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      The perfect after school english courses for your child

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      How English language courses benefit your child

      In our competitive society, many children participate in extracurricular activities after school to gain an edge. These activities are well known to lay the foundation for the development of intelligence, personality, social behaviour and learning capacity, and as vital elements to ensure your child does not fall behind in their development.

      After school English courses are no exception and there is much research that points to their ability to convey benefits in physiological brain development, cognitive abilities, higher academic achievement and test scores, increased empathy and cultural understanding, improved native language skills such as reading comprehension and grammar, better career opportunities and even higher earnings1.

      However, in order to maximize these benefits it is critical to expose an English as a Second Language (ESL) child to English education while they are as young as possible. Studies demonstrate the enormous potential for language development during early childhood and the huge difference in terms of difficulty to learn fluency in a language in later years. For example, a study of 892 children in China found that early English education which occurred before entering elementary school was instrumental in later English and Chinese achievement2. This explains why English courses are increasingly incorporated into earlier grade curricula in non-English speaking countries.

      The improved cognitive development of a child that comes from learning a second language reaps rewards in other areas. Research shows that there is a relationship between bilingualism and several abilities, including the ability to think abstractly about language, synthesize information, develop mathematical skills, score higher in reading and writing, solve problems and think nonverbally. Too many to mention individually, this link contains a summary of 25 research studies reflecting these benefits3.

      Evidence of the impact on brain physiology comes from brain imaging. Andrea Mechelli of London’s Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and experts from the Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome have found that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter compared to monolingual study participants4. This may explain why children that learn English as a second language by the time they are 5 years old demonstrate higher academic attainment and fewer social, emotional and behavioural difficulties than their non-English speaking counterparts5. These are the very skills that school entrance interviews intend to evaluate to determine school readiness.

      And the benefits of English classes translate into higher academic achievement in later years as well. Studies have confirmed that ESL children who learn English outperform in reading and Maths, and on standardized college entrance exams including ACTs and SATs6. Learning English also better positions a student to qualify for internationally acclaimed foreign universities where high performance in English proficiency tests such as IELTS, TOEFL and GRE are standard requirements. English education is also critical for job interview performance and career success given it is often regarded as a primary prerequisite qualification for employment and an indispensable workplace tool for success in business7.

      A recent survey by Cambridge English of 5,300 employers in 38 countries showed that English language skills are important for over 95% of employers in many non-native English-speaking countries and that the importance of English skills is increasing as business becomes more international . Employers stated that it is important to have proficiency in all four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening), however reading comprehension was identified as the most important language skill closely followed by speaking.

      Data also reflects that foreign language skills result in higher earnings9 and there are several possible explanations. It may be associated with skill-based productivity increases or signal unobserved ability to employers10, due to the impact of improved cognitive and communicative abilities, analytic and interpretative capacities associated with learning a second language, due to better academic results11 and the beneficial impact of hiring a bilingual worker for an employing firm’s international trade12.

      Specifically in terms of English proficiency, it results in a significant increase in earnings potential because English is increasingly coming to be regarded as a lingua franca (the second language preference for non-English speakers)13. According to the British Council, in 2020 there were two billion people studying English. By 2115, it is predicted that only about one tenth of today’s 6,000 languages will remain, making English even more dominant14.

      Studies that examine the returns to speaking English in non-English speaking countries find a sizeable wage premium for speaking English relative to those that do not. For example, the wage premium has been quantified as 11% in Denmark and 49% in Spain15, 35% in India is 35% for males16, 45% in Estonia and 62% in Latvia17, and between 18% to 44% in South Africa18.

      As Thomas N. Huckin and Leslie A. Olsen, state: “Scientists and engineers may be technically brilliant and creative, but unless they can convince co-workers, clients, and supervisors of their worth, their technical skills will be unnoticed, unappreciated, and unused. English, as it is being used around the world today, with authentic and unscripted recordings, helps employees prepare themselves for today's truly global workplace.”

      Our wide range of extracurricular English classes for children are designed to ensure both native and ESL children can maximise the benefits associated with an English education whether learning the basics or more advanced literature and debating skills. Learning and improving English through after school courses is no longer a matter of broadening an opportunity set for a child, it is a core imperative.

      A wide range of extracurricular English classes

      English classes are vital to the future of your child! Our range of after school English courses cover diverse activities from honing Reading/writing skills for creating and appreciating literary masterpieces, Speech/debate classes to prepare for speech festivals and debating competitions, learning Grammar/vocab to create a solid literacy foundation, to advanced Literature/poetry classes for senior students. The Bizibuz platform also helps support your child’s English exam preparation by offering courses that cover TOEFL/IELTS, Cambridge English exams and Trinity English exams.

      Bizibuz boy loving reading

      Bizibuz KnowYourChild™: Find out if your child has an aptitude for English

      Our unique KnowYourChild™ tools are a series of benchmarking tools for children of different ages designed to track a child’s development, highlight necessary intervention and hidden talents, guide on activities to optimize performance and monitor the efficacy of activities over time.

      These tools are developed using advanced algorithms and input from top universities including the Education University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University and senior teachers from leading institutions including the Chinese International School and Canadian International School.

      Our Pre-primary KnowYourChild™ tool for 3-6 year olds and our Primary KnowYourChild™ tool for 6-12 year olds are the first of their kind to gauge the language development of a child in order to uncover developmental issues or an aptitude for English. In the Pre-primary KnowYourChild™ tool a child is asked a series of questions orally through tablet format in order to determine how a child’s oral language and early literacy skills are developing relative to global norms. In the Primary KnowYourChild™ tool, the registration process first requires confirming the English language proficiency of a child as either native or ESL so questions can be tailored for the varied skillset. A child is then asked a series of question in order to measure performance in grammar, vocabulary, two levels of reading comprehension and phonics for the early year students. After the child has completed a KnowYourChild™ tool, parents receive a comprehensive report of their child including smart activity recommendations targeted to address either weaker areas (performance more than one standard deviation below the mean) and to foster talents (performance more than two standard deviations above the mean). If the child has previously used the KnowYourChild™ tool, the report also includes development trend analysis in order to reflect on the impact of activities previously undertaken.

      Visit our KnowYourChild™ tools in order to further explore your child’s developmental progress and activity recommendations that optimize your child’s talent in English.

      References

      1. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dina-Nur-Afifah/publication/355873478_The_Role_of_English_in_Our_Life/links/61821f0aa767a03c14e7fae9/The-Role-of-English-in-Our-Life.pdf

      2. Si Chen, Jing Zhao, Laura de Ruiter, Jing Zhou & Jinzhen Huang (2020) A burden or a boost: The impact of early childhood English learning experience on lower elementary English and Chinese achievement, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2020.1749230

      3. https://mn02226726.schoolwires.net/cms/lib/MN02226726/Centricity/Domain/172/FLAbib.pdf

      4. https://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20041013/being-bilingual-boosts-brain-power

      5. Whiteside, Katie & Gooch, Debbie & Norbury, Courtenay. (2016). English Language Proficiency and Early School Attainment Among Children Learning English as an Additional Language. Child Development. 88. 10.1111/cdev.12615.

      6. Curtain, H. and C. A. B. Pesola. Languages and Children: Making the Match: Foreign Language Instruction for An Early Start Grades K-8. Longman (New York) 1994.

      7. Durga, Ms. (2018). The Need of English Language Skills for Employment Opportunities. 2.

      8. English at Work: global analysis of language skills in the workplace.

      9. Chiswick, B.R. and Miller, P.W. 2015. International migration and the economics of language. Handbook of the Economics of International Migration, Chiswick, B.R. and Miller, P.W. (eds), vol. 1A, 211-269.

      10. Stohr, T. 2015. The returns to occupational foreign language use: Evidence from Germany. Labour Economics, 32, pp. 86-98.

      11. Olsen, S.A. and Brown, L.K. 1992. The relation between high school study of foreign languages and ACT English and mathematics performance. ADFL Bulletin, 23(3), pp. 47-50.

      12. Melitz, J. 2008. Language and foreign trade. European Economic Review, 52, pp. 677-699.

      13. Wang, Haining & Smyth, Russell & Cheng, Zhiming. (2017). The Economic Returns to Proficiency in English in China. China Economic Review. 43. 91-104. 10.1016/j.chieco.2017.01.004.

      14. John McWhorter. 2 Jan 2015. What the World Will Speak in 2115: A century from now, expect fewer but simpler languages on every continent. Wall Street Journal.

      15. Ginsburgh, V.A. and Prietro-Rodriguez, J. 2010. Returns to foreign languages of native workers in the European Union. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 64(3), pp. 599-618.

      16. Azam, M., China, A. and Prakash, N. 2013. The returns to English language skills in India. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 61(2), pp. 335-367.

      17. Toomet, 0. 2011. Learn English, not the local language. Ethnic Russians in the Baltic states. American Economic Review, 101(3), p. 526-531.

      18. Casale, D. and Posel, D. 2011. English language proficiency and earnings in a developing country: The case of South Africa. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 40, pp. 385-393. Levinshon, J. 2007. Globalization and the returns to speaking English in South Africa. A. Harrison (Ed) Globalization and Poverty. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, pp. 629-646.

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