Foreign Languages for Children: Let's Do It Right This Time

Abstract

title of this article implies that mistakes were made in the past with programs for elementary school children. And, one clear advantage that I have here is that I have been around long enough to have made just about every mistake possible. So, I can attest to our fallibility. In fact, even acronyms have caused problems. I remember a night school project for adult language learners which was called Foreign Languages for Older People, or FLOP. And even the familiar term in reference to foreign language in the elementary school was not without pitfalls.... Inevitably, a number of school principals admitted to having put FLEAS into the local curriculum. And even the correct pronunciation caused problems. For, as criticism began to build against elementary school programs back in the 1960s, an unkind critic made the comment, The spirit is willing, but the FLES is weak. And, what made this outrageous pun doubly devastating was the fact that it correctly described what was then happening in many elementary school programs. That is, many parents, teachers and school administrators had been led to believe that, by exposing elementary school children to anything called FLES, near native fluency would automatically bloom forth. And the problem was that only the one variable-that of starting earlywas taken into account. In our enthusiasm for getting foreign languages into the elementary schools, we failed to consider other important