|
There are obvious advantages to sending your child to a language school. It will allow them to experience different cultures, people and knowledge throughout their life and provide them with an advantage in the post secondary and working world. Learning languages also helps to develop strong mental capacity and will help keep your child’s mind sharp throughout their lifetime. Additionally, students who study a second language will increase their English vocabulary.
“It’s like value-added education,” says Fred Genesee, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec who has studied secondary language education for more than 30 years. “There is no evidence that a student’s English skills suffer at a French immersion school,” he says. “A lot of the literacy skills they learn transfer to English.”
A love for language
In the new global world, and with Canada becoming evermore diverse, learning a second language provides greater work flexibility and makes it easier to find employment. Best of all, learning a second language can create a love for languages that leads to a third and fourth.
“I started in Grade 3, learning French. I learned Latin in Grade 7,” says Jan, a Grade 9 student at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver, British Columbia. He also speaks Afrikaans and English and was looking for an even greater challenge, so he signed up for Mandarin last year. “My dad said it was going to be the business language of the future. It’s hard to get used to because it’s very different from French or English, but once you learn the grammar, it’s pretty easy.”
English as a second language
For many students in Canada, English is their second or possibly third language. So parents might want to consider a private school that focuses on English as a second language. These schools not only help increase your child’s English vocabulary, pronunciation, expressions and comprehension but also help students culturally understand their new environment.
Sending your child to an ESL school may also help them prepare for attending another private day or boarding school.
“Culturally, there’s such an apprehension about sending kids to an ESL school. These are bright kids, so parents think ‘my kid’s perfect. He doesn’t need an ESL school,’” says Anna Galanta of Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. “But, no matter how bright the child is, there’s still going to be a big culture shock when they get here.
|
