This law had a bit of trouble going through, and it seems like there were two main problems. First, it no longer allows parents (or students) to have a choice about which language they will start with. Secondly, there is a fear that there are not enough English teachers available to make this work. As far as the former goes, we all know that English is the international language these days, but is it the most important second language for everyone everywhere? Couldn’t a case be made for German or Russian or even Hungarian here in Slovakia (at least as options)? As far as the second problem goes, why do you think there is a shortage of English teachers and what can be done to get more people to join the profession?
In my opinion, the decision to make English a compulsory subject in schools is very positive. Everybody knows that English is a universal language these days and making it mandatory for scholars will lead to new opportunities. As Jana Berešová, the head of the Slovak Association of Teachers of English, said, we are a small country with a language that will never be used by other European countries and therefore, we have to be able to communicate in English. However, radical decisions tend to be questioned but where there’s a will, there's a way.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, children or rather their parents, choose the first foreign language in the third grade and a second foreign language in the fifth grade. Usually, parents choose from two or three languages and making English as compulsory would take their right of choice for the first foreign language. However, majority of parents choose English as their kids’ primary foreign language and thus there is a problem with only a handful of people. These parents may choose their desired language to be their kids’ second foreign language leaving them satisfied. There might some problems with parents that want their kids to learn two languages from which neither is English. These children may learn the third language outside of school as a part of their extra-curricular activity. As there are not many teachers that are qualified to teach their respective languages, learning it outside of school might be better for the student.
Second and maybe more severe problem that needs to be tackled is the shortage of English teachers. To be honest, I would not like to be a teacher and especially in Slovakia. You need qualification that is not easy to get, the job itself is very demanding and the salary is pretty low. No wonder that young people are not in desire of becoming a teacher. The salary and other compensations are very difficult to be raised and if there would be a raise in salaries then it is not significant to lure young people. The way how to attract young people to become English teachers might be through academic courses and trips to foreign countries, preferably United Kingdom and United States. Academic courses would further increase the knowledge of the field and a trip will provide experiences with English-speaking people. These experiences together with the increase of knowledge of English would raise the quality of teaching of English in schools.
I think the decision to make English mandatory is one of the best decisions of today’s government. It might be contradicting with the right of decision but English has become a universal language. The most important issue is the number and the quality of English teachers. The quantity as well as quality might be achieved through an increase in compensation. However, it is a complex issue that needs to be worked out between the government and the Association of Teachers.
There are many different cultures and languages in the world. I dare say only one has ever got as close as to be called an international communication language and that is English. Whenever we find ourselves in a tight situation and are in need of help, whenever we want to make friends in a foreign country, whenever we want to study abroad and make a better future for ourselves, there’s the need for communication.
ReplyDeleteEnglish language is one of the most widely recognised one’s all around the Earth. If we want to be fluent we need to start early. It’s been proven by psychological researches many times that children are the fastest learners. If they take up English as soon as the third grade then they have much better chance to grasp it. And if they have a talented teacher, they might even catch an accent, which is good, because you don’t want to sound silly while talking to someone important.
Although some people might argue that the kid should decide what he or she wants to study for themselves, I still think that it’s only better if they start with English. It’s something they will appreciate when they grow older. Although there may be cases when someone is naturally a quick learner and basically needs just a year to master a language. In this case there is no reason for him or her to require the mandatory English classes. Unfortunatelly such people are very rare in our society.
Furthermore there seems to be a problem with the overall shortage of English teachers. But I think that we took a good stance towards this, as mentioned in the article, by upgrading the qualifications of the teachers we already have. They could teach English as well as their other classes and it wouldn’t even hurt their income. Quite the contrary, they would actually get more money for the additional work.
In my opinion, it is a very good and beneficial idea to put emphasis on English as a first language on elementary schools. Nowadays, as the world has become a smaller place thanks to globalization, English turned out to be the only language that everyone speaks and expects the others to speak it as well. Moreover, the sooner a person starts studying a language, the better he/she can get. It is widely known that kids from a very early age learn things with more ease than older individuals. Therefore I would even put English as a compulsory language to the first grade on elementary schools, if not even to kindergartens.
ReplyDeleteThe argument that children (or their parents) should have a choice in picking the language they begin with seems to me quite old-fashioned. Maybe in the generation of our parents German or Russian could be more beneficial to them, but I am skeptical whether it would bring more fruit in these days. Already today I can see that it is a real handicap if a person doesn’t speak English, not in few years’ time when the world will be even more interconnected. Maybe the only exception would make the families that make business based on crops or similar things, which make them more attached to their homeland and perhaps also their neighboring countries. In that case studying English would prove to be slightly useless perhaps. But maybe over time they will need English even in this sphere, who knows.
I think that every ambitious person, who wants to be successful in anything they do, needs English to survive the competition. Actually, when you want to apply for almost any kind of job today, it is expected of you to speak English fluently and most of the times they want you to know also another foreign language on a sufficient level. As a consequence, the new generation could only have a big advantage from the new law.
However, as also Jana Beresova said in the article, the law itself doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone from now on will speak English on a perfect level. What needs to go hand in hand with it is a vital change in the whole system of teaching the language. If more money from government was to be used for the purpose of better education and for higher salaries for teachers, then it would be also more likely that more university students would eventually become English teachers. I think the low salaries are the main demotivating factor for all potential applicants for the position. Moreover if they knew before that they wouldn’t have to teach according to the old-fashioned rules and only by old schoolbooks they would be more enthusiastic about taking the job. Also if they knew that they would be in a young enthusiastic team possibly with some native speakers around as well they would run to be the first ones to get the job.
The possible solution mentioned in the article to retrain other teachers to become also English teachers seems kind of desperate to me. I wouldn’t like someone who took a poor quality course and claims to be an English teacher to teach me. However I admit that the courses suggested by British Council wouldn’t have to be that bad as they have a reputation but I still suppose it is just a short-term solution to a long-lasting problem that needs to be solved from its roots in poor salaries and old ways of teaching.
I think that this is definitely a step in the right direction. As we all most certainly know, English is quickly becoming the universal world language. If you are in a foreign environment you can ask someone in English and they will most likely answer you in English (if you're not in France :). Because of this, it is important for children to start learning English as soon as possible because it may as well be considered a second native language. It seems that our government has become aware of this fact and is taking steps to support English in schools. So far, as the article states, kids were able to choose a second language in third grade and a third in fifth grade. Thanks to this, they have their first language given.
ReplyDeleteOne concern in the article was that the kids and their parents will lose their choice over which second language the child will learn. I don’t think this is a very big concern, because English is becoming almost a necessity without regard to where the person lives. The internet is basically all in English and if someone wants to travel they won’t get anywhere without at least basic knowledge of English. The majority of youngsters currently choose to learn the language in or outside of school anyway and I really don’t see any reason why a parent would want to rob the child of this language.
A second concern was the number of qualified teachers available. The article says that there will not be enough teachers to fill the newly opened spots, and that new students are not very willing to stay and teach in Slovakia. This can be fixed by making a better environment for the teachers to teach in. We need to do something to keep our students from running off to teach in other countries where teachers have more respect and a higher salary. All in all though, I think that making English compulsory for everyone is a correct decision and I fully support it.
Honestly and sadly, I have to admit that the level of English of Slovaks is much worse than the level of people of other nationalities. Sweden and most of the other Scandinavian countries that were used as a comparison are in fact excellent examples. From my personal experience I can only prove that if you asked anyone, even an elder, for a direction, he would reply with no complications. Though, if somebody would ask the same question in here, I bet that most of the Slovaks could answer only in Russian or in some case in German, but even that with extreme difficulties. Reason for their inability can be found deeply in cultural history, influences of Russian and German empires. But why does the same apply to youths as well? How come that they are often not able to reply to such simple questions? Government sees the issue in not having English as a compulsory primary language and thus wants to change it. President, however, vetoed the law already once but government is not giving up and tries to submit the law again. Personally, I agree that there has to be something done to improve the level of English of Slovaks but I don’t agree that the establishment of the new law for compulsory English would make it any better for the following reasons.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, most of the current teachers of English language are not capable of effective teaching because for the lack of them schools employ almost anyone. In most cases, elderly women or very young unqualified adults are offered these jobs. However, the problem arises in their way of teaching rather than knowledge. Considering the elderly teachers, they teach in the old-fashioned, rather socialistic way. On the contrary, young adults are mostly employed for their residence abroad expecting them to be excellent speakers and very experienced. But the result is sad, indeed. Many of them have no awareness and experience in teaching and thus they are not able to teach potential pupils the language properly. And I guess that any of the training will not help to change the way they teach but only what they teach.
Many other factors than school, that I consider very contributing to the low level of English, are huge influences. As Sweden is used as a great contradictory example, I will stick to it. In my point of view, media is the biggest influence in whichever country. From very beginning we learn a language by hearing and consequently trying to repeat the heard sound. Therefore I mind to say that TV is a huge contribution to our ability to speak. Fact is, that in Sweden, more than a half of TV programs are held in English with Swedish subtitles. As a result, even a child can perceive language by watching TV and adapt to it, making it easier to learn in future. Apart from TV, there are a lot of other factors by which children learn English easier in Sweden. One of them is that a lot of parents are talking to their child not only in Swedish but in English as well. It is the most effective way of learning the language, to be in the direct environment of the language. However it is a personal choice of a parent to do so and therefore that cannot be easily changed in Slovakia. But still, instead of making English compulsory from the third grade I would use some of points mentioned above instead. Moreover, I think that English is one of the easiest languages to learn by perceiving and therefore I would propose that the harder languages (Spanish, French, and others) would have a priority in learning because sooner or later pupils would know English equivalently to their primary foreign language as they would perceive it by TV or from parents and for its easiness.
Even though I love English and enjoy learning it, I have to disagree with the policy of the Education Minister Eugen Jurzyca. I understand that English is becoming (or has already become) a global international language spoken partially in almost every country in the world. On the other hand, I doubt that people living in Slovakia will need to use the language so frequently. People should rather have a choice, which language they want to learn or want their kids to learn.
ReplyDeleteFor example German is a lot more useful language for Slovaks, as German speaking countries are much closer and more available for Slovak people. The Germany’s market is also considered as the biggest in the Europe and influences Slovakia a lot more than any English speaking country in the world. Many German businesses spread to all corners of Europe and Slovakia is not an exception. Thus they prefer German speaking employees. Austria, Germany and Switzerland also offer closer and more available job opportunities for Slovaks than for example the UK.
The possibility of choice of a language would also solve the problem with insufficient English teachers, because not all children would be obliged to study English. The schools should decide what languages they are capable of teaching and kid or parents have the choice for the language they prefer.
The only thing that bothers me is the quality of teaching the languages as the Head of the Slovak association of Teachers of English mentioned. I experienced Slovakian national primary school and the quality of English and German lessons was rather very low. What is there good about a legislation that makes English instruction compulsory when the kids won’t learn the language because of wrong teaching methods? Slovakian parliament should focus more on the quality and accreditation of the teachers. I really worship the initiative of the British Council to train teachers of English for Slovak schools for free and I think this could really help to improve the quality of the instruction.
Firstly, I think that teaching system in Slovakia has many problems. Not all of them are tried to be solved and sometimes some of them are even aggravated. In my opinion it is the same for this case. I see many typical human properties presented there. First thing is that government tries to change the system (what is absolutely needed) but to do the first think that has appeared is not a real solution. Trial and error system does not work there because for many it is not so important (mainly already studied people – what all government members are) how this change affects the future generation. But consider many young people that will pass through this reform. They do not know what awaits them. However good or bad it could be, thousands of young schoolable humans will be influenced.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, we try to follow the American and north-european educational system because they are considered to be one from the best in the world. And what these systems are based on is the freedom of choosing subjects. The main difference between our and their system is the opportunity to choose subjects earlier in the teenage part of the live. But choosing subject is just what this reform does not offer.
What I want to say is that there should be a freedom of selecting language. Making English compulsory will lead to more people taught English but not to higher number of people speaking English. Let have a look at people at basic and elementary school. They are taught everything but we cannot say they really know everything. Forcing people to learn something is on the one hand just leading them to hate that think (if they do not want to be learned that). I am not saying that people who do not want to be learned should not be. But my opinion is that the system of choosing should be applied. Are not we living in the era of democracy?
On the other hand English definitely is a common world language. With English there are opened door to lot of countries. Considering average income in different countries, it is absolutely clear why there is a shortage of English teachers in our country. In case parliament wants to attract more people, they should make this position more attractive for them.
To sum it up, I think that there should be a freedom of choosing what language to be learned. This law is definitely an advance, but it is really solving nothing. Nevertheless someone wants to know English sufficiently to work outside this state has to attend some English school. But the fact that there is an effort to improve something is positive.
Response to Enrik
ReplyDeletePersonally, I hate German language and I am glad that I have learned English not German. However, I agree with you that German language is more essential for Slovaks, especially here in Bratislava. It is because Austria is within a really short distance. It means lots of job or study opportunities. In addition, a huge number of Austrian or German companies are operating in Slovakia.
Therefore, I do think that compulsory English is a waste of time in particular regions. There are people who would never use English and have to learn it for 10 or more years in school. As you said in your comment, the solution of this problem could be achieved by giving people a possibility of choice of a language. On the other hand, this solution can produce lots of other problems. For example, since English is the most common second language thought in Slovakia, the discrimination of non-English speakers may occur.
Tomas Langer
Responding to Ondrej Bilčík:
ReplyDeleteAccording to my opinion it surely is a step, but I am not absolutely convinced it is in right direction. It is a change (and that is what our system needs) but this is what works in more developed countries (and we are not considered to be one of them). The FACT that English IS a world language is just holeproof. Your opinion about that it is absolutely possible to communicate with English in every state is just a nice dream (). However, you will probably find someone speaking English everywhere (in terms of bigger cities). I agree that English is widely abundant language (or the most abundant indeed) but there are still some people that know they would not use it.
You are right. Government is taking steps. But we could only assume that they are good. The result will be seen years later. Is the fact that they are given (nice word but I think the word FORCED is more appropriate here) the language really good? It is the lost of possibility to choose and that is what we were fighting for long years during the communism age. Maybe English in a necessity for you, but that does not have to mean that it is the same for all of us. You live in big city (in capital indeed) and you are used to interact with English daily, but it is the situation for small cities or even villages over the Slovakia. Internet without doubts is mainly in English, but there are also pages for all (currently used) languages in the world. As well many translators exist and however uncertain they are, they serve their function (and that is valid also for foreign countries).
There is also the problem with teachers. Making the position more attractive is a solution, but that needs money (and maybe this is another problem). Imagine you in that situation. You are good at English and you like to teach it so you decide to be a teacher. You get 5 times more money in foreign country as well as nicer environment and better school conditions. Would you stay here?
So that is basically it. Well, I agree with you that English is a good choice for modern people, but I still do not think it should be compulsory.
RE: Mai Nguyen Phuc
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you on the fact that English is a universal language. But is it as universal in Slovakia or Central Europe as it is in the west, Scandinavian countries or in the developed countries in the East like Japan? I would disagree.
Another opinion you presented and I honestly disagree with is about those parents, who want their kids to learn two languages in the primary school and yet none of them is English. You suggested that it would be better for the kids to learn the third language as a part of their extra-curricular activity. However, you have to take into consideration the fact that any outside-school tutoring or language courses are very expensive! The kid then loses its opportunity to learn the language it wants or would be more useful than English in its future.
Admittedly, the quality of national English teachers is low. As you mentioned, there is this motivational problem with new teachers and the only thing that could attract more young people to teach English (or any other subject) is money. Of course there are some teachers who enjoy teaching and I admire such teachers, however these can be considered as minority.
@Maria
ReplyDeleteI really like how you said that the kids will appreciate their choice of studying English as their second language in the future when they are old enough to look back. I completely agree that it's the best thing a child can do, because English can be also a starting point towards studying other languages. And just like you mentioned it in your comment, English is the first language you turn to when you need to express yourself anywhere in the world knowing you will be understood.
However, I wouldn't be so hopeful that qualification of other teachers would help solving the problem. It might increase the numbers so there wouldn’t be lack of them, but their quality is going to be rather low I would say. And although I really appreciate British Council for their effort, I remain skeptical whether it will help those old teachers that are at schools to learn English at such level that they would be able to teach English. It would be helpful for the ones who already teach English to learn the modern techniques and make their lessons more interesting and vivid. This would help just a part of them though. I still think that qualifications can’t solve this problem effectively.