2019年托福写作模拟试题：应该让刚上学的孩子学外语吗

2019年托福写作模拟试题：应该让刚上学的孩子学外语吗

　　Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Children should begin learning a foreign language as soon as they start school. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

　　托福写作范文：

　　More and more international corporations build their business in my country, China. At the same time, more parents tell their children that English is one of necessities to be successful in the future.

　　Students work so hard to master English that English learning related publications have always been on the top of the best-seller list.

　　It seems clear that one will be better off if he/she is a bilingual, and if the second language is English, even better! However, learning a foreign language must have been painful, since people are continuously creating all sorts of methods and suggestions on how to learn it more easily, more quickly, and more efficiently. Some people propose that children should begin learning English as soon as they start school. But would it really work? Hardly.

　　It seems true that children have natural amazing ability to develop their language skills. Statistic figures show that a 6-year-old boy can virtually memorize nearly as many as 150 words a day! But things become different when the child is learning a foreign language. When children are learning their mother tongue, they are not alone, and they are learning with numerous handy aids around. Parents, friends, and all the people around them are talking the same language, without any grammar error and nearly uniform intonation and pronunciation.

　　However, when they are learning a foreign language, all of those natural aids disappeared. And words become really foreign and abstract after they leave classes. And even worse, their teacher might have a bad accent or even wrong pronunciation. Some may adduce children in Luxembourg as evidence, but the point is that almost all parents in that place are trilingual!

　　Learning a foreign language well involves much more than merely memorizing handful vocabulary or several grammar rules. If a girl is able to say hello in a standard American accent, does that really mean she has learned a second language well, or she will go so far as to be a linguist? In fact, learning a foreign language in some sense is beyond the capacity of children, especially as little as first grade pupil, for language is used to express thoughts and ideas, both of which are naturally cultural and historical, and are sometimes too complex for children to comprehend. After all, learning earlier doesn't automatically guarantee learning quicker or better.