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Excitement Under False Pretense: Are Germans Planning To Abolish English Lessons And Replace Them With Turkish?

Germany Excitement Under False Pretense: Are Germans Planning To Abolish English Lessons And Replace Them With Turkish?
FEB 10, 2019 LISTEN

In future, English will only be taught in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) from the third grade. Could other languages be helpful instead? A proposal that is making headlines.

The black-yellow state government in North Rhine-Westphalia plans to abolish the only introduced in 2009 English lessons in the first two grades of elementary school to lay more emphasis on reading, writing and arithmetic, in the coalition agreement had been agreed in 2017, the learning outcomes English lessons. The AfD-party had demanded in the parliament, even the abolition.

Reporting gives false appearance

Now, however, the proposal of a spokesman for the NRW Integration Council is making headlines: Will the SPD-Party politician, Tayfun Keltek actually replace the English lessons in elementary school with Turkish lessons? The coverage appearance online of the "Bild Zeitung"-Newspaper for example, titled: "Turkish instead of English in elementary schools!" However, the underlying considerations of the state government was not mentioned.

The starting point for the excitement is an interview conducted by the "Kölner-Stadtanzeiger"- Newspaper with the SPD-politician Keltek. There, Keltek said, "I'm in favor of doing away with teaching English at primary schools, not just in the first two years of school." Since many children speak Turkish, Russian or Polish anyway, he made an alternative proposal, German children could learn these languages and children with a migrant background would then have "more time to focus on German language"

Keltek: This will make learning German easier

In a press release he went even further into detail: "Assuming that a child speaks Italian and German at home, it would be of great advantage for the linguistic development of this child, this knowledge especially in the first years of school. There is ample evidence that learning and improving the German language is easier and that the children's cognitive skills are enhanced."

One is skeptical about the FDP Party, which wants to get rid of English lessons in the first two classes. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Minister of Education, Yvonne Gebauer (FDP-party) does not believe in the demand. "It remains the case that compulsory English is taught at elementary and all secondary schools," she said. Keltek's demand is a shot "beyond the goal, there is already a wide range of teaching in different languages." English is and remains the central foreign language that enables global communication."

Keltek had argued that children would learn the English language skills taught at elementary school in the first three weeks of secondary education. The search center reported "corrective" about the misleading reporting in the case of the Keltek proposal, "in future, English will only be taught inNorth Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) from the third grade". Could other languages be helpful instead? A proposal making headlines.

Francis Tawiah (Duisburg - Germany)

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