FOREIGN LANGUAGE
EDUCATION
Tatyana Zvorsky
RHETORIC AND CIVIC LIFE II The Pennsylvania State University
Introduction
In today’s globalizing world, it is becoming more and more prudent to know a second or even
third language third language.
Language Acquisition Theory
Building Language
While there is currently no definitive answer to how we as humans learn languages, the two
most prominent are behaviourism as promoted by B. F. Skinner and the nativist perspective as
promoted by Noam Chomsky.
Behaviourism maintains that children form associations between words and objects due to input
and feedback from their parents and caregivers. For example, when a child hears the word “milk,” they
receive a bottle. This then leads them to say “milk,” which is met with praise and a bottle. This is also
the method suggested by some second language teachers/learners in which students are not given the
actual translations for words in an effort to reduce and/or eliminate the step of mentally translating
between the two languages whenever using the second language. Instead, the teacher would use
various visual aides to demonstrate the meaning of the words that they are saying. For example, holding
up a calculator while saying “Der Rechner” or pointing to their eyes while saying “Die Augen.”
The nativist perspective holds that children are born with something called the “language
acquisition device” which employs “universal grammar,” in that they are born with the ability to
distinguish between parts of a sentence (subject, object, verb, etc.), but that they also deduce patterns
and rules from the language that they hear around them (Chomsky).
This pattern-finding is most often shown with children overcorrecting irregular verbs – “eated”
instead of “ate,” “hitted” instead of “hit,” “cutted” instead of “cut.” It is a perfectly logical assumption
that all verbs would follow the regular pattern of “blank, blanked, have blanked,” yet there are verbs
that are “blank, blank, have blank,” and even some that do not follow either of those patterns.
Table 1: Regular Verbs
Simple Present
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Fold
Yawn
Learn
Earn
Cook
Folded
Yawned
Learned
Earned
Cooked
Have Folded
Have Yawned
Have Learned
Have Earned
Have Cooked
Simple Present
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Hit
Cut
Hit
Cut
Have Hit
Have Cut
Table 2.1: Irregular Verbs with No Change
Table 2.2: Irregular Verbs with Stem-Vowel Change
Simple Present
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Run
Sing
Swim
Ran
Sang
Swam
Have Run
Have Sung
Have Swum
Drink
Drank
Have Drunk
Begin
Began
Have Begun
Read*
Read*
Have Read*
*While the spelling does not change, the pronunciation does – i.e. the sound goes from a homophone of
“reed” to a homophone of “red”
Table 2.3: Irregular Verbs with Change
Simple Present
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Eat
Hide
Mistake
Choose
Go
Ate
Hid
Mistook
Chose
Went
Have Eaten
Have Hidden
Have Mistaken
Have Chosen
Have Gone
English also has a very simple conjugation system compared to other languages, as most verbs
simply add an “s” or “es” onto the verb when the action is performed by someone who could be
replaced with a third person singular pronoun – he, she, or it. While one eventually learns this pattern,
exemplified in the tables below, children may say things such as “he go” rather than “he goes” or “she
run” rather than “she runs.”
Table 3: “-es” Conjugation
Pronoun
Conjugation
I
You
He/She/It
We
They
I go
You go
He goes/She goes/It goes
We go
They go
Table 4: “-s” Conjugation
Pronoun
Conjugation
I
You
He/She/It
We
They
I run
You run
He runs/She runs/It runs
We run
They run
While less obvious but still demonstrative of this pattern finding, children will rarely construct
sentences outside of the prescribed word order of their language. Take, for example, the sentence “I like
cookie,” or perhaps “me like cookie.” Aside from the lack of plural and case flaws, this resembles a
sentence that an adult would say in English. “I/me” is the subject, “like” the verb, and “cookie” the
(direct) object.
Table 5: Word Order
Word Order
Sentence
Subject + Verb + Object
Subject + Object + Verb
Verb + Subject + Object
Verb + Object + Subject
Object + Subject + Verb
I like cookie
I cookie like
Like I cookie
Like cookie I
Cookie I like
If children merely learned words in isolation, they would string them together in any order, yet
they stick to SVO. Even if they are still using two-word sentences (lacking an object), children will say
“me go” rather than “go me,” which is a subject + verb structure rather than a verb + subject structure.
This reflects the wider pattern of English, as the only time that one departs from SVO in normal use is in
certain questions with multiple verbs.
Consider the following examples:
Table 6: Question Word Order
Verb
Subject + Verb + Verb
Verb + Subject + Verb
Are
Have
Do
Can
Will
May
Should
We are going?
We have gone?
We do go?
We can go?
We will go?
We may go?
We should go?
Are we going?
Have we gone?
Do we go?
Can we go?
Will we go?
May we go?
Should we go?
All of the sentences in the VSV column make sense. In the SVV column, “we do go” makes no
sense as a question, the closest sensical sentence is “we do?” which relies on another person having
established what is to be done; “we have gone” is nonsensical as a stand-alone question, and even then,
one would tend to drop “gone” when asking as a reply. The rest make sense as questions, but one would
not use them as a leading question. As in, one would not start a conversation by saying “we can go?” but
would rather say it in response to someone else telling them that they could go. These questions are
also often started with a conjunction such as “and,” “but,” or “so.”
Another linguistic pattern is adjective order. While children are never specifically taught
adjective order, they deduce it from the language that they hear around them. For example, one can
have “15 little old blue cars” but one would never have “15 old blue little cars.” Adjective patterning is
rather interesting, given that there are so many categories of adjectives, yet children learn the order
that they go in with no formal instruction.
Critical Periods
Another major factor of the nativist perspective is critical periods. A critical period refers to the
developmental period in which a child is ready and able to learn a new skill, and if they do not learn it
during that period, they are unlikely to learn it in full when they are older. With language, the critical
period for first language acquisition closes around the onset of puberty, which can range from 7-11
years of age.
One of the most prominent examples of language critical periods is feral children. These are
children that were kept in isolation during their formative years and rarely spoken to, thus they do not
develop a full ability to use language.
Genie is a well-known example of a feral child. While she may have had existing developmental
delays that contributed to her father’s decision to confine her to her room, it did not help that she was
kept in her room at all times with barely any stimulation or play time. While the fact that her language
barely progressed beyond that of a toddler years after her removal from that environment, her case is
less than conclusive due to the traumatic nature of her upbringing likely compounding the simple
neglect. This, combined with brain abnormalities (particularly a larger right hemisphere) add layers of
complexity to a simple proof of the hypothesis.
With children who are born deaf and learn sign language, they also display the tendencies of
hearing children learning languages. If they learn sign language while they are young, they master the
language as a speaking child would master theirs; but if they learn it when they are older, they make the
odd grammatical or syntactical error as a speaking person does when speaking a foreign language. While
sign language is its own language, it is different from a spoken language in that it is much easier to teach
someone hand signs to associate with objects than it is to have someone produce a sound that they can
not properly distinguish.
Another factor of critical periods is that children begin to focus in on the phenomes that they
hear every day around the ages of 6 – 8 months. This process continues gradually over the years, until
children are no longer capable of articulating phenomes that do not appear in their native language. This
is why, when learning a second language as an older teenager or adult, there are some sounds that one
can not pronounce perfectly.
Conclusions
With it being shown that it is easier for children to learn a language younger and that they will
have a fuller mastery of it, it should be evident that children should be introduced to their first foreign
language at a younger age.
Foreign Language in Schools
School Language
Despite the lack of an official language, most school instruction in America is conducted in
English. While there are bilingual and language-immersion schools, the vast majority of schools are
English-only, aside from the foreign languages, of course.
Foreign Language Beginnings
Most students begin their foreign language careers between the grades of 7 and 9, or the ages
of 12 and 14, after the critical period closes. While some students attain a degree of proficiency, others
are simply there to pass the class and graduate. Out of 65 students surveyed, 83% said that their school
required a language to graduate, with most schools requiring two years.
Language of Choice
The most common language offered was Spanish (98% of schools), followed by French (88% of
schools), German (63% of schools), and Latin (40% of schools). 19% of the schools covered by the survey
offered Chinese as a foreign language, while 4% offered American Sign Language and 2% offered
Russian. Other languages offered included Italian, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.
The most of students surveyed took Spanish (36 students), with French being second by a wide
margin (17 students). Of these students, there was an overlap of 4 students. Only 1 student each took
ASL, Arabic, Chinese, and Korean, while 6 took German, 3 took Italian, and 4 took Latin.
Seven students took multiple (2 or 3) languages, with Spanish remaining the most commonly
picked language.
Language in Schools
While there is no national data on foreign language in schools, this data can be extrapolated to
assume that most students begin a foreign language during the their secondary education (grades 7-12),
with their most prevalent option being Spanish. Whether this language is a choice of necessity – i.e. the
only language offered by the school – or a choice of pragmatics – i.e. the language that an native English
speaking American is most likely to use in their life.
Pros of Language in Schools
Like most other subjects, the usefulness of language is called into question by students. While it
is much easier to explain to students that not everyone speaks English and America has no national
language so we should be welcoming to immigrants and help ease their transition by conversing with
them in their language or that second language proficiency is a valuable job skill than it is to tell them
that they will use the Pythagorean theorem on a regular basis, most students will make their language
choice based on how “useful” the language will be to them.
However, learning any foreign language is beneficial to students for a myriad of reasons aside
from broadening their cultural horizons and job prospects. It has been shown that students who are
learning a second language do better on standardized testing (Armstrong), up to and including the SAT
and ACT (Cooper, Olsen). Student’s college performance also increases with foreign language knowledge
(Wiley).
Conclusions
With the evidence presented, one makes the argument that students should be introduced to
foreign languages earlier, both to increase the student’s ease of learning the language and to increase
their future academic success.
In elementary school, this could take the form of short 20-30 minute lessons in the foreign
language to cover basic words and sentences. Which foreign language this would be would differ from
school to school, but it should be a language that is widely used by the local population that does not
speak English, for most schools in America, this would likely be Spanish. As students move up in
schooling, the class could begin to mirror their English/Language Arts topics and standards. As students
progress through middle school/junior high, the class should remain while continuing to mirror the
English curriculum. In high school, students can either choose to remain in that language (where classes
will continue to be designed like the English curriculum) or they can pick another language of their
choice that the school offers, or do both. While this will likely result in an overhaul of the current
curriculum of that language, it will be worth it for the betterment of the students.
For more ambitious schools, they can offer bilingual courses where students can take their core
classes and perhaps even some electives in the language that was chosen as the students move into
middle school and high school. For schools that want to get very involved in the language learning
process, they can even offer languages taught in other languages. If, for example, students began
learning Spanish in elementary school, when they reach high school they can learn French from English
(the teacher explains things in English when not speaking in French) or from Spanish (the teacher
explains in Spanish when not speaking French).
Whatever method schools choose, it is worth the effort and investment to increase both
students’ potential and achievement in their personal, academic, and professional lives.
Works Cited
Armstrong, P. W., & Rogers, J. D. “Basic Skills Revisited: The Effects of Foreign Language Instruction on
Reading, Math, and Language Arts.” Learning Languages, vol. 2, no. 3, 2000, pp. 21 – 30.
https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/what-the-research-shows/studies-supporting. Accessed 30
April 2017.
Cooper, T. C. “Foreign Language Study and SAT-Verbal Scores.” Modern Language Journal, vol. 71, no. 4,
1987, pp. 381-387. https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/what-the-research-shows/studiessupporting. Accessed 30 April 2017.
Olsen, S. A., Brown, L. K. “The Relation between High School Study of Foreign Languages and ACT English
and Mathematics Performance.” ADFL Bulletin, vol. 23, no. 3, 1992.
https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/what-the-research-shows/studies-supporting. Accessed 30
April 2017.
Wiley, P. D. “High School Foreign Language Study and College Academic Performance.” Classical
Outlook, vol. 62, no. 3, 1985, pp. 33-36. https://www.actfl.org/advocacy/what-the-researchshows/studies-supporting. Accessed 30 April 2017.