Globalization can be a great opportunity to overcome, we seeing globalized world and mastering a second language is not just an option, it is an inevitable requirement. As a society, it is necessary to consider this important issue, without having to think too much about the results and thus leave behind the myth of introducing another language to our children. Language learning in adolescence is possible and meaningful, the key is to do so. Why should young people learn another language? The answer is simple: because the development of economic, technological, social, political and cultural integration between countries today requires it, this is globalization.
Simply put, learning a new language for young people will open a door to the future, bringing academic and professional benefits and making them more socially competitive. We know that learning a new language is not easy, it takes time and money. However, in addition to considering cost, we must also discuss the importance of learning another language as soon as possible.
Today, however, everything is very advanced, young people adopt the digital wave and the big company s follows them closely, to get the most qualified staff that can communicate with people from another countries. Now let's reflect, who would you choose first? Individuals who must learn the language or those who already master the language? The answer is obvious: bilingual speech has become one of the most urgent requirements in the professional field. The benefits of language learning in adolescencia are many that we must take into account to grow in a broad professional field, understand the benefits of language learning at this stage, increase your chances of obtaining a scholarship and dabble into important jobs.
It should be mentioned that, if a person starts learning a language from early childhood, he will acquire it as his second language, however, we also observe that the older he is, the harder it is to learn it. One of the best-known theories about the development of children's learning capacity is that of Piaget (1961); it argues that 'children travel in defined stages, in line with the intellect and perceived ability of children.'
Also, today in most areas of work, there is a growing demand for highly trained professionals with English professed, which means greater commitment to the training of competitive citizens by educational institutions and their actors in this regard. It needs to be emphasized that general teaching is a complex task. This is especially true for language teaching in all areas, because people must learn to communicate effectively and effectively. Therefore, if speaking the mother tongue is a challenge for many, even greater is the challenge of teaching foreign languages.
According to Harmer (2007), students in the classroom usually do not receive the same type of exposure or encouragement as those outside the classroom exposing themselves to language at any age. But that doesn't mean that those inside a classroom can't learn a language if the right conditions are given, such as motivation, exposure to language, and the possibilities of using language.
Likewise, Harmer (2007) indicates that the age of the speakers is an important factor in the decisions of teachers and teachers about how and what to teach. People of different ages have different needs, competencies and cognitive abilities. Children of primary school age are expected to acquire much of the foreign language through play, for example, while for adults greater use of abstract thinking can reasonably be expected.
However, it is not only age that is relevant when learning a language, since for Harmer (2011) 'the student is an individual with different experiences, both inside and outside the classroom. Comments made about boys and girls, adolescents and adults are only generalizations because there are also many factors influencing the acquisition of a language.
English is therefore the language of commerce, diplomacy, computer science and half of internet. Unfortunately, few students in Latin America graduate from school by mastering it, limiting their opportunities to participate in a globalized economy. Due to the influx of traditionally expensive applications and methods, this cultural and even economic distance has been shortened and is now in everyone's hands, increasing connectivity and Internet access capabilities, and creating a problem for traditional English teaching systems. Interference in developing countries, characterized by outdated teaching methods and materials, traditionally focused on writing skills and grammatical rules, encouraged generations.
Taking in a count in many cases teens may feel shy, insecure or selfless in anything that goes out of their circle of comfort, this is another problem to achieve their attention and motivation. In terms of age, many studies show that the sooner you start learning a foreign language, the greater your fluency. Here you can start the debate on the theory of the critical period, which indicates the importance of starting to learn foreign languages as soon as possible. During this period, children can better absorb the knowledge gained. Some researchers believe that starting at an early age could get the level of a native speaker. On the other hand, many other experts point out that the only effect of learning a language from an early age is the accent, pronunciation and intonation you'll get, but any age is perfect for learning a second language.
It should be noted that, etre foreign language teaching professionals are quitewidespread the idea that adolescents and adults are worse apprentices of a second language than children, implicitly or explicitly based on the hypothesis of the existence of a critical period for this learning. This period would supposedly range from birth to puberty, at which point the brain plasticity needed for learning another language would be lost, making it more difficult and would never reach the levels of effectiveness it could achieve in childhood. Empirical evidence, however, does not allow this hypothesis to be maintained (See Ellis, 1986; Scarcella and Higa, 1982, or Snow, 1987). It is proven that both in natural environments and in formal school frameworks, tweens and adolescents are faster and more effective than children in learning and mastering the morphology, syntax and lexicon of a second language. Over time, these differences are shortened and children end up reaching similar levels in these dimensions. Children, for their part, seem to initially outpergell older apprentices in some aspects of more contextualized oral communication skills, although differences also end up disappearing after a while, teenagers, however, seem to be the best negotiators in second language interaction, more likely developing strategies aimed at making their interlocutor's speech more understandable. The development of a native pronunciation seems to be more available to apprentices from children than to adolescent or adult apprentices, but the differences between them are not in absolute terms, but relative; in fact, there is evidence that some adults end up having an accent very similar to that of the natives, and that, at the same time, some children do not reach it..
Therefore, adolescents do not have as much disadvantage as it is supposed, 'Bilingual speech has become one of the most urgent requirements in the professional field' it should be remembered that language learning in adolescence is possible, there is no age to stop learning and self-forming. Of course, not everyone operates at the same speed, patience and perseverance must be accompanied to face the challenge of mastering another language.
References
Bello, P. (1990). Didactics of the second languages. Madrid. Santillana.
Brown, H.D. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. [Principles of Language Learning and Teaching] United States. Prentice Hall Regents.
Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) (1991). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. [Teaching English as a Second Language or Foreign Language] United States. Heinle & Heinle Publishers
Carvajal, Z. (2011). Curriculum guidelines in high school English teaching, based on the communicative approach. Master's thesis, University of Costa Rica. San Jose, Costa Rica
Snow, C. 1983. Age differences in second language research findings and folk Psychology. En K.M. Bayely, M. Long y S.Pek (eds.), Second Language Acquisition Studies . Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.