Recently
has come to my mind the idea of when should our students start doing English
classes at school. Nowadays all the teachers of the Catalonian educational
system agree that English is essential for the social and academic development
of our students, despite of that, teachers have different opinions about when
should we start working the English subject at school, some of them argument
that it’s difficult for children to understand a teacher talking in English
during the whole hour because they have no previous knowledge about it, others
say that it’s difficult for the young pupils to learn a third language at the
same time they’re trying to learn Catalan and Spanish and finally others affirm
that it’s vital to let our students learn English at pre-school because the
younger they are the easier it is for the human brain to learn a language. So,
with these different points of views brought to light I will write in the
following lines, which is my opinion about this topic.
In my
opinion promoting the use of the English language at school is essential, not
only because students can learn about different cultures and habits while
they’re learning English but also because the learning of a foreign language
it’s a bullet proof investment for a greater future. With that being said I
agree that introducing English at the early stages of pre-school is essential
to help our students make their best of their brain potential, but also because
they’re learning passively and with little effort what years later could become
a living nightmare. We all know many people that nowadays regret not having the
opportunity of learning English at school and I think that learning it when
students are young can help them to avoid problems and be more prepared when
they’re older. Nonetheless I am not saying it’s an easy process because I think
that the coordination between teachers and parents is essential: they must
offer students the possibility of talking regularly in English, watching TV
series/films with English audio, listening to English music, etc.; but also
they must be aware of the student’s progress, try to motivate students and
helping them with the difficulties they can have along this long path that is
learning a new language. If we do all this we are treating English just as
Catalan or Spanish because we are approaching this language to their daily life
situations and they will see the utility it can have in their daily life situations.
