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Case For Foreign Language In The Elementary School, Mary Beth Pollema

Master of Education Program Theses

Our students are learning and growing in a rapidly changing world that is far more globally interconnected and culturally diverse than we had envisioned at the close of the 20th century. As we are now well into the 21st century, research and test scores consistently reveal that U.S. students are not prepared to take their place as the servant-leaders of their time where opportunities for active participation require the ability to compete, cooperate, and communicate cross-culturally.

Research shows that language is acquired best when instruction is initiated in early childhood and sustained over an articulated number of years. Since the …