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Alyssa Comeaux

Professor Thomas Parker

Composition 1

18 July 2019

High School Foreign Language Classes: Is it Worth it?

Does the American Education system do enough when it comes to their foreign language

departments and how well they actually teach their students? Statistically: no. In every state in

the US, high school students are required to take a certain amount of foreign language classes to

graduate (for example, in Texas, each student needs two years of foreign language to graduate);

however, the majority of American born citizens are only fluent in one language: English.

American high school foreign language classes are not successful in effectively teaching a

second language to teenagers. To be more effective, they should be implemented at an earlier age

and they should also focus on actually teaching the students how to speak the language and not

focus on test grades. This would drastically increase America’s versatility as a country, as many

Americans only speak one language their whole life (which does not truly speak to the diversity

that the United States tries to uphold).

For foreign language classes to be more effective, they should be implemented at an

earlier age than in fourteen to eighteen years old. Foreign language classes should begin around

middle school, or even as early as elementary. Many European schools teach their students

multiple languages starting in elementary, and by the time those students graduate high school,

they can speak three to four languages fluently. Not only would learning languages at an earlier

age help the child become fluent sooner and easier, learning a second language also is extremely

good for children’s mental stability. Children who speak more than one language typically “learn
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faster and easier, have improved problem solving skills and creativity, and have more career

opportunities in adulthood”, reports from Ertheo Health and Learning organization states, which

proves a fair point: learning a second language at an early age is very beneficial for children and

should be enforced by the American Education System.

Another reason that high school language classes are not very efficient in teaching their

students how to speak a language is that the teachers typically focus on getting their students to

have good grades rather than how the students are actually learning and developing their

language skills (This issue can be seen in almost every high school class, unfortunately). Many

teachers feel that they have to teach a certain way to get the grades they need to keep their job,

which only serves to create a vicious cycle of teaching only certain parts of a curriculum that

needs to be taught, then moving on to the next topic; effectively creating a great opportunity for

students to completely forget everything they learned. Grades do not efficiently indicate a

student’s comprehension of a subject, and may lead students, teachers, and parents alike to

believe that a student is “learning” more than they really are. An important thing teacher should

consider when teaching foreign languages is a student’s retention of knowledge. Instead of

having weekly/bi-weekly tests over different subject matter, have students slowly learn the topics

and continue to incorporate every past topic into the current topic, as to prevent the students from

losing the newly-learned vocabulary. Evaluating a student by giving them tests is no way to help

a student actually learn, as even grades have been proven to “remove intrinsic motivation” in

students and “force(s) our children to believe that the destination is more important than the

journey”, states educator Chris Crouch.

On the other hand, a powerful rebuttal to the afore mentioned reasons is that it is still

important for students to take foreign language classes, even if they are not currently in the best
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that they could be. Foreign languages will help make students into more well-rounded and well-

developed adults, even if they are not as fluent as they could be. Even trying to learn just the

basics of a language can help a person to connect with an entire other group of people—an

experience that cannot be summed up in a three-page essay. Learning will always be important

and should always be values, no matter how low quality that learning is.

In conclusion, foreign language classes that begin in high school are not effective for a

plethora of reasons. State education boards need to review their education criteria and how they

should execute foreign language learning. Learning should be about just that: learning. It should

never be about other things, like grades or GPA, and should focus on how well a student can

actually speak a language. It is also extremely ineffective to teach students a language at fifteen

years old, as unless they can completely immerse themselves in the language, the chances of

them actually being able to speak the language is very low. Learning a second language is an

extremely important skill to have, and should not be hindered by the education system.

Word Count: 869

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Works Cited

“Benefits of Learning a Second Language at an Early Age: Ertheo Education & Sport.” News

about Soccer Summer Camps and Academies All over the World, 6 June 2019,

www.ertheo.com/blog/en/learning-a-second-language/.

Crouch, Chris. “Grades Do More Hard Than Good.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 23 January 2014,

www.huffpost.com/entry/grades-do-more-harm-than_b_4190907.