Quote:
Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp
I think it's a great idea to start learning languages at Primary school. The younger children are when they start the easier it is for them to learn - not all the rules and grammar and stuff, just chatty basics, the same way they learn their mother tongue.
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Absolutely agree Willow .. took the words out of my mouth .. children learn their own language by parroting their parents and if the schools can do this with a foreign language when the brain is young and more open to 'washing' then so be it. Always believed it should be conversation first, grammar and spelling later.
Which language would they chose though ? New suggestions are turning to Mandarin 'cause of the business connections with China; French out now I think, Spanish high on the list as spoken in more countries after English.
Don't think it is a matter of us being useless at foreign languages, just that English reasonably world wide and made us lazy.
What I can't understand is that the pupils in secondary school, who are not moving up to do a G.C.S.E. in a language, would be offered a course focused on more conversational language rather than the Grammar ... yes, please .. wish they had done this when I was at school.