The Future of Language Teaching

[aokoye]

On point 2: I think that's too general and is more related to our culture and ineffective methods. The fluency with which Finns, for example, speak English counters the possibility of this being axiomatic.

There's a difference between learning the dominant lingua franca that all your movies are in and learning a language that you'll probably never be exposed to unless you deliberately seek it out.

You'd have to deliberately avoid Spanish in America, so why doesn't everyone speak it at a high level?

1. Spanish is not a prestige language in the US
2. I can actually easily "avoid" aka. not hear Spanish where I live, and I don't live in a small city. I don't have to go out of my way even.
3. Finland is a sub country as opposed to a dub country which very likely plays a very big role on how much English children come in knowing when they start taking English at school (and no I'm not going to find the studies for you because I should be doing FLA homework but they do exist)
4. Finnish is a small language with regards to numbers of speakers
5. The second largest national language in Finland is Swedish
6. Just read this.

Again, compare all of this to the language situation in the US and you should be able to easily easily figure out why Spanish in the US is very different than English in Finland. That's of course only barely taking into account politics.

[David1917]

Again, compare all of this to the language situation in the US and you should be able to easily easily figure out why Spanish in the US is very different than English in Finland. That's of course only barely taking into account politics.

Oh, I'm well aware of this issue whose root causes will not be named. But the two points I was arguing against were: languages are less important than computer programming and classroom teaching is ineffective unless the student is motivated. The first is only an opinion, and the second cannot be axiomatic, because even in, say, the Finnish case, it implies that every Finn is like "my language is stupid and unimportant I need English I love Marvel movies."

[aokoye]

Again, compare all of this to the language situation in the US and you should be able to easily easily figure out why Spanish in the US is very different than English in Finland. That's of course only barely taking into account politics.

Oh, I'm well aware of this issue whose root causes will not be named. But the two points I was arguing against were: languages are less important than computer programming and classroom teaching is ineffective unless the student is motivated. The first is only an opinion, and the second cannot be axiomatic, because even in, say, the Finnish case, it implies that every Finn is like "my language is stupid and unimportant I need English I love Marvel movies."

I mean one could argue that if Finns want to understand most media that isn't Finnish without relying on the subtitles they're going to need English.

[nooj]

And as someone previously said, education in the US is critically underfunded, and important programs are always being cut, or threatened. Sports, music, art, language...

I had the impression that sport was well funded in the USA. Is that not the case?

[aokoye]

And as someone previously said, education in the US is critically underfunded, and important programs are always being cut, or threatened. Sports, music, art, language...

I had the impression that sport was well funded in the USA. Is that not the case?

I was under this impression but it looks like they're getting defunded. Not nearly to the extent that fine and performing arts programs have been though and it's a newer issue than the poor funding that arts programs have had.