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These are the advantages of children and adolescents speaking several languages

2021-02-13T03:34:28.100Z


The importance of learning English has favored the proliferation of bilingual schools with the aim that Spanish students improve their ability and can develop better in today's world


It's been a few decades since I left the classroom.

A time when the French language was the one that was included in the educational curriculum.

With the incorporation of Spain to the European Union (former European Economic Community -CEE-) there was a paradigm shift and the learning of English, favored by the firm step towards a globalization that has developed new social, cultural and economic contexts, the It has become the foreign language chosen as a compulsory core subject in the Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate educational plans.

A circumstance that has favored the proliferation of bilingual schools with the aim that Spanish students improve their ability with this language, which has become increasingly necessary to develop in today's world.

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The importance of the use of this language to function in fields as different as culture, science or economics, has made parents consider their children's language learning a priority to guarantee them a successful professional future.

Dr. Teresa Fleta, an expert in language acquisition by children and a collaborator of the UCM, points out that “speaking languages ​​opens up a world of possibilities for students, personal, work, social and cultural, compared to monolinguals.

In addition, people who speak more than one language have the structures of those languages ​​active in their minds and even, as Ellen Bialystok has suggested, they may eventually represent a protection against possible cognitive impairments ”.

In the professional field, this expert continues, “learning other languages ​​allows them to study or work in the countries where those languages ​​are spoken and also to interact with other people and come into contact with other cultures.

When choosing a job, it can be a determining factor ”.

An opinion that coincides with that expressed by Juan Carlos Cubeiro, President for Europe of About My Brain Institute, who explains that “language learning is of paramount importance for our students, and that is how the European Union considers it by incorporating language skills into same level as the digital ones for employability ”.

Because, according to Juan Carlos Cubeiro, “it is not only about the ability to work in a multinational company in which English, French, Italian or German are essential, but about the ability to read, to converse, to communicate with professionals in other languages.

In addition to expanding the brain of future professionals in their cognitive abilities with the use of several languages ​​”.

The ability to communicate in languages ​​other than the mother tongue makes these people, in the opinion of the president of About My Brain Institute, “more versatile, more tolerant, more empathetic, collaborate more ... Therefore, in learning of languages ​​there is a relationship between mental aptitude and professional attitude.

In general terms, professionals who speak several languages ​​are more employable because they are better professionals ”.

The lack of competence of Spanish students, traditionally, in a second language, in this case English, is due in the opinion of José Manuel Palomino, Official Master's Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), “to the social and cultural characteristics that we have.

We are less exposed to a foreign language in relation to, for example, our neighboring European countries.

Our language, Castilian, is a very powerful language and we benefit from a dubbing, editorial or audiovisual industry that is colossal, so seeing films in their original version is something that has not been available to us until recently. technologies have allowed us to do so and there was not much culture of watching movies without dubbing. "

The current study plans are aimed at ensuring that young people acquire an excellent level in that second language, but the truth is that they do not finish their studies with the competition that the labor market demands.

A circumstance motivated among other things, according to the expert in Talent and Human Resources, that the teaching of languages ​​in our country has been considered "Maria".

"With a university model that prepared civil servants, who with few exceptions did not need to know languages, or with a teaching staff that, in general, was not bilingual and did not master the pedagogy of language learning," says Juan Carlos Cubeiro.

In addition, this specialist continues, "it is surprising that the vast majority of students finish the Baccalaureate without speaking English properly."

We are currently immersed in the so-called Globalization 4.0, says Juan Carlos Cubeiro, “where companies insist that speaking a second language, generally English, is essential for finding a job, especially with a percentage of youth unemployment like the one that suffers our country, higher than 40%.

Parents, who are the “labor counselors” for 90% of students in Spain, should take this into account, even though it was not so important in their time ”.

Laia Canals, professor of the university master's degree in Language Teaching and Learning through Technology at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), believes that for the teaching of English to be effective during the pre-university educational stages, “initial teacher training is essential of languages ​​both at a linguistic level and in language teaching methodologies that promote learning that includes all skills;

that is, writing and reading without forgetting oral comprehension, expression and interaction, following approaches such as task-based learning and adding, for example, gamification elements through the use of educational technologies ”.

Changes to the school curriculum and textbooks should also be included.

"Perhaps instead of being so ambitious in terms of grammar, we should bet on working more so that students can use the language to communicate in situations from simpler to more complex, as proposed by the European framework of reference for languages", holds.

Another improvement that teachers must include is greater training in the use of educational technologies for language teaching, a deficiency that the pandemic has revealed when face-to-face teaching became online.

Laia Canals considers that “the use of the online medium or educational technologies require critical reflection and prior planning, since they are new contexts for language teaching-learning that have their own methodologies.

The ideal would be to be able to train teachers so that they know how to effectively integrate new technologies in the teaching of a foreign language ”.

One element, that of new technologies in language learning, which, according to José Manuel Palomino, "adds up because it increases the motivation of students and increases interest in learning other languages."

Regarding what is the best educational stage for learning other languages ​​to be effective, there is some controversy between academics and researchers.

The UCM collaborator considers that “if learning is undertaken in childhood it becomes a long process in which children learn intuitively and being holistically involved in the learning process.

Basically, they learn by listening, understanding messages, and speaking.

However, the development of the metacognitive capacities of adolescents makes language learning at this stage carried out with the formal instruction of grammar rules and is faster ”.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-02-13

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