The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 86 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL and delivered in the target language, students develop higher proficiencies in the language at a faster rate. And, finally, students who study Eng- lish as a foreign language need about seven years of full or partial immersion to acquire the deep academic language skills required to function as a native English speaker in a classroom. Of course, they are able to communicate at a surface-level proficiency much sooner. We see the same progress for American students who have surface- level communication skills in a foreign language, but lack the hours of intensive exposure needed to perform in school as a native speaker. Educators should be careful not to overestimate students’ academic language ability. FLO: Should literacy skills in the sec- ond language be taught? CB: The research shows that lit- eracy in any foreign language actually increases a child’s thinking capacity. What’s more, literacy is a critical skill for anyone hoping to use their second or third languages in the real world. In the 1980s, American researchers negated some of the old notions about language study—mainly that students should not be exposed to the printed word until they reached an advanced stage of speaking proficiency. The new research shows that all students, even those working to improve their native English language abilities, learn best in a so-called “print rich” environment. In addition, English speakers require more time to learn languages that use characters and symbols that are radically different from the Latin-based alphabet. Research shows that literacy in any foreign language increases a child’s thinking capacity. Continued from page 78 Continued on page 90