Advantages/Disadvantages + Opinion Essay
Some experts believe it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary
school rattier than secondary school.
Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or
experience Write at least 250 words.
Few people would dispute the benefits of being bilingual or multilingual. There is, however, some
disagreement over the best age for children to begin learning another language. In this essay, I will
outline the perceived drawbacks of doing so in primary school, rather than high school, and explain why
I feel that there are far more advantages.
Those who oppose language lessons in primary school tend to have two misguided assumptions. First of
all, they believe that children under six who have not yet mastered their mother tongue may struggle to
cope with a new set of vocabulary and grammar rules. They worry this confusion may impact their
acquisition of both languages. Another fear is that this second language may interfere with their
learning in general indeed, it has been reported that bilingual children perform worse at school than
those who only speak one language.
When it comes to learning a language, it is definitely a case of the younger, the better. Clearly, when a
child grows up in a household where their parents speak two languages, they tend to become bilingual,
even without formal lessons. This is because there is a very small window of time during childhood when
language learning can happen almost naturally. As such, it makes sense to begin instruction as early as
possible in primary school. Doing so greatly increases a child's chance of achieving fluency, which, in the
long term, will open up more opportunities. Not only do bilingual people have better job prospects, but
there is even evidence that bilingualism protects the brain against dementia in old age
In conclusion, although some still argue against language lessons in primary school, in my view, children
who start learning at a young age have far better prospects than those who try to pick up a language
later in life.
(304 words)