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Why it’s important for children to learn a foreign language
Why is it important for children to learn a foreign language?- Cognitive development
Learning a language helps children organise their thoughts, express their ideas, and control their actions. It helps train the mind and get the mind into the habit of learning, of thinking about things in alternative ways, of understanding the subtleties in their own language. Read more from this Cambridge University study.
- Academic achievement
Learning a second language can improve a child’s reading, speaking, and communication skills. It’s often said that less academic children shouldn’t learn a foreign language and should concentrate on their own. Here at Lingua Learn UK, we are firmly of the belief that this is not the case. Learning another language gives weak spellers another chance to look at spelling-sound transference; it gets children used to listening for information even if they do not understand everything; it helps give them confidence with communication; as they have to write relatively little, and focus on small chunks, it can bolster the confidence of weaker writers.
A second strand is that a solid GCSE in a modern language, or second language skills, make a child stand out. Only a third of school pupils take a language GCSE. This means that those who do show they have an international outlook, have communication skills, and have the study skills and perseverence to work at something long term. - Cultural understanding
Learning a new language exposes children to a new culture and different ways of communicating. This can help them develop social flexibility and empathy. Even if they only have a very basic level of a second language, they will at least have some understanding of the difficulties faced by somebody using broken English, and the need to speak carefully and use straightforward language.
- ConfidenceLearning a language and using it properly can help children feel more confident and express themselves correctly.
- Career opportunities
Knowing how to speak different languages can be a competitive advantage in the job market. Despite advances in AI, the Human Resources industry showed in a August 2024 study that languages are still much in demand. European languages are still the most sought after. This graph shows the relative financial advantages of German, French and Spanish; it was originally published by The Economist but is now behind a paywall. Your child may well get extra opportunities for travel; even if they only know a few words of the language, that will still be more than most.
- Knowledge of your own language
Those with a knowledge of Latin have known for centuries the advantage that gives in terms of understanding where English words came from, in being able to describe the structure of a language and being able spell and being able to guess unfamiliar words. A modern language will confer many of the same advantages; for your child, learning a language will see those English grades creep up too.
We at Lingua Learn UK are offering around 14 languages for online tuition, all with our native-speaker, all-graduate qualified instructors. We offer European languages for virtual tuition, such as French, Spanish, Italian or German, and Asian languages such as Mandarin. Tuition can be private, in groups, adults, kids, teens and businesses.
About your blogger
Hello, I’m Tim – head of Lingua Learn UK. I have been involved in languages teaching for over thirty years, principally in French, German and Spanish. At Lingua Learn UK, I co-ordinate native speaker teachers of 14 languages, all university graduates and qualified teachers like me.
