Begin to Learn a Foreign Language for Children at Primary School. Is It Better Or Not?

The sooner, the better

Ardina

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Language Hub

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Jul 16, 2022

3 min read

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Some people claim that it is better for children to begin to learn a foreign language at primary school rather than in secondary school. I think, there are some advantages and disadvantages when children begin to learn a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school.

Learning a foreign language at primary school gives many benefits to children. First, children can learn faster in primary school rather than in secondary school because of age in this stage. Children at this age still have a fresh brain. At this age, their brain has high growth and development, so they are able to learn faster than elder age. For instance, children at primary school can learn and understand many new words in a short time. By understanding many vocabularies, they can use those many language skills, such as speaking and writing. So, when children can have high or intermediate skills since learning at primary school, why not?

Secondly, in primary school, children still have much more times to begin learning a foreign language rather than in secondary school. In primary school, they don’t have many subjects to study yet. In contrast, when they are in secondary school, they already have many subjects to study such as specific science. They have to study physics, biology, and others which spend most of their schedule. Therefore, it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language in primary school rather than in secondary school.

However, there are some drawbacks to learning a foreign language in primary school. Sometimes learning a foreign language at primary school, at an early age, can diminish their ability to speak or understand in the native language. Perhaps, one of the reasons is an imbalance of exposure to a foreign language and native language. For overcoming this problem, parents or teachers should give balance exposure to foreign languages and native languages through practice, assignments, and daily activities. For instance, in daily activities children have to communicate in their native language, but they have schedules allocated to foreign language speaking sessions.

Another drawback is that there is the instability in learning willingness of children in primary school rather than children in secondary school. This instability can be influenced by children’s moods. Primary school children sometimes have to be in a good mood before beginning to learn a new language, especially a foreign language. Sometimes, their teachers or parents have to make a good conditions so that children can enjoy learning this language. In contrast, secondary school children have more stable emotions and moods so that they begin to learn a foreign language without being forced by anyone. Nevertheless, this problem can be overcome by using an interesting learning method. This method hopefully can encourage the spirit of children at primary school when learning a foreign language.

All in all, learning a foreign language at primary school has both advantages and disadvantages. However, the disadvantages still can be solved by some recommendations above. Therefore, it has more advantages for children to begin to learn a foreign language in primary school rather than in secondary school.