Learning a secondary language , especially in our modern international society is a must. While some believe the education system should postpone teaching the foreign language to pupils until they complete their primary school, I would side with those who argue it should be taught to them as soon as they enter their first grade.
On the one hand, It is said that learning a foreign language while learning the basics of the mother tongue can be confusing for young learners. Using wrong patterns of grammar or collocations is argued to be detrimental for students because they are at the early age of building their language structures and sentence blocks. For example, they could utilize the foreign language sentence structure as they are speaking in their native language , especially for languages which are from two categories would be consequenced to terrible mistakes. Making these mistakes and the burden of learning a new language ,which is totally unfamiliar to her, not only has its frustration but also can destroy the child’s confidence.
On the other hand, Although learning a secondary language can cause confusion and frustration for children, there are benefits which can outweigh its drawbacks. In my view, if a child starts its learning process sooner, she will sooner be a fluent language learner. I admit that language learning is a difficult process but it can be facilitated by using appropriate methods for children. At an early age, higher capacity fosters a learning process which eventually develops other cognitive skills such as critical thinking and effective communication.
In conclusion, Although vocabulary or grammar confusion from learning two languages at the same time can not be denied, gradually by trial and error, students are able to separate those languages effectively. therefore, on balance, I strongly believe that starting foreign language learning in the first grade not only makes pupils more fluent in that language sooner but also effectively boosts other cognitive skills development.