The more time passes, the more we begin to see language programs in school diminish or even disappear. More and more people are thinking that these programs are useless and do not need to be in schools at all. However, this is absolutely false. Language learning not only helps children become cultured, but it’s also very beneficial for the human brain.
The Pennsylvania government needs to require foreign languages to be taught in schools starting at the elementary level. With this policy in place, it will be easier for children to pick up a foreign language. Children are more apt to learning at a young age, and in a lot of public schools language learning begins after the point where people begin to lose the ability to easily pick up a language.
From the linguistics classes that I’ve taken, there is a lot of evidence from multiple studies that show the benefits of language acquisition. More and more information is being released showing the benefits of bilingualism, and the world needs to see that. With a requirement to teach language, the US would be raising a more intelligent population. The world still has a growing need for bilinguals, and the US would have engineers AND language majors being released into the work place.
Research questions:
- How does language acquisition help the human brain?
- Why start learning a language so early?
- Why learn another language in the first place?