WHY STUDY A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?
1. Analyzing skills improve
when students study a foreign language.
2. Business skills plus foreign language skills make an employee
more
valuable in the marketplace.
3. Creativity is increased with the study of a foreign language.
4. Dealing with another culture enables people to gain a more
profound
understanding of their own culture.
5. English vocabulary skill increases.
6. Foreign language study creates more positive attitudes and
less
prejudice toward people who are culturally different, leading to world
peace.
7. Graduates often cite foreign language courses as some of
the most
valuable courses they took in college because of the communication
skills they developed in the process.
8. Higher order thinking skills - like problem solving, dealing
with
abstract concepts and interfacing - are all increased when a foreign
language is studied.
9. Internatioinal travel is made easier and more pleasant through
knowing a foreign language.
10. Job mobility and chances for promotion are often attributed
to
knowledge of a foreign language.
11. Knowledge of a foreign language promotes understanding of
the
difficulty immigrants face as they attempt to learn English.
12. Liberal arts training which includes foreign language study
is sought
more and more by prospective employers.
13. Memory is enhanced through foreign language study. Non-gifted
students' ACT scores show that they gain from foreign language
study as much or more than gifted students.
14. Overseas business and joint ventures mean fluency in another
language is now practically a requirement for employment in many American
corporations.
15. Personnel in the army are paid more than others if they
have a foreign
language skill.
16. Quality of English writing among students improves with
foreign
language study.
17. Reading skill in English improves when students study a
foreign
language.
18. SAT scores are higher for foreign language students, in
both English and Math.
19. Traveling abroad enhances cultural awareness and self-concept.
20. Ugly Americanism as a national stereotype is partially based
many people's belief that the whole world speaks English.
21. Various verbal and non-verbal tests of intelligence have
shown
bilinguals to outperform monolinguals.
22. Working class students do just as well in foreign language
study as
middle class students, and there is no difference between genders or
races in this area. Everyone starts out on equal footing.
23. Expertise in a foreign language aids in cognitive development.
24. Years spent studying a foreign language are proportionally
correlated
with increases on SAT scores.
25. Our Nation's security is in jeopardy due to lack of trained
linguists!
26. Zzzzzzzz..... Wake up and smell the caffé! There
are more
opportunities for foreign language speakers than you may have thought!
Will your child be ready?