Recent development in school curriculums depicts the integration of foreign languages for primary school. Although it is debatable, I firmly believe that the benefits are far greater compared to the disadvantages. While there are concerns regarding the lost of native languages, introducing foreign languages during early childhood will increase children’s proficiency.
Current phenomena demonstrate the reduction in local language usage. This language is only spoken by certain people, where most of them are adults, in limited events. Children, on the other hand, are rarely using it in their conversation as they lack of native languages knowledge. The most notable driver is it does not integrated optimumly in primary school education system, where the schools are leaning towards teaching foreign languages. In the long term, it contributes to the lost of indigeneous languages. The most compelling example is shown by the frequency of local language spoken by the children. Now, more children tend to express their ideas, both verbally and visually, in foreign languages, making the existence of native language extincts.
Conversely, learning foreign languages has profound effects to pupils. Having an intense exposure will accustomed them to foreign languages, which supporting them to adapt easily in a new environment. In addition, the students will have stronger basic foundation in languange literacy, which spans from vocabularies, grammars, or pronounciations. The advantages of learning foreign languages can be seen clearly when a family travels abroad, particularly to the countries that occupy foreign language. A child, whom has learned foreign languanges in his school, can help other family members to communicate with the locals; thus easen everything.
In conclusion, while a concern regarding local languages existence araises, I do believe that the advantages of this outweigh the drawbacks. Maintaining a proper composition in languange subjects could be one solution to overcome the challenge.