Why%20Study%20Foreign%20Language?

1
Why Study Foreign Language?

• Why Choose Spanish as the Language of Study?

2
Why Study a Foreign Language?

• Cognitive (brain function) and Academic Benefits
• Personal Benefits

3
Cognitive/ Academic Benefits

• Has a positive effect on intellectual growth.
• Enriches and enhances mental development.
• Leaves students with more flexibility in
  thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and a
  better ear for listening.
• (Source ACTFL website)

4
Continued

• Shown to help delay or stop the effects of
  dementia (alhzeimers disease)
• Improves understanding of a persons native
  language.
• Increases job opportunities in many careers where
  knowing another language is a real asset.
• (Source ACTFL website)

5
Affective (personal) Benefits

• Communication
• Provides a person the ability to communicate with
  people s/he would otherwise not have the chance
  to know.
• (Source ACTFL website)

6
Continued

• Cultural
• Opens the door to other cultures and helps a
  person understand and appreciate people from
  other countries.
• Foreign language study tends to help dissolve
  misconceptions and stereotypes and often helps to
  create feelings of empathy for native speakers of
  the language.
• (Source Weatherford)

7
Continued

• Cultural continued
• The study of another language provides the most
  effective tool for penetrating the barrier of
  ethnocentrism (a single best language and
  culture).
• Experience with another culture enables people to
  achieve a significantly more profound
  understanding of their own.
• (Source Weatherford)

8
Why Study Spanish?

• It is the 4th most widely spoken langauge in the
  world, after Mandarin Chinese, English, and
  Hindi, with 400 million speakers worldwide.
• Spanish is an official language in 21 different
  countries.
• There are 35-40 million speakers of Spanish in
  the U.S. and that number is projected to go up to
  50 million by the year 2015.

9
Why Study Spanish?

• Its easy! it is one of the most closely
  related languages to English (Latin based).
• Its fun!