Germany to abolish English in primary schools

See here, Daily Mail:

Germany considers scrapping 'completely redundant' English classes for children

Apparently, starting early has no benefits when it comes to learning a language.

Do you think this is the right way to go or is starting a language early a better option?

as early as possible... kids are like sponges. I'm gonna teach mine card tricks, football and karate as soon as he pops out

Germany isn't considering scrapping it. A very small university will publish a report suggesting that starting early doesn't help as much as previously thought, but it's a big step from this to the statement that "Germany" (i.e. the government) is considering scrapping it. Never trust a Daily Mail headline, or the rest of the article.

Still, nice to see Eichstätt "University" mentioned in a British newspaper. Lots of hot girls there.

Or any other newspaper - or media for that matter.

From the link

Riiiiight, so primary school starts at four here does it?

nope - but "vorschule" does. For some.

If they would start showing programs on television in the original language with subtitles, they would learn it a lot faster...like Sweden.

To be honest, they would be better off scraping German and have complete English only education and teach German as a foreign language.

The problem with starting kids early on languages is that it entirely ignores the cultural aspect -- people learn languages because they identify with a culture. A child's world is about three feet wide. Sponge or no he has no concept of why he should be learning the language and, outside the classroom, has nowhere to apply it. It's totally in vogue for German kids to learn English early but it's a waste of time and money. All of my German friends speak fine English from learning it when they were older and wanted to learn it on some level.

I've observed their "teaching". It's really a sham. The books are these horrible pieces of rubbish with all sorts of flowery literature and obscure vocabulary. They're put out by a company in the UK (which isn't bad), but that company apparently never considered that German students may not have all the cultural context to understand the mases of slang and idiom that fill the text.

Add to that the fact that they give them English for only an hour at a time and that they have usually some rubbish teacher who is most likely German and only herself learned English at uni and you have a big mess.

You see the same failures in Louisiana where they try to teach french. The only programs that have any success here are the immersion ones where other courses are taught in French as well.

I know but that isn't what the Daily Mail is implying is it? It's just an example of misleading journalism...

They start with "Germany is considering scrapping English classes for primary school children." and finish with "...in some cases for children aged as young as four."

The only really beneficial way to learn a language from a young age is to learn it through immersion where it has a context and a use. An hour a day/week/whatever through use of a book is not in context and not authentic.

That's not true Lexicon. The books vary by school as does the intensity of the courses. The problem is with the why, not the how.

How true. Having gone through this one hour a week of English instruction during the WW2 I can attest to the uselessness of English instruction in German schools. But that was then. When I emigrated to Canada after the war I had a very limited treasure of English (American)words with which to start a new life. A phrase was in my mind "death is eternal drive carefully" as it was on uncounted banners all over town for the benefit of American drivers and a few words because they were very simple like 'yes,and, no, and a few others as I had to write them hundred times each as punishment for getting them wrong " goes, does" .He goed and she doed drove my Oxford educated professor up the wall. Still wonder what they expected from a twelve year old passive school resister.

Studies show that after age 8, it becomes more difficult to learn a foreign language. I teach English to young kids here; it's amazing how quickly they pick it up. The earlier, the better, I say!

Ideally, yes, you are correct. But as someone who teaches kids that only come an hour a week, I can tell you that they are picking it up. I speak to them only in English (as my German sucks), and they understand me pretty well after a short period of time. Something is better than nothing. A few kids who are only ~ 7 years old actually read pretty well in English... they get no help at home with it.