The benefits of learning Mandarin for kids do not just lie in future opportunities
Parents invest in sending their kids to attend Mandarin class because many believe that it is an important language of trade that will benefit their children's career opportunities in the future. Economist Albert Saiz finds that native English speaker graduates who speak a second language, on average, earn 2 per cent more than those who don't. Different foreign languages attract different language bonus - the more in demand a foreign language is, the higher the language bonus.
Knowing the language of our major trade partners is an asset. Graduates with foreign language skills will greatly improve their career opportunities at home and overseas. They would also improve their academic opportunities by having a chance to study at overseas educational institutions, an excellent experience to broaden their horizon and enrich their resume. Graduates with international experience are valued by employers. It's not just people who work in international trade or diplomatic services who would reap benefits from having foreign language skills. Jim Rogers, a successful businessman, urges people to learn at least one Asian language because it will give them a competitive advantage. He himself sent his children to learn Mandarin at an early age to future-proof them.
The benefits of learning Mandarin for kids do not just lie in future opportunities. Studies support that children who are bilinguals or multilinguals are academically ahead of their peers. Learning a second language helps improve children's academic performance, especially in English and Mathematics. According to a research, languages such as Chinese expresses mathematical concepts more clearly and thus making it easier for small children to learn maths. Children who learn Mandarin are also reported to perform better in identifying musical pitch and hence may perform better than their peers in building musical skills. This is not a surprise since Chinese is a tonal language. Learning the language will naturally train children to be able to identify the different tones. In essence, all the skills children are gaining through the process of learning a foreign language can transfer meaningfully to other areas in life.
Children who learn a foreign language are also shown to have better problem solving skills, creativity, and multitasking skills. This is not a surprise since children are required to think in a different way while learning to speak a foreign language. This mental training delivers multiple cognitive advantages to young learners, in addition to having advanced cross-cultural skills and linguistic skills.
There is no denying the fact that languages are the integral part of the cultural richness of our society and the world in which we try to lead our lives controlled and cleanly. It is significant that learning languages contributes to mutual understanding, a sense of global citizenship and personal commitment. Students learn to appreciate different countries cultures, communities and people. By making comparisons, they gain insight into their own culture and society. The ability to understand and communicate in another language is a lifelong skill for education, employment and technology in this country and throughout the world. Learning languages fascinate opportunities to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and to express themselves with increasing confidence, independence and creativity. They explore the similarities and differences between other languages and English and learn how language can be manipulated and applied in different ways. The developments of communication skills together with understanding of the structure of language laid the foundations for future study of other languages and support the development of literacy skills in a pupil's own language.
In using a theme based on educational and cultural affairs, there exist three themes in Germany and France which are specified as environment, media and advertising. In addition, pupils in England studying health in English, French-speaking countries and Impressionism in French, and the geography and history of Berlin in German. The themes and objectives relating to grammar, cross-curricular learning and cultural understanding are defined for each theme and reference grammar sheets and lists of topic-specific vocabulary created. St Marylebone School in London places a strong emphasis on the appreciation of cultural diversity and the languages departments consider the introduction of intercultural understanding as a key concept in the revised programme of study to be the perfect opportunity for a year 9 pupils to investigate the culture of their target language country France or Germany. This would take place through culturally specific topics, as year 9 is an 'enrichment year' where learning is thematic following completion of key stage 3 in two years In the unit on Impressionism, pupils were introduced to the movement and shown Impressionist paintings. They were asked to suggest possible titles in English and to match the actual French titles with the paintings, along with more descriptive French phrases for each of the paintings. Pupils then chose an Impressionist artist and were asked to prepare a presentation in French on this artist for their final assessments, using presentational software or other ICT. They spent one art lesson reproducing a picture by their chosen artist and were also given the opportunity to visit the Courtauld Institute to see the original paintings.
The word 'nationalism' comes down from the heritage, culture and tradition of a particular country which indicates uniformity in respect of one faith that is the language conventionally uttered from a child which is his actual identity. Nationalism is such which vividly gives an acquaintance in the sense in what language he expresses his mode of his explicit desire as to what he wants or what he would like to do. So our heritage is expressed as a token of ideal acquaintance as Bengali Language with which we survive on full faith of livelihood and as such every elegiac influence is concerned in achieving the recognition of this day in the world. We can think our own belief that we are created equally in respect of expressing our own tradition, culture and religion which is bedded on our soil, grass, plants, creeper and our dwelling place. We cannot think even for a moment that a boy is treated more or less as a terrorist or miscreant or he is excommunicated at an immature stage. If we lose our faith in our own nationalism, we need to be responsible to build him or her who can give his identity as a Bengali nation. To speak the truth, the 21st February, as a symbol of blaze illumination is our rectitude for which our survival as Bengali nation has been reflected through out the whole world.
Over the course of the lessons, through research, reading tasks and a mock interview with an artist from the period, pupils became increasingly knowledgeable about Impressionism. 'They developed confidence in describing visual images in French', commented one teacher, 'and began to express their opinions - albeit at a simple level - about paintings.' Pupils' language work covered, in particular, adjectives, question words and the 'passé compose'. Pupils' final presentations were assessed by both the MFL and art departments. To finish, pupils completed a worksheet in French. This consolidated everything covered during the topic and gave pupils the opportunity to reflect on what they had learnt.
In using the theme of societal concept
Staff believes the shift of emphasis had a positive impact on pupils' learning. One French teacher noted, 'The focus of learning switched and language became a genuine vehicle for communication. Pupils strove to express themselves effectively on a range of important issues rather than trying to use language structures in order to demonstrate their ability.' Pupils enjoyed using language to communicate about 'genuine' issues and themes. There are a number of key concepts that underpin the study of languages. Pupils need to understand these concepts in order to deepen and broaden their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Marked and unmarked terms are frequently being used in binary oppositions. It means that a term is not equal in its weight, but the one (unmarked) is neutral or more positive in contrast to the other term. As Geoffery leech observes, where there is a contrast between two or more terms, tenses or cases, one of them is marked if it have some extra 'affix' in contrast to the unmarked one which does not contain any marker. For example the cat is an unmarked and neutral term while cats is marked with a suffix -s, similarly actor is an unmarked term while actress is a marked term with an affix -ess, also polite is a positive term in contrast to its negative term 'impolite'. In general the plural of nouns in English language are marked term (books) in comparison to the singular (book). In French language the feminine is generally marked and the masculine is unmarked term for instance petit in contrast to petite; however, in English if sex is marked it is done lexically.i.e. by giving special words to one sex and none for the other one, for example word duck is a female term which is unmarked while maleness is marked by drake which is absent in duck and this word gives services for the whole specie. Moreover in the pronouns opposite marking is being observed, that is male as an unmarked term and female term as marked one. For example,
One in HIS senses would not do a thing like that (unmarked)
One in HER senses would not do a thing like that (marked by femaleness)
It is the male sex who is marked because the first statement could refer to either gender, but the second one will specify it for femaleness.
In polar oppositions:
The same kind of marked/unmarked distinction is observed in polar oppositions as well (having two poles) good/bad, rich/poor, day/night, low/high, short/long and we prefer to measure things by the mean of length rather than the shortness. We would rather ask how long this cloth, than how short this cloth is, or how high this building is instead of how low this building is. Because the former will give a neutral expression which mean it could be long or short, while in latter we are left with only one possibility of being short. It does not only rely on the scale of measurement but can also be used in such cases,
Markedness can be defined as the relationship between the form and meaning. If there is a contrast of two different forms on a single dimension the unmarked one would be neutral one and could be applied on the whole dimension rather than a specific aspect of it. It could be argued that this phenomenon is due the negative-positive inherent to the semantic opposition itself. Normally the unmarked one is considered positive while the marked one is taken a negative term for instance, happy/unhappy, complete/incomplete, stable/unstable; however, in some cases there is an invisible element of negation, like it is easy to define dead by not alive than alive by not dead.
Polyyanna hypothesis:
The detailed explanation of markedness is given on the basis of psychological or experiential ground for which some psycholinguists have given a so called hypothesis called "Pollyanna hypothesis" according to which people tend to think more positively towards life and pay more heed to brighter side of life which provides an argument for associating good with 'unmarked' terms and bad with 'marked' suffixes and prefixes.
In relative opposition:
There is also a chance of bias in relative oppositions but it is better to call this 'dominance' instead of 'markedness' for instance in parent/child, front/behind, right/wrong the first term seems to be more dominant than the other one, thus we prefer to place the dominant term before (parent-child) or maybe giving one name to both terms using dominant one (ownership). Markedness and dominance seems to have variation in strength but it deeply depends upon the psychological basis. There is no logical significance in giving symbols to these terms of oppositions. The distinction between 'dead' and 'alive could be given equal logical explanation as +dead/-dead as by -live/+dead because both of these are logically equivalent. This shows that the unmarked term has gained the discrimination of + and upward arrow while the dominant term of a opposition has gained the right arrow.
But the distinguishing term for the marked term is never omitted and the neutralization of the opposition is still indicated (oparent, oright, ogood etc)
Knowing the language of our major trade partners is an asset. Graduates with foreign language skills will greatly improve their career opportunities at home and overseas. They would also improve their academic opportunities by having a chance to study at overseas educational institutions, an excellent experience to broaden their horizon and enrich their resume. Graduates with international experience are valued by employers. It's not just people who work in international trade or diplomatic services who would reap benefits from having foreign language skills. Jim Rogers, a successful businessman, urges people to learn at least one Asian language because it will give them a competitive advantage. He himself sent his children to learn Mandarin at an early age to future-proof them.
The benefits of learning Mandarin for kids do not just lie in future opportunities. Studies support that children who are bilinguals or multilinguals are academically ahead of their peers. Learning a second language helps improve children's academic performance, especially in English and Mathematics. According to a research, languages such as Chinese expresses mathematical concepts more clearly and thus making it easier for small children to learn maths. Children who learn Mandarin are also reported to perform better in identifying musical pitch and hence may perform better than their peers in building musical skills. This is not a surprise since Chinese is a tonal language. Learning the language will naturally train children to be able to identify the different tones. In essence, all the skills children are gaining through the process of learning a foreign language can transfer meaningfully to other areas in life.
Children who learn a foreign language are also shown to have better problem solving skills, creativity, and multitasking skills. This is not a surprise since children are required to think in a different way while learning to speak a foreign language. This mental training delivers multiple cognitive advantages to young learners, in addition to having advanced cross-cultural skills and linguistic skills.
There is no denying the fact that languages are the integral part of the cultural richness of our society and the world in which we try to lead our lives controlled and cleanly. It is significant that learning languages contributes to mutual understanding, a sense of global citizenship and personal commitment. Students learn to appreciate different countries cultures, communities and people. By making comparisons, they gain insight into their own culture and society. The ability to understand and communicate in another language is a lifelong skill for education, employment and technology in this country and throughout the world. Learning languages fascinate opportunities to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and to express themselves with increasing confidence, independence and creativity. They explore the similarities and differences between other languages and English and learn how language can be manipulated and applied in different ways. The developments of communication skills together with understanding of the structure of language laid the foundations for future study of other languages and support the development of literacy skills in a pupil's own language.
In using a theme based on educational and cultural affairs, there exist three themes in Germany and France which are specified as environment, media and advertising. In addition, pupils in England studying health in English, French-speaking countries and Impressionism in French, and the geography and history of Berlin in German. The themes and objectives relating to grammar, cross-curricular learning and cultural understanding are defined for each theme and reference grammar sheets and lists of topic-specific vocabulary created. St Marylebone School in London places a strong emphasis on the appreciation of cultural diversity and the languages departments consider the introduction of intercultural understanding as a key concept in the revised programme of study to be the perfect opportunity for a year 9 pupils to investigate the culture of their target language country France or Germany. This would take place through culturally specific topics, as year 9 is an 'enrichment year' where learning is thematic following completion of key stage 3 in two years In the unit on Impressionism, pupils were introduced to the movement and shown Impressionist paintings. They were asked to suggest possible titles in English and to match the actual French titles with the paintings, along with more descriptive French phrases for each of the paintings. Pupils then chose an Impressionist artist and were asked to prepare a presentation in French on this artist for their final assessments, using presentational software or other ICT. They spent one art lesson reproducing a picture by their chosen artist and were also given the opportunity to visit the Courtauld Institute to see the original paintings.
The word 'nationalism' comes down from the heritage, culture and tradition of a particular country which indicates uniformity in respect of one faith that is the language conventionally uttered from a child which is his actual identity. Nationalism is such which vividly gives an acquaintance in the sense in what language he expresses his mode of his explicit desire as to what he wants or what he would like to do. So our heritage is expressed as a token of ideal acquaintance as Bengali Language with which we survive on full faith of livelihood and as such every elegiac influence is concerned in achieving the recognition of this day in the world. We can think our own belief that we are created equally in respect of expressing our own tradition, culture and religion which is bedded on our soil, grass, plants, creeper and our dwelling place. We cannot think even for a moment that a boy is treated more or less as a terrorist or miscreant or he is excommunicated at an immature stage. If we lose our faith in our own nationalism, we need to be responsible to build him or her who can give his identity as a Bengali nation. To speak the truth, the 21st February, as a symbol of blaze illumination is our rectitude for which our survival as Bengali nation has been reflected through out the whole world.
Over the course of the lessons, through research, reading tasks and a mock interview with an artist from the period, pupils became increasingly knowledgeable about Impressionism. 'They developed confidence in describing visual images in French', commented one teacher, 'and began to express their opinions - albeit at a simple level - about paintings.' Pupils' language work covered, in particular, adjectives, question words and the 'passé compose'. Pupils' final presentations were assessed by both the MFL and art departments. To finish, pupils completed a worksheet in French. This consolidated everything covered during the topic and gave pupils the opportunity to reflect on what they had learnt.
In using the theme of societal concept
Staff believes the shift of emphasis had a positive impact on pupils' learning. One French teacher noted, 'The focus of learning switched and language became a genuine vehicle for communication. Pupils strove to express themselves effectively on a range of important issues rather than trying to use language structures in order to demonstrate their ability.' Pupils enjoyed using language to communicate about 'genuine' issues and themes. There are a number of key concepts that underpin the study of languages. Pupils need to understand these concepts in order to deepen and broaden their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Marked and unmarked terms are frequently being used in binary oppositions. It means that a term is not equal in its weight, but the one (unmarked) is neutral or more positive in contrast to the other term. As Geoffery leech observes, where there is a contrast between two or more terms, tenses or cases, one of them is marked if it have some extra 'affix' in contrast to the unmarked one which does not contain any marker. For example the cat is an unmarked and neutral term while cats is marked with a suffix -s, similarly actor is an unmarked term while actress is a marked term with an affix -ess, also polite is a positive term in contrast to its negative term 'impolite'. In general the plural of nouns in English language are marked term (books) in comparison to the singular (book). In French language the feminine is generally marked and the masculine is unmarked term for instance petit in contrast to petite; however, in English if sex is marked it is done lexically.i.e. by giving special words to one sex and none for the other one, for example word duck is a female term which is unmarked while maleness is marked by drake which is absent in duck and this word gives services for the whole specie. Moreover in the pronouns opposite marking is being observed, that is male as an unmarked term and female term as marked one. For example,
One in HIS senses would not do a thing like that (unmarked)
One in HER senses would not do a thing like that (marked by femaleness)
It is the male sex who is marked because the first statement could refer to either gender, but the second one will specify it for femaleness.
In polar oppositions:
The same kind of marked/unmarked distinction is observed in polar oppositions as well (having two poles) good/bad, rich/poor, day/night, low/high, short/long and we prefer to measure things by the mean of length rather than the shortness. We would rather ask how long this cloth, than how short this cloth is, or how high this building is instead of how low this building is. Because the former will give a neutral expression which mean it could be long or short, while in latter we are left with only one possibility of being short. It does not only rely on the scale of measurement but can also be used in such cases,
Markedness can be defined as the relationship between the form and meaning. If there is a contrast of two different forms on a single dimension the unmarked one would be neutral one and could be applied on the whole dimension rather than a specific aspect of it. It could be argued that this phenomenon is due the negative-positive inherent to the semantic opposition itself. Normally the unmarked one is considered positive while the marked one is taken a negative term for instance, happy/unhappy, complete/incomplete, stable/unstable; however, in some cases there is an invisible element of negation, like it is easy to define dead by not alive than alive by not dead.
Polyyanna hypothesis:
The detailed explanation of markedness is given on the basis of psychological or experiential ground for which some psycholinguists have given a so called hypothesis called "Pollyanna hypothesis" according to which people tend to think more positively towards life and pay more heed to brighter side of life which provides an argument for associating good with 'unmarked' terms and bad with 'marked' suffixes and prefixes.
In relative opposition:
There is also a chance of bias in relative oppositions but it is better to call this 'dominance' instead of 'markedness' for instance in parent/child, front/behind, right/wrong the first term seems to be more dominant than the other one, thus we prefer to place the dominant term before (parent-child) or maybe giving one name to both terms using dominant one (ownership). Markedness and dominance seems to have variation in strength but it deeply depends upon the psychological basis. There is no logical significance in giving symbols to these terms of oppositions. The distinction between 'dead' and 'alive could be given equal logical explanation as +dead/-dead as by -live/+dead because both of these are logically equivalent. This shows that the unmarked term has gained the discrimination of + and upward arrow while the dominant term of a opposition has gained the right arrow.
But the distinguishing term for the marked term is never omitted and the neutralization of the opposition is still indicated (oparent, oright, ogood etc)
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