Argumentative Essay Example: Student Should Be Required to Learn a Foreign Language

Our topic of debate is whether every student should be required to learn a foreign language.  Here, I define this topic as every K-12, full time student having the requirement of being familiar with a language that is not their own.  I will be representing the government team, as well as both the prime minister and the deputy prime minister, as my partner isn’t here today.

We all should be well aware that learning a foreign language is not easy, especially if the language in question is not derived from Vulgar Latin like languages such as English and French. However, a task requiring substantial effort should not be what stands in our way of becoming even brighter, cultured, and linguistically diverse young women.

A study from the University of Edinburgh states that bilingual students generally have better cognitive abilities than that of monolinguals. This means that they score better overall on reading tests, verbal fluency, and are generally more intelligent.

I would secondly like to bring up that today the country that we live in has become increasingly more ethnically diverse over the last few decades. I’m positive that all of you have friends with different backgrounds, with different mother tongues, than your own. If you don’t, that would be unexpected in a place like Canada. Multilingualism helps us integrate better into society, and every language opens a door to another community. 

This brings me to my third and final point before I pass it over to the opposition. We do not know where our future is going to take us, and sometimes it may take us to a whole new country, with a whole new culture and language. Being multilingual opens up new avenues towards new careers. It allows you more flexibility in what you want to do. Today, the world of business is thriving globally, and we need to be prepared for anything and everything, just like a study girl should.

The benefits of studying foreign languages is not limited to academic excellence, it also may grant you a comfortable old age. A very recent study conducted by scientists from University of Toronto establishes that bilingualism does delay both Dementia and Alzheimers’s. I sure would like a few additional years of intact memory.

A band of Swedish scientists did MRI scans and discovered that parts of the brain were larger in size for multilinguals than monolinguals. We don’t exactly know why this happens, but don’t you want a bigger brain?