Elementary students who study foreign languages are better equipped to embrace and interact effectively with people who are different. Learning a second language creates conceptual and linguistic bridges that make it easier for children to understand other cultures and to communicate with people around the world. This increases the opportunities to be effective and successful members of the global society in the future. Learning a second language also improves chances of being hired and promoted in the global workplace.
A child of elementary school age and younger gain greater cognitive capacities if he learns a second language. He performs better academically when he studies foreign languages, often excelling in many ares of study, including mathematics. These students tend to outperform other students who have replaced the study of an additional language with the continued study of mathematics or other academic fields. Students show improvements in creative abilities, problem solving skills and mental flexibility overall.
Younger children, of elementary school age and below, have the ability to pick up nuances in language such as native pronunciation and grammatical rules. This is because a child is still learning her own native tongues and her brain, like sponges, soak up differences in linguistics more easily than older children and adults. Because a young child also tends to be more motivated to learn new languages, she tends to excel in native pronunciation and intonation.
Studies by researchers at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience in London, England, have concluded that learning a second language at a young age can actually alter the human brain. The anatomy or physical makeup of the brain is greatly affected by language when children are still in developmental stages and the introduction of a foreign language during this time can increase the development of the brain's grey matter.