Why is it important for young learners to study English?
We live in an increasingly globalized world – business, media, entertainment, and travel are connecting people across each continent. This can have an enormous impact on our lives, and will undoubtedly have an impact on the possibilities of children going through early education now.
Business
The laptop or phone that you’re looking at right now has been put together with components and services that have come from all around the world. Minerals, metals, and plastics. Designs, drawings, and software. Packaging, shipping, and retail. All of these things have come together thanks to the successful communication of thousands of people. To give some figures, Apple’s products are made with components and services sourced from roughly 43 countries.
English has long been known as the international language of business, and is commonly used for communication even between two non-native countries. If you can picture a factory in China, it might need to order components and materials from India, Mexico, Japan, and Korea to put together a product. To effectively communicate with these different suppliers, they would need to somehow hire staff local Chinese staff who are able to speak Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. What generally happens is that perhaps they’ll have some employees with Japanese language skills, but with the other suppliers English would be used instead.
Numerous multinational companies have even gone as far as switching their whole business language to English – no matter where their office is. An example can be seen with Microsoft in Beijing which switched their official company language to English – meaning emails, meetings, corporate notices etc. all use English instead of Mandarin.
For people growing up nowadays, having English as a second language will be an important skill that will open up a wide range of possibilities – whether that involves dealing with customers overseas, or with working in the English-speaking office environment of the future.
Travel
Similar to business, the English language has a strong presence as the international language of travel. Hotels, guides, signs, menus, leaflets etc. will generally use the local language and English (to a certain extent). You might find that some resorts will be popular with tourists from certain countries, and local staff will have picked up specific language skills to better cater to those specific tourists, but English would otherwise be their first option to pursue.
While 50 years ago it would be quite a luxury to travel overseas, with the rise of budget airlines, package holidays, and backpacker culture, heading abroad for a holiday (even for just a long weekend) has become quite a common occurrence.
Being able to speak English will open up travel opportunities for children as they grow up. It’s also quite common to see parents being too busy to learn English, but realizing that their children can help with translations on family holidays.
Media
With the spread of the internet, satellite television, and the film industry, children are growing up in an environment where they are often exposed to English. The latest Hollywood blockbuster will likely be available in a nearby Cinema (with subtitles), American popstars have English-language music spreading through social media, and hit TV shows like Sherlock will be available online or on local television. Learning English will help children to understand more of the world that they’re experiencing as they grow up.
Parents around the world are starting to understand just how important it is to help their children pick up the English language, and are starting to invest in language classes for them at an increasingly early age. While 20 years ago your might have found only adult or high-school ESL textbooks, it’s now very common to find ones for young learners too.