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Topic: 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?
Model answer:
The ability to speak a second language is a useful life skill. However, there is some debate over the best age to learn a new language, with some experts believing this should happen at primary school. In my view, there is little benefit in starting so young.
There are some advantages to learning a foreign language early in life. The brains of young children are often compared to sponges because of their ability to soak up knowledge. Consequently, they can learn languages far more easily than adults. They also lack the self-consciousness that can interfere with language learning at high school, when students can be reluctant to make pronunciation mistakes in front of their peers. In contrast, primary school students are happier to take risks and, as a result, can have fun with their learning. As mastering a language takes a long time, it is easy to see why some people recommend starting as young as possible.
Nevertheless, there are several challenges to introducing a second language at such a young age. Firstly, primary students generally have one teacher rather than several specialist ones. This means the staff may not have the necessary skills to teach a foreign language. Secondly, this is a crucial stage in a child’s education; they must learn the basics of literacy and numeracy to succeed later on. Thus, teachers do not have the time to teach more than a few basic words and phrases in another language. Furthermore, to learn a second language, a good knowledge of your mother tongue is needed, which primary school students do not yet have. In fact, adding a foreign language may even interfere with this, and is likely to put added pressure on some. Therefore, the disadvantages of such a scheme are significant.
In conclusion, there appear to be limited benefits to studying a foreign language at a very young age, and the challenges far outweigh these. The primary school years should be a stress-free time for children; adding more to their curriculum is likely to alter that for the worse.
