The Costs and Benefits of Commencing Foreign Language Education in Elementary Schools

Foreign Languages in Elementary School
The Costs and Benefits of Commencing Foreign Language

Education in Elementary Schools
Blair Hood
3B Global Connections
Global Studies and World Languages Academy
Tallwood High School
Abstract
This research paper sets out to explore the costs and benefits of
a foreign language education in elementary school. This topic spans
across the United States, and the circa 20 million elementary school
students who do not have the possibility to start learning a language,
which can assist students greatly in the future.
The author analyzed twenty sources that all came from different
groups that varied in usefulness for his project. In addition, he
performed a survey that contained questions on what the people
taking the survey thought about elementary school foreign education,
their experiences with it and their thoughts on why it had not yet been
more widely accepted.
The survey of 20 twenty individuals showed that many of the
students who answered did believe that foreign languages in
elementary schools were a good idea and should be implemented with
19 out of 20 agreeing with that statement. Their ideas on why it has
not occurred varied greatly; with some saying that the price is too
much while others believe that elementary school students may not be
able to effectively learn the language due to their age.
This research paper can join many others on this topic stating
the benefits of foreign language programs in elementary schools,
possibly causing more and more parents and staff to speak out and call
for a change in public school education. However despite these

desires, if languages are added to elementary school curriculums they
could take a long time to be approved and implemented by federal,
state, and local governments. This is not an issue that can be quickly
applied to the United States as whole.
Table of Contents
Introduction
5
Limitations
..6
Methodology
.6
Literary
Review
7
Research
..9
Conclusion
..14
Bibliography
14
Introduction
Language is a skill that is important in everybodys lives, no
matter where one may live. Humans have the need to spread thoughts,
ideas, and wants to those around them. Without language humans
would not be able to have achieved what they have, building colossus
monuments and enormous empires spreading across the world. This
senior project plans to study the costs and benefits of teaching
languages to students at a young age. Learning foreign languages at a
young age can help elementary school students and can lay the
foundation for their future education and skills.
The ability to speak with people from around the world has been
a necessary skill all throughout history; even more so now in the 21st
century as the world has become increasingly
interconnected. Speaking just one foreign language proficiently can
allow students to have better opportunities in their future than those
students who do not. Languages have become an integral part of a
high school education; if they spread to elementary schools then it
could be an effective way to prepare students for the future. The
author wants to make a project that could have multiple projects
branching off of it leading to more original studies on this and similar
topics.
Limitations of the Study

The author intends to conduct a survey among students
in Tallwood High School, with both students in and out of the Global
Studies and World Languages Academy taking part, as the author
doesnt have the connections to get a study in other high schools in
Virginia Beach. This could lead to an unbalanced survey, with students
from the academy most being most likely to respond to the authors
survey and also give meaningful results.
This project will only be done by research gained by surveys

done on students and information found in online databases. The
author will not be able to follow a student who starts their education
with languages in Kindergarten or first grade through twelfth grade.
Although this would make the authors project much more reliable, the
author only has a couple months to find information instead of twelve
years.
Methodology
The author has used research that has been found online on
databases to formulate their research paper, in addition to scholarly
articles. This information will allow the author to write a well rounded
and informational research paper. The author will be using primary
sources as well, including a survey on his classmates and peers.
The author has had to sift through many unreliable sources just to find
twenty that are reliable and that could fit inside of his project. Many
sources came from research done by scientists and educators on the
idea of foreign language education and its benefits. Other sources

came from teacher work pages where they ran through the curriculum
and the intended results of the class for the teacher and the students
that are being educated. Most of these secondary sources come from
research done here in the US. Other sources came from Interest groups
such as the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages) who lobby for foreign languages in Congress.
Literary Review
Sources that the author has found vary greatly in how reliable
they are and how much information they can give to the authors
project. Although the author will not include all of his sources, but
instead include ten, and discusses their effects on his paper. Many of
the sources found are ones from educational website stating the
benefits of foreign language education. In addition to those, many
PDFs with research state similar conclusions, but contain many
statistics from many different sources that can all apply to this project.
Despite the author searching for a negative aspect on this topic, the
author was not able to find any major negatives other than the
expense that it would take to implement foreign languages into

elementary schools across the United States.
Teacher and educational websites gave the author a lot of

information on his topic giving sources and quotes that can be used.
One such quote is from Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley in 1999
stating that a goal in the next millennium would be, "By the year 2000
all American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having
demonstrated competency..." Some of these educational websites were
from specific cities, for example one that has been used is one from
Fairfax County in Northern Virginia describing its foreign languages as
each of its elementary schools. However others listed the benefits to
teachers and described each one in detail.
In addition to the teacher and educational websites, the author

found many research papers from college students and professors, as
well as research from other sources. These sources all agreed and
added to my previous educational sources. Despite
their usefulness some sources included old information that may not
be applicable to today. All in all these were still extremely good and
reliable sources that are easily applicable to this paper and topic .
10
One source that was found came from an independent company

that researches the arts and other such programs in public schools
now. It lists the benefits of learning foreign languages at a younger
age, as well as describing the USAs language education as a whole.
However the major downfall with this source is its age; it was written in
2007 but also includes information as early is 1967. This out of date
information could cause incorrect and obsolete data, which could
ensue in problems in my paper.
Another source is one written by a grad student who discusses
the study of foreign language education in elementary school. In his
study he explores not only the educational but also the social impacts
of learning foreign languages as well as the pressures put on schools to
implement them. In addition he describes views that the government
puts on it as well as the multitude of benefits that it gives students in
the future, both intellectually and professionally. The author also adds
foreign language programs in 19 other countries, all which
vary immensely. However similar to the last document this is dated
research with it being written in 2003 with many outdated resources,
leading this source to not be as credible as it could be.
11
One source that the author found was one that described the
costs of foreign languages compared to normal core classes. He sees
this source as an effective counter argument as is shows the costs on
average for one year. He will be using this article as a counterargument to give his paper more credibility. The author could not find
any other informative articles or research that described any other
major problems other than cost and the possibility of a student getting
burnt out by a language by the time they reach middle or high
school.
Research
Over the last few years foreign languages have become more
and more of an important topic in public schools around the United
States. Many other countries around the world are requiring students
to commence foreign language education at the elementary/primary
school level, outperforming American schools greatly. The cognitive
benefits from learning foreign languages show higher testing scores
among those students, and even more so from those who start
younger. The lack of American public schools to provide language
12
programs to elementary schools are ones that could limit what

opportunities students have in the future, in comparison to students
from other places around the world. Language is an essential aspect of
life, and foreign language education helps to further students learning
to a global perspective.
The United States foreign language programs are severely
lacking in comparison to other countries around the world. Some
countries that are not as nearly developed as the United States or
Europe have foreign language programs that far exceed them. For
example, Afghanistan requires primary school students to learn
English, French, or German, while the United States does not require
foreign languages until the student is in high school (Berg).
Additionally, Cameroon requires a full education in both French and
English from the student starting their education to university, in
comparison; only five percent of British students learn a foreign
language (Berg). It generally appears that developing countries have
far more advanced language programs than the more developed
countries.
The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan stated at a speech,
This week, we found out that the brutal truth that we're being out-
13
educated And one place we obviously need to get better is in

teaching languages. The United States is a long way from being the
multi-lingual society that so many of our economic competitors are.
Countries such as India and China are leading the language push.
China stresses for students to take languages and provide three years
of instruction in elementary and five in middle schools, but only in
urbanized areas. On the other hand, India requires students to take two
languages in addition to their mother tongue. Nancy Rhodes states,
Things cannot get worse. We are at the bottom of the barrel now,
referring to the state of the American foreign languages. She continues
saying that many more students in the United States are learning Latin
than the combined number of students taking Chinese, Arabic, Hindi,
Farsi, Japanese, Russian, and Urdu combined (Beale). These critical
languages should be emphasized, as they are languages from
countries that are making an impact in the world today. Good
education and foreign languages should be an idea that is widely
accepted and easily implemented across the United States,
unfortunately it is the exact opposite. The author performed a survey
and asked why foreign languages in elementary school are not more
widespread. The answers varied greatly with many different answers:
14
ranging from a lack of funding to programs such as No Child Left

Behind. There may be other reasons that are not as widely known that
people generally are not aware of.
Adding foreign languages to elementary schools give students
benefits and skills the rest of their lives. In addition, it also gives them
higher standardized testing scores, better English proficiency , and
improved math skills (Marcos). In the survey conducted by the author
all the people surveyed believed that foreign languages benefitted
students. It is a well-known fact that children can learn languages
relatively quickly and effectively up until the age of twelve (Vos).
However many schools start to teach foreign languages at the middle
school level, which may already be too late, as some students entering
sixth grade may be already be twelve years old, the believed age when
it becomes harder for students to learn languages. Schools should take
advantage of the natural knack that younger students have, instead of
waiting for students to get older, as well as recognize and build upon
the benefits it gives students.
Budget and costs have been the largest problems hindering
foreign language education. A study came up calculated that the
average cost per student in a foreign language is $564, a significantly
15
higher number than core classes like English, Math, and Science.
Presume that number stays the same through a students entire public
school education, costing $7,332 (Roza). Additionally presume that
there are thirty students per class each year, the overall cost would be
in the area of $219,960. A math class with the same amount of
students and length of time would cost about $100,000 less. Budgets
have also been cut, with seemingly unnecessary programs being cut
or severely loosing money with the inclusion of foreign languages in
many places. These two combinations have caused many school
districts to cut foreign languages. A survey conducted in 2007-2008 by
the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)
showed that over a quarter of the states decreased their language
programs, including the state of Virginia, lowering the total amount of
students in those classes. In 2005, 26.9% of Virginias students were
learning a foreign language class compared to the national average of
18%. Two years later those numbers shrank greatly, with Virginias
average at 18.22% compared to the national average of 18.51%. This
8% change in just two years propelled Virginia from well above the
national average to just below it. A possible reduction in cost in foreign
16
language classes could allow for more to be in schools, along with an

improved state and national average.
Overall foreign languages are a requirement for American public
schools due to the increased interconnectedness of the world and the
demand for language skills in the workplace. Despite the setbacks
foreign languages have had financially in schools, the betterment of
the worldwide economy should eventually allow for their budgets to be
increased yet again, hopefully reaching 2005 levels. The United States
needs to be able to compete with other nations education systems,
and the expansion of foreign languages should be one of the first
things to be implemented to the new curriculums.
Conclusion
Despite the United States current lack of foreign language
programs there is still a possibility for change. An increased amount of
attention has been brought on this topic as well as more and more
research on students who have been exposed to these opportunities. If
the United States wants to catch up to countries that are currently
outperforming it in terms of education, it must start to expand the way
foreign languages are taught to students and when students are
starting to learn them. The benefits academically would provide
17
students better opportunities for their future, both in college and in the
workplace. The world is becoming a smaller place, and the exposure of
students to more foreign languages at a younger age would allow for
more people to communicate with others from the opposite side of the
world.
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