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?
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.