  they can adapt well to the complex strategies used in the study of languages.

I personally feel teaching an alien language at elementary school is a practical option. The learners at this age are more curiosity and receptive and enjoy more free time.