RE: Many English people can't speak English?
July 16, 2015 at 2:19 pm
(This post was last modified: July 16, 2015 at 3:01 pm by Metis.)
(July 16, 2015 at 1:34 am)Minimalist Wrote: Here. Read and learn.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/collegeprose...e-deficit/
Quote:At the same time, however, schools at every level are balancing their budgets and offsetting reductions in government allocations by cutting their offerings and/or eliminating foreign language requirements.
Consider this:
- The percentage of public and private elementary schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 31 to 25 percent from 1997 to 2008. Instruction in public elementary schools dropped from 24 percent to 15 percent, with rural districts hit the hardest.
- The percentage of all middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 75 to 58 percent.
- The percentage of high schools offering some foreign language courses remained about the same, at 91 percent.
- About 25 percent of elementary schools and 30 percent of middle schools report a shortage of qualified foreign language teachers.
I see, thanks for the information Min!
The lack of language instruction at elementary/middle school level in the US isn't that unusual, there's several states in Europe that doesn't have that either and serious efforts to teach a second language don't generally start until the secondary stage. There are some bilingual schools for younger children but these are generally private academies independent from the state or on the country borders.
91% of American High Schools still offer a foreign language, and from what I understand all UK also teach at least one starting from the age of 12 when they enter secondary education. I might be wrong but I think all Welsh children also study Welsh before then too but few become fluent in it.
This isn't a huge lack of language instruction, three years is how long it takes to do a degree in a language and many of these programs do not assume any great previous knowledge. UK children have got at least six years of language instruction presuming that they took it as a GCSE(?) subject, eight if A-Level. Americans if they only study at High School still have at very least four years of it.
Maybe I should be more sympathetic but I didn't have any formal instruction in English, I was tested for my standard of it before I began my job but no teaching. I feel there is an element of laziness involved. If I can learn it from books and speak with me tapes like Athiest_BG got it from episodes of Friends what's stopping them from grabbing a copy of Teach Yourself French/German/Spanish or if they're feeling really extravagant a Rosetta Stone CD?
They need more drive, there are books, there is the internet. They could do it if they were bothered.
