Speech 2

Foreign Language in Elementary Schools 

Introduction/The Problem/Topic:

-      Statistics: only 18% of Americans are well versed in a language other than English, while 53% of Europeans can speak at least 2 languages 

-      The number of public elementary schools that offer foreign language education has declined from 24% in 1997 to 15% in 2008 

-      (https://dailytrojan.com/2014/11/06/foreign-language-should-be-taught-early-on/) ^^^ cite 

-      Talk about how foreign language is seen as a chore in high school or just a graduation requirement. Foreign languages can be hard to absorb and learn especially with a harder course load, work load, ACT/SAT prep, etc.… More on students plates. 

-      Administrators need to realize that by adding foreign language into education earlier on, it would be easier to learn, have a higher fluency rate, and would make the bridge between the United States and other countries less, making it easier to function and survive as a country, as well as furthering the country by being more aware of the cultures of other languages. 

The Solution:

-      Implement foreign language study time into education early on, for example in elementary school.

-      Hire teachers who are certified in another language that would be able to teach that.

-      This will only begin to help to solve the problem, there is more that could be done, like language clubs or other cultural events that could be offered to educate kids. 

The Justification: 

-      Math and reading and science are absolutely fundamental to a child’s education, but leaving language behind early on hinders a child’s ability to understand cultural diversity which is essential for our country to prosper economically and improve relations with other countries. 

-      “some estimates project that only half the world’s population will be speaking English by 2050”. Teaching only English in elementary education is unacceptable. Our country cannot afford to be left behind 

-      Being proficient in English is an important skill to have, as well as having a proficiency in a second language and should be a crucial part of American education. 

Conclusion:

-      There is a need for students especially at an early age to gain a proficiency in a language separate from English. It would be easier for students to learn it early on, improve knowledge of other cultures, and lessen the tension to take a language later on “just to graduate”. 

Sample Proposals

Individually:

1. Two strengths: organized well, comes off very clearly
    Two weaknesses: explain how it can be improved in more detail, seems a little complicated
2. the proposals ranked in terms of how they make their argument:
#1: NY Times course requirement
#2: Off campus purchases
#3: Nuclear Power

Speech Proposal

Foreign Language in Early Education

Problem
In education today, foreign language can be seen more as a chore than something exciting or something to look forward to. A lot of the time, children won't learn a second language until high school.

Focus
My intended focus on this speech is to emphasize the need for foreign language to be integrated into elementary level education. This can be done by having a specials time or an elective block during the day to learn another language they can carry with them and continue learning in upper and secondary education.

Rationale
This is important because society today is extremely diverse and learning a second language from early on can help to integrate differences in society and classmates in schools. Learning another language wouldn't be the answer to bridging the gap between cultures, but is definitely a start.

Resources
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/world-view/foreign-language-study-should-be-mandatory
https://www.pandatree.com/reason_foreign_language
http://www.meits.org/policy-papers/paper/learning-foreign-languages-in-primary-schools-is-younger-better
https://casls.uoregon.edu/roadmap/resources/data/RoadmapTalkingPoints.pdf

Speech #2

This assignment asks us to create a speech with information on an issue that needs to be fixed. In other words, a proposal. We are asked to include a possible solution to the problem and why it's important that it needs to be solved. We must explain it in a way that's the overall solution, not what people can do individually to solve the problem. We must use at least 3 outside sources to back our argument.
Questions: can this be about anything we want or is it in a specific category? Do we need to use more than 3 sources or just 3?

Reflection on Peer Review

I peer reviewed a paper and some of the comments I wrote could also be applied to my own paper. These comments included making the overall report more concise, adding a references page, double checking APA format, and having more structure to the introduction section. In the introduction section, I could try blending my sources into the other words better. Also some grammatical errors could be found in my paper as well and I could try to fix some run on sentences! Most of the feedback that I gave can be put into my own paper and I can look back at them when reviewing my report.

peer review !!