Writing the Draft

Today I started actual writing the draft for my paper. I have a little over a page done right now. I am starting out by talking about the other views on the issue, that I do not necessarily agree with. I asked Nick Randle why he hates his language class so much, since he is quite outspoken about it. He ended up giving me some good stuff to write about that I had not thought about before. I am still planning to do one more interview, hopefully with someone who has another different opinion that will help me write more on the other views of the issue. I think I'm going to have a really hard time not writing a biased paper. I'll be glad when I'm finished with this draft. I am really liking this assignment though. I actually enjoy reading other peoples' blogs, because everyone has chosen such interesting topics. Commenting on like 204938890 blogs was not that hard. :-)

New Research

So I am still having trouble finding different sides to my topic of teaching foreign language at a younger age. But I did find yet another article that supports my opinion. It is titled "All primary schools to teach foreign languages by 2010." The English government announced back in March of this year that every child in England will start to learn a foreign language in primary school starting at the age of seven by the year 2010. The government will require the students to learn the language from age seven to fourteen. After this age, it will no longer be mandatory to take the language. This was the only part of the article that I did not agree with. I think the language should be continued to be taught all through high school. In 2002, England changed the rule that said that taking a language was mandatory for 14-16 year olds. Recently, there has been in a drop in the numbers of teenagers that are choosing to take a language. They are also recommending immersion courses for the students. The seven years of learning the language will help the students to build their confidence and knowledge in the language.

Progress and such...

So I forgot to write a blog last night, so I am having to write it today. I have not actually started to write my paper, I have plenty of ideas written down though. It is my process to write it all at once and not just a little each day. I have, however, been researching the topic pretty often. Tommorrow I am planning on interviewing Sra. Seldner. I picked her because she is a native speaker of Spanish, and learned English later in her life, so I am interested to see what she thinks about my topic and opinion, and if she has any good sources for me to use. I am also planning on interviewing at least one student, I am not sure if I will interview them for this draft or the one after this. I might do it for this one, because this person could have a different view than mine, and it would help me write this draft. We'll see.

Another articulo I found...

My most recent article is "Teaching Language for National Security and American Competitiveness." The title sums up the argument that I am planning to make in my paper, which is nice. In the article, which I found online, it talks about how there is a critical need for foreign language skills because it is necessary for us to advance national security and global competitiveness. The article has some good statistics including the fact that only 31% of elementary schools in the U.S. report teaching foreign languages. And 79% of those schools focus on introduction to the language instead of proficiency. Only 44% of high school students in the U.S. are taking a foreign language. All of these statistics are kind of depressing. What I did not even think about before this article, was the fact that most of these students are only taking Spanish or French. It is really sad that what few students are taking a language, are all taking the same ones. We need to start branching out and learning other languages.

Researching of the topic

I found an article on online that is a press release from a study done in Europe that was looking at the age that foreign languages are started being taught. The title of the article is "Language teaching: 50% of young Europeans learn a foreign language from primary school onwards." In most European countries, at least one foreign language starts being taught during primary school. It continues to be mandatory throughout the rest of the people's education. Some countries even recommend learning two foreign languages at a young age. By the time that European students are in secondary school, a second foreign language usually becomes mandatory as well. Of course, English is the most common language being taught in primary school. This study just shows how low American standards for languages are.

The Proposal

So I finally wrote the two page proposal that was due today. It was not super difficult and I think I picked a good topic. I got really worked up just writing the two pages. I did a little research online last night as well, and there are a lot of articles that support my view on language being taught at a younger age. I am a little worried about finding another point of view on this. I am planning on interviewing Sra. Seldner, Sra. Bolinger and Madame Swann about what their opinions are on this subject. I think that all of them will produce some really interesting information and help me write a good paper. Later today I am going to start reading some more articles about my topic and hopefully I will find some with a different point of view. I am also thinking about interviewing some of the people in our class about what they think.