According to research by the British Council, English has official or special status in at least seventy-five countries with a total population of over two billion. English is spoken as a native language by around 375 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers in the world. Speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language. Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. One out of four of the world's population speak English to some level of competence. Demand from the other three-quarters is increasing."
Today learning English language is very important, not to say really essential. These days, English language teaching classes are slowly introduced on day nursery, where children can learn English by playing. Through the use of very easy songs, they will mainly learn colours and animals. The precocious teaching of English language pursuits the final goal to make children grow up and get a multicultural education. As we were saying and as everybody can notice, today our country is made up of different cultures, there are a lot of children coming from different countries, many different cultures, many languages, many customs and traditions. The learning of a foreign language, especially English, through a deep relationship between language and culture, contribute to enrich children’s cognitive background, making them expand their mental and cultural horizons. But in Spain a lot of people still can’t speak English. Spain always ranks in the last places among other European countries regarding citizens’ foreign languages knowledge. But being able to speak correctly two foreign languages is certainly very useful. First of all English, that since many years has been considered the most important language at international level. Now it should be spoken as well as Spanish language.
English is far more world wide in its distribution than all other spoken languages. It is an official language in 52 countries as well as many small colonies and territories. In addition, 1/4 to 1/3 of the people in the world understand and speak English to some degree. It has become the most useful language to learn for international travel and is now the de facto language of diplomacy. In 2001, the 189 member countries in the United Nations were asked what language they wish to use for communication with embassies from other countries. More than 120 chose English, 40 selected French, and 20 wanted to use Spanish. Those who wanted English to be the common language included all of the former Soviet republics, Viet Nam, and most of the Arab world. English is also the dominant language in electronic communication, particularly on the Internet.
To do so, it is very useful that children learn a foreign language since nursery school, when their mind is still free from a lot of notions and ready to store up new information. Since the age of two and half years, (but some researchers say also before this age), a child is able to learn very well even more than one foreign language and as adult he will speak all of them in the same way, as they all were their mother tongue. This is the main advantage to make learn a foreign language (and we are talking especially about English) since child. It is certain that children will surely make less effort than an adult to learn English language (or another foreign language, maybe even more than one). An useful advice is to speak English also at home and English outside home. This way a child can learn both languages at the same level. Since today it seems that bilingualism also has a positive effect on our brain. A research from the York University of Toronto in Canada, has even shown that people, who daily speak fluently two foreign languages, have a strong chance to delay of several years the arise of some kind of dementia such as the Alzheimer’s disease. But also if you are not bilingual yet, you can start now.
No comments:
Post a Comment