[lg policy] Sweden: Early English learning comes under academic attack

[Harold Schiffman]

Early English learning comes under academic attack
Published: 20 Nov 09 07:59 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23376/20091120/

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A Liberal Party proposal to make English language learning obligatory
in schools from the first grade has been slammed by members of the
Swedish Academy who view it as an "unnecessary reinforcement of the
status of English.”  The proposal to introduce English early into the
classroom has been met with criticism from the Swedish Academy's
permanent secretary Peter Englund and his predecessor Horace Engdahl
in an article in newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. The government’s
Globalisation Council put forward the proposal in the spring with a
suggestion that introducing English at a young age would stimulate
interest and knowledge of other foreign languages.

According to Englund and Engdahl, the proposal ”is built on a
simplified view of language learning, a false belief over the
importance of English and is even an unnecessary reinforcement of the
status of English in Sweden.”  They argue there is no scientific
evidence to prove that students master the language better if they
start learning in the first grade, rather than the third or fourth
grade.  In addition they believe language learning is made easier if
schoolchildren can read and write in their own language first.
”It could also create problems for many immigrant children in Sweden,
who already have to switch between the mother tongue of their parents
and Swedish,” they write.

Englund and Engdahl, however, back a further Liberal Party proposal to
introduce Chinese to the college curriculum in Sweden, stating that
the relative importance of English is diminishing due to economic
reasons. ”Schools must focus on many languages,” they add. ”The
majority of bilateral contacts work best without having to resort to
English, in accordance with the EU language policy."



TT/Christine Demsteader (news at thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/23376/20091120/
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