Why Kids Shouldn’t Learn Languages In School

Should foreign language be required in school from the day one?

80% of Americans and 60% of Brits are monolingual. And this is in spite of 5 or more years of language education from the age of 11 upwards.

So language education doesn't work. And what we say is, well, let's start them young. Kids are like sponges, right? They soak up languages effortlessly, don't they? We should teach kids languages from the day they start school.

All of our intuition says yes, but in this post I'm going to explain why I think we shouldn't.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

The Myth Of Children As Language Sponges

It's a myth to say that children learn languages fast. Have you ever watched a child grow up and watched their linguistic developments over that time? It takes them years to improve.

At 10 years old they're only just starting to get proficient in their native language. And this is in their native language where they're constructing meaning for the first time and there's no interference from another language.

And yes, they can become bilingual and trilingual when they're learning their native languages.

This is what seems so impressive from the outside. But that is to ignore the fact that there is nothing quick or efficient about it, and it takes them many years.

When it comes to learning a language at school, we're talking about a totally different thing. Now we're talking about one or two hours a week of French class on a Thursday afternoon.

Have you ever seen this? Have you seen it actually work?

I'm reminded of my friends who have a daughter who spent five years from the age of six to 11 taking German classes at school a couple of hours a week. After five years she couldn't put a sentence together.

Why Traditional Early Language Learning Fails

There are two reasons why young learners like my friends' daughter fail to learn a language:

• Firstly, there's simply not enough time. You can't learn a language in two hours a week in a classroom at school.
• And secondly, at that age, you don't have good metacognitive ability. You're not in control of your learning as a young child.

In my experience, you could simply start a child off learning a language for the first time at 11. Due to their more advanced cognition, they would be able to learn the same amount in one year that they were ineffectively learning for the five previous years.

So does this then mean that we shouldn't teach languages to our kids?

No, what it means is that we shouldn't be extending our current woeful teaching practices to younger kids and then subjecting them to five years of mind-numbing boredom, which leaves them ending up hating the language they're learning.

Our regular language curriculum at school doesn't work either. Almost 8 out of 10 kids who have studied the most popular languages at school, including French and German, say that they can do no more than understand basic phrases.

What Students Actually Want (And What Works)

So what can we do? Well, a good starting point is to look to the kids themselves for answers.

When surveyed and asked what it is they don't like about learning languages, they say very clearly “grammar and vocabulary is hard”. So I say let's stop teaching grammar and vocabulary. Hold that thought.

When those same kids are asked, what would actually encourage you to learn a language, They say two things:

• exchanges abroad
• speaking to native speakers

What this says very clearly is that kids want to see meaning. They want to understand why it is that they are being subjected to this language learning. If we give the language meaning to them in their eyes, they will want to learn.

Now, there are examples of very effective language learning in the school system. This happens in immersion schools where entire subjects like maths or science are taught in the target language.

So in this scenario, you're not studying the language as an object of study, you're studying a different subject using the language as the medium of learning.

It's hard at first, but you get very impressive results over four or five years of time and immersion. Languages aren't learned, they are acquired, which is also a big tip for adult language learners out there.

And so this puts us in a strange position of knowing what's working, but not actually being able to do anything about it. Because let's be real, immersion schools are just not realistic for 99.9% of kids around the world.

The Reality Check: Challenges Teachers Face

And so the reality is that there are huge challenges for teachers of children. They have:

• large classes
• kids who don't see the point
• a lack of resources
• they can't give attention to individual students
• and most primary school teachers are not trained to teach languages either

Do you really think that in this context you're going to be effectively able to teach the present perfect to a five-year-old? Teaching the language in this traditional way to this age group is effectively a waste of time.

A Better Approach: Interest Before Instruction

So it's all very well complaining, but what are my thoughts on this? Well, my starting point is this: it's too simplistic to say that we should teach languages to five-year-olds, because we can't even teach 15-year-olds and get good results.

But all kids should get exposure to languages, and this is fundamental in order to develop empathy for other cultures, for understanding people around the world.

It has to start with interest and motivation. Interest the kids in languages, then they will be motivated to learn. Try putting Japanese anime in front of a 14 year old and just watch what happens. It's quite something.

So we have to start with interest in the language. And this means a few things for me. It means free unstructured time, not the teacher teaching the classroom, but allowing kids to find resources that they personally relate to:

• TV
• books
• comics
• audiobooks
• games

We should be making extensive use of technology to personalise learning in that sense. Books are also fantastic. Books can be read aloud by the teacher to the class or by children themselves. We can also use songs to introduce music to the whole language equation.

In this scenario, the teacher can disappear into the background, resist the urge to teach, and instead just facilitate and trust that if the children are immersed in the language in this way, with their interests as the guiding light, then the language ability will emerge over time.

And if it doesn't, they will be interested. By the time they do get to 11 and start secondary education, they now have five years of this warm affection for the language and a lot that's in their brain already, even if they can't outwardly articulate it.

What This Means For Schools And Policy

So if you can find a school that can provide that kind of education for languages I have to say I am all for it because I think that's fantastic.

This does, though, for governments mean:

• better access to resources
• smaller classes
• teaching assistants to encourage personalisation and individuality in learning
• absolutely no standardised tests
• more libraries with books in them
• teachers who are trained in more progressive methodologies

And this is especially true in places such as Asia, where you typically have old-fashioned, regimented teaching styles as I learned when I taught English in Japan.

Should Foreign Language Be Required In School FAQ

Should Foreign Language Be Required In School: Bottom Line

Should foreign language be required in school?

No, we should not be teaching languages to our kids at five or six years old. But what we should do is create an environment where they can explore the language and fall in love with it for themselves.

So by the time they get to secondary school age where they do start to learn languages more seriously at school, they're going to have such a huge advantage.

They're going to want to learn and they're going to lap up every single opportunity to actually use the language out in the real world.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.