Patrick Henry's Argument Summary: Foreign Language Classes

Improved Essays
Patrick Henry should have more Foreign Language Classes
Learning new languages, such as German, French, or even Russian can be exciting for many students. However, Patrick Henry is a school that only offers one foreign language class for students to choose from. This is not fair to the students who might want an expansion on their choices. The majority of students at this school may not enjoy the only foreign language class that Patrick Henry offers. If this is true, why do we have Spanish as our only foreign language class? Patrick Henry should offer more foreign language classes to their students.
First, knowing foreign languages can help you get to your dream job or college. Many colleges require for you to learn a foreign language for at least one or more years. An example might be that a student wants to learn a language. However, the student cannot do that when they only have one choice of language they might not want to
…show more content…
If a student in the future were to go to France, learning Spanish is not going to be very helpful for the student. When someone travels to a different country, they will need to know a little bit of the language so they can read the signs and understand the questions that are asked to an extent. The opposing side of this argument may think that having more than one language as a class would be too costly. To follow this, finding teachers for these different languages would be difficult. If Patrick Henry had more fundraisers to help have more foreign language classes, as a result, their students may be more excited when it comes to choosing their classes.When it comes to hiring new teachers, it would be an opportunity for many teachers who are looking for a job for the languages that they know and want to teach. “By communicating with native speakers, you’ll learn more about the language, your surroundings, and other people very quickly” (Beth

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    For Rodriguez because his primary language was Spanish he he didn 't feel like he was treated like a true citizen; only when he was able to speak English fluently did he gain societal citizenship and the advantages that come with it. Krashen shows that student who are taught in both languages have been known to have both higher knowledge and literacy. Giving them a greater advantage and better opportunities than students in monolingual schools. This brings up the question that if Rodriguez had attended a bilingual school as child, would he still have the same opinion on…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Kings Trail Elementary Professional Development School demographics are that approximately 38.3% of students identify as African-American, which creates the largest segment of the student body and is expected in many schools in Jacksonville where 41.7% of student population is African American (Kings Trail Elementary School). In addition, 27.9% of students identify as Hispanic, while, 20.7% identify as White and 9.2% identify as Asian (Kings Trail Elementary School). Lastly, 3.5% identify with two races and 0.2% identify as American Indian and Pacific Islander (Kings Trail Elementary School). Next, the gender distribution is approximately equal. In Kings Trail Elementary School, 52% of students are male, while, 48% of students are female (Kings…

    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    However if you willingly want to learn Spanish and we work together so I can teach it to you, you will most likely stick with it and even teach it to your kids. Robert F. Kennedy states that “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy.” This really backs up my reason because the Kurgan theory says that the history of language was shaped by war and violence. However as this quote states, history is shaped by courage and standing up for injustice not creating injustice and causing…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Utilizing and alternating these different text structures was successful in portraying why America should be multilingual. The sentence sequence of telling his experience of coming to a monolingual country and losing his own language for 10 years then transitioning why it would be beneficial for America to have a second language while explaining how it could be done helps the reader get more of an idea of why the issue should be solved. Within this sequence it talks about the problem with only having one primary language and explains his solution of teaching kids a second language starting in kindergarten. This includes examples to the beneficial reasons for obtaining a second language and comparing America, who is considered to be monolingual, and other countries of which are multilingual. Overall, these text structures help understand and persuade them with the idea of multilingualism in…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    English has been spoken in America as a national language for so long. Every American knows how to speak and even right fluent English. The American English, though slightly differs with the British English. In the recent times, there has been an ongoing debate about whether the country should be multilingual or remain with the monolingual ways of speaking English as the national language. There have been various scholars writing about English as a language.…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    is so far behind in advancements academically and socially. Every other country encourages and supports bilingual education. In each claim and argument Rodriguez presents there are harmful consequences that the reader takes away from them. He believes that one’s native language and the public language are unable to coincide, not based on research or statistics, merely based on his own personal experience with not being able to handle the two. The takeaway from this belief is that there should only be one language in America, the public language.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These postulations are answered in the following paragraphs titled with The Cost of Multilingualism and The Dis-United States. The author illustrates two major reasons, which are reducing the cost of the federal spending and avoiding a series of severe constitutional crisis. First of all, the author states clearly in paragraph 11, “The federal government has spent over $100 million to study the effectiveness of bilingual education, only to discover that it is less effective at teaching English than English immersion programs are.” It means that even though the United States fund bilingual education with a tremendous amount of money, the outcome is still not as effective as English immersion programs. In other words, instead of providing bilingual education or environment, it is better for the US government to choose to English as the first language to save billions.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As Herschel T. Manual states, “although the school has been right in its emphasis on English – which indeed must continue – it has not been right in its neglect of the native language of the Spanish-speaking child” (641). Children with another native…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The kids at school would think he was “crazy man” for reading fat books; his father had the same opinion (Rodriguez 2308). Spanish was a reminder of being at home for Rodriguez (Rodriguez 12). Rodriguez argued against the supporters of bilingual education says “as a socially disadvantaged child” I consider Spanish my private language (Rodriguez 19). It was hard for children that came from a different nationality to fit in America. It made children private and a feeling of under educated.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Languages: Are fewer actually better? In his article, “Why English should be the official language of the United States”, well known columnist, Brandon Brice (2014), argues how an official language would enhance immigrants to learn the language, while improving immigrants’ and American’s lives. The author highlights how not having an official language has negatively affected the country, consequences that are intensifying, as immigration rates continue to increase. In addition, such immigrants are not feeling the necessity to learn English, especially Spanish speakers who are instead spreading their language.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It is hypocritical to have only Spanish, French and so on without including all the other languages. It is discriminatory to exclude even the smallest minority. If American citizens are going to allow money to be spent translating government documents into multiple languages, then what about the languages of all tax payers? Who decides which languages spoken are the better, or more important, to use? This is a substantial dilemma that, unless an official language is implemented, would be very difficult to…

    • 2658 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Furthermore, schools should encourage parents to volunteer and help children practice their language in real-world scenarios outside of the classroom. In order to combat the segregation, language barriers, and adult responsibilities that immigrant children often face, schools should hire translators, educate students about foreign languages and cultures, implement dual-immersion programs, and provide ways to practice language skills outside of the classroom. There are numerous barriers in the education system that prevent immigrant students from receiving an equally excellent education as their U.S.-born peers. Some of these barriers include language barriers in the classroom, segregation, and taking on adult responsibilities.…

    • 1596 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A Summary On Dementia

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Research indicates that knowing and using two languages reduces your chance of developing dementia. Studies show that studying languages help your memory and slows age related decline in mental activity. Your critical skills will be improved as you learn to view things differently and studying another language makes you smarter. Learning a second language stimulates creativity. Spanish is becoming more and more important with business.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Dual Language Benefits

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Like you had stated, other than English, Spanish is the most popular spoken language and it would be beneficial for everyone to learn both languages. Other benefits from having a Dual Language program includes providing a learning environment where English Language Learners will not fall behind because they will be taught in Spanish how to speak English (“US Schools,” 2010). Other benefits for everyone in this program includes…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    More and more immigrants are traveling to America each year in search of the “American Dream”. Most of those immigrants already know English. In order for American students to stand out, they need to learn another language to make them look more complex between other competitors, which lowers the competition and gives them different…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays