Turki Al-Dakheel

Okaz



Nearly 15 years have passed since the debate on teaching English to elementary school students started and the debate is still going on.



Detractors say teaching English to elementary school students will make them focus less on Arabic. They cite different statistics that support this stance. It has been proved that children can acquire more than one language easily and master its pronunciation and writing systems faster than older students. I personally know a couple of children who speak three languages fluently.



Introducing English curricula to intermediate school students will not be as effective. When students reach puberty, they start to get rebellious and go through different psychological changes. This is not the best time to introduce a foreign language to them.



The English level of most high school graduates is weak because English was introduced to them late; besides, the curricula were not challenging enough.



English should be taught to our children at school from the primary stage.



The worries that English will influence the teaching of Arabic are baseless. Arabic is the language students speak at home, hear on TV, on the street, at the mosque, etc. It is the mainstream language and is by no means, threatened by English.



I am glad that Minister of Education Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has decided to introduce English to elementary students, starting from grade four, all over the Kingdom. This is the kind of development we want.