Make other options of second language

Although English tend to need learning in early stage like primary school, a writer suggests the English should be one of optional subjects among second languages after primary school. The reason why this writer of the article says this is that he knows Japanese students have a problem with motivation to learn English.

Motivation is one of the most important factors when you learn something. If you have a look this page, Motivation to Learn, you could find clearer idea about relation between motivation and learning. Think, if you are not interested in the subject, it is probably slow for you to absorb information because you feel you are forced to study it.

Now this is THE situation in Japan as it is. Students are just forced to study English without being given any reason. Even though, as I mentioned in a previous post, they have a reason to study it for entrance exams of schools, it does not bring enough motivation for them.

Therefore, the suggestion from the article that there should be several options of second language is worth considering. If this idea came true, students could study harder with certain motivation because they are the ones who choose it that they are interested in.

However, in the writer’s opinion, English would still be helpful as a subject which represents ‘foreign language’ to children in early stages.

On the other hand, there would be some problems to increase languages to choose because of the lack of money or the number of teachers of each language. Paula Oliver is worried in her article that schools in NZ would not have enough teachers for each language to make the plan come true and of course, which needs budget to employ them.

But even though it would cost so much, I think making other options is very good idea to encourage students to learn things themselves.