DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones and Undersecretary Dina Ocampo have just signed an agreement with Korean Ambassador Kim Jae Shin and First Secretary Lee Jincheol that will enable the Department of Education to teach the Korean Language to high school students as a part of the Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL).
Photo from: Facebook.com
Which students are eligible for the program?
The SPFL program, was developed to provide students with the chance to learn a foreign language that would enable them to be more globally competitive.
According to the DepEd website, “The SPFL helps learners develop skills in listening, reading, writing, speaking, and viewing that are fundamental in acquiring communicative competence in a second foreign language.”
“This program aims to enhance the ability of learners to engage in meaningful interaction in a linguistically and culturally diverse global workplace. More importantly, the SPFL looks to further develop learners’ understanding and appreciation of other people’s culture.”
The program will be open to grade 7-12 students who have shown exceptional English skills, which would be based on their National Achievement Test (NAT) results, and capable of learning another language.
Currently, the SPFL program teaches Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, and German in their lessons. Soon enough, students will also be able to take the SPFL program in order to learn the Korean language.
Is it important for kids to learn a new language?
Aside from the obvious benefit of being able to converse with various nationalities, learning a new language also has a lot of developmental benefits for children.
Learning a new language helps activate the various centers of the brain which are responsible for learning, and can also help them with subjects such as Filipino, English, social studies, and mathematics.
Younger children are also well-equipped to learn a new language, since the areas of the brain that are designed for language acquisition and learning are most active while they’re still young. Which explains why younger children tend to easily pick up a new language compared to older kids.
Learning a new language also helps them connect to another culture, which leads to them being more open-minded about new concepts and ideas, as well as being more welcoming and accepting of people, regardless of whatever nationality they may have.
Source: facebook.com, deped.gov.ph, pgeveryday.com
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