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Parlez-vous Français?
(Yeah, So What?)
Heather Cannon, Lower School French
A strong foreign language program in the elementary
school is about far more than learning to say, Bonjour, Buenos Dias
or Guten Tag. While meaningful communication is an important goal
of the lower school French program, there is a lot more happening
than one might realize.
Research has shown that children who are fortunate
enough to begin learning a second language early reap many benefits
from their studies. According to the Ohio Department of Education,
“The optimum time to begin learning a second language is in
the elementary school, when the children have the ability to learn
and excel in several language acquisition skills such as a greater
tolerance for ambiguity, an openness to differences, and a willingness
to pronounce new sounds and words.” Based on research done
by Piaget, the age of ten is an especially crucial time in the development
of attitudes towards groups and nations perceived as “other.”
Since children are in the process of moving from egocentricity to
reciprocity, exposure to other ideas and cultures introduced before
the age of ten is important.
The children at Lake Ridge Academy are especially
fortunate as they have the opportunity to study one language, French,
from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. In a report to the
Secretary of Education, the National Advisory Board on International
Education Programs recommended that, “School districts should
give all students the opportunity to begin learning a foreign language
in the earliest years of schooling, and to continue study of the
same language until they can demonstrate a functionally useful level
of proficiency.”
Furthermore, it is widely known that the acquisition
of a second language makes it easier for a child to learn more foreign
languages. The skills and strategies the students acquire from their
French studies in the lower school will aid them if they choose
to explore another culture and language later in their school experience.
The foreign language department at Lake Ridge Academy values this
belief and has made strides to ensure that upon graduation, students
have the opportunity to graduate with proficiency in two languages,
French and Spanish.
There are many benefits to learning French, specifically.
In the world arena, French is a highly valued resource. In the European
Community, United Nations, UNESCO, the International Olympic Committee,
the international Labor Bureau, and the International Monetary Fund,
English and French are the only two working languages. In addition,
“French is one of only two languages in the world spoken on
five continents.” ( Calvet, Louis-Jean, L'Europe et ses
langues, Plon, 1993, p 77.) After English, it is the second
most frequently taught foreign language in the world.
English speaking children find French easier to learn
than some other foreign languages since the two languages are closely
related. Interestingly, studies have shown that on the English sections
of achievement tests such as the ACT and SAT, children who have
studied French as a second language out perform classmates who have
not. This is certainly due in part to the fact that a high proportion
of English words are of French origin. An Australian study reiterates
this concept where it says, “The learning of French lends itself
to the extension of learning vocabulary and structural knowledge
of English. Both French and English are in the Indo-European family
of languages. French is linguistically close to English making it
a very learnable language.”
The reasons to study a foreign language are certainly
not limited to the ones mentioned here. However, it is apparent
that the students. at Lake Ridge Academy are certainly benefiting
from their second language studies in many more ways than one may
first suspect.
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June 27, 2006
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