by Tracey Lund

Created on: November 03, 2009

All schools should encourage children to become bilingual at an early age. There are many benefits to learning more than one language. Not only will this skill give children more opportunities in the world, it will also allow them to understand other cultures and lead the way to possibly learning even more languages in the future. The schools that adopt this policy will almost surely see an increase in positive performance.

Children who know how to speak a common second language, such as Spanish, French or Chinese, will have more career opportunities as these language-speaking populations are on the rise. Global communications are now becoming commonplace in almost any type of business due, in large part, to the amount of business that can now be researched or even completed, by internet. When the child becomes and adult, should he or she wish to travel or live abroad, they already have a foundation to feel more at ease than many people would because there are places they can go and be understood and understand the things that are happening around them. This child, while in his or her own country may even feel delighted at the fact that they can understand conversations around them that not everyone else can, thereby giving them a generous boost to their self-esteem.

Learning a second language also gives children a unique opportunity to explore other cultures. Getting familiar with backgrounds other than their own will help a child have an open mind about the people around him or her. When a person has an open mind they often have a more empathetic and compassionate nature and can associate with a much bigger variety of people. Because of this they will learn more about life and, additionally, may be more well rounded and adjusted to modern life.

Learning a second language at an early age sets the stage to learn more languages at an older age. Already knowing how to absorb the information is very helpful. Also, if a child learns a Latin-based language such as French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, it creates a base for the language that makes it more simple to learn any of the other Latin-based languages. For example, Mary speaks English and Spanish and wants to learn Italian. Because a lot of words in Spanish and Italian have a similar root, it is easy for her to remember the new words and verb forms.

Acquiring the knowledge of a new language also increases learning skills in many areas. The process of learning a new language requires problem solving skills, memory skills, creative skills and logic skills, along with others. This helps young children to ascertain patterns that are essential to learning in general. The schools that do teach children a second language from an early age will inevitably show higher scores on skill testing, given that the proper materials are being taught.

No matter what language the curriculum may teach, it will be beneficial to all involved. Schools already involved in these programs should definitely encourage other schools to do the same.

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