Students in today's public school systems are expected to learn and understand foreign language in about the four years they are in high school. They are tested on their development and quizzed on pronunciation when in reality their brains have stopped being able to learn and reproduce new sounds. Colleges expect an understanding and students who have attended language integration programs clearly have a leg up. Foreign language should be taught earlier and more intensively to give all students an equal chance when it comes to college admissions and the jobs later in life, along with the not so obvious benefits to the brain.

Many school systems in the country have small foreign language programs that begin around middle school, unless you pay for the extra education. Experts in the topic have concluded that children above the age of eight are unable to create the new sounds it takes to learn a new language. In school systems like the one in Wilmington where students begin to learn at the age of eleven, how are they expected to learn at the fast pace of the curriculum? Teachers move quickly to jam months worth of work and learning into half a year and then leave students with the other half to forget what half just learned. Then, once the twelve or thirteen year olds have forgotten their work, the language program becomes a joke, barely reinforced and seen has less than the core classes. With the understanding that school budgets are not banks and the schedules of students are already tight, there are things that could change to make room for language programs that begin early and that only intensify over the years.

Parents most likely recall only the basics of the language they learned in high school or maybe a little more if they took a class in college. Students who grew up speaking a second language at home, attended a school with a language integration program or were in a school system with a strong language program have a better chance of remembering or relearning the language with greater success. Imagine if the parents today remember as little as they do what the next generation will remember if the enrollment in foreign language is down from 31% of students in 1997 to 25% in 2008. The ability I speak or understand a second language is a huge advantage because colleges are always looking to diversity, and studies show that 35 percent of the CEOs of major companies speak at least a second language. How are are the students suppose to learn when there brain is most prepared for it when only 58 percent of K-6 schools are teaching it? Also the fact that can not be Ignore that bilingual people get paid more at their future careers.

All the talk about the college and jobs has the school systems forgetting about the simple idea that learning a second language benefits the brain in numerous ways. one of the biggest is that when children start learning languages before the age of five their brain is completely rewired to promote attention and better life skills. Studies show that bilingual people can hold attention 40 seconds longer than a monolingual person can. Also, when age begins to take over basic functions and age related illnesses such as alzheimer's begin the symptoms don’t nearly affect bilingual people the way they do others. The neurological advantages to speaking multiple languages are infinite and they are often overlooked.

School budgets are getting smaller and smaller and children are getting more and more stressed but the facts that support the idea that language should begin sooner are undeniable. The idea that this simple change could lead to higher paying jobs and better developed brains is something that may not be obvious to everyone. But the fact remains that foreign language is foreign to most students and beginning earlier and more intensely would benefit everyone.

Work Cited

Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

"Cerebrum." The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual. N.p., 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. .

"ACTFL." What the Research Shows. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Jane. Elementary Foreign Language (n.d.): n. pag. Web.