WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING AFRICAN LANGUAGES
With more than 2,000 distinct languages, Africa has a third of the world’s languages with less than a seventh of the world’s population. By comparison, Europe, which has about an eighth of the world’s population, has only about 300 languages. Africa’s linguistic diversity can even be found among individual Africans. Are you interested in learning African languages? Sign up with Bethany Online School. Click here to see our services. Here are the reasons you need to learn a new African language
Knowing a second language in the 21st century is not only advantageous, but also required for success in life. As the global economy continues to globalize, different communities and cultures are coming into increasingly frequent touch with one another. The distance barrier that formerly divided the world’s communities has been dismantled by the internet and the ease of international travel. The global community has grown interconnected and integrated throughout all sectors of society, from business to retail to higher education to beach vacationers to the international jet set. Higher education institutions carefully examine candidates to find potential future leaders.
Businesses and employers are looking for candidates who can operate in the current global economy. Students can acquire both of these skill sets by studying another language.
Different advantages of learning a second language include improved academic performance, improved cognitive growth, and improved attitudes toward other languages and cultures.
Simply said, language acquisition is essential for pupils to succeed in the contemporary, global economy. Learning a second language has been found to significantly improve student performance throughout the curriculum in addition to satisfying the demands of future students. It has been demonstrated that studying a language enhances a student’s cognitive abilities, including but not limited to:
- Enhanced Problem Solving Skills
- Improved Verbal and Spatial Abilities
- Improved Memory Function (long & short-term)
- Enhanced Creative Thinking Capacity
- Better Memory
- More Flexible and Creative Thinking
- Improved Attitude Toward the Target Language and Culture
These cognitive benefits of language learning have been shown to enhance student performance producing:
- Higher standardized test scores
- Higher reading achievement
- Expanded student vocabulary in native language (English)
- Higher academic performance at the college level
In order to make language learning a central part of the curriculum, we must
- Engage in effective professional development programs for world language teachers to maintain relevance in FL classroom
- Better engage language teachers in advocacy movements
- Advocate for language programs in order to convince administration at all levels
- Engage legislative bodies to adopt priorities consistent with this goal
- Inform parents of not only cognitive and academic benefits but career benefits as well