Why English Important in Education

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Why English important in education

IF YOU are currently learning English in a school, college or institute of further education, you

join approximately one billion other people around the world who are engaged in the same

pursuit. However, as you try to memorise proper grammar, and try to avoid the mistakescommon to most students of English, you may wonder why you are learning the language in the

first place.

So, why is English important?

After Mandarin, English is spoken by more people than any other language, and is the native

language of more than 350 million people. More people speak English than those who speak the

Arabic and French languages combined.

Moreover, English is the international language of diplomacy, business, science, technology,

banking, computing, medicine, aviation, UN & NATO armed forces, engineering, tourism,

Hollywood films and arguably the best pop and rock music in the world.

English has plenty of words to choose from. In fact, an English speaker is offered the biggest

vocabulary of any language with a choice of 500,000 to 1,000,000 words (including technical and

scientific terms).

But dont panic, most English speakers do very well with a vocabulary of around 20,000 words.

English can be fun too. For instance, the music of such stars as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Led

Zeppelin, Michael Jackson and Madonna has encouraged fans to speak the language of their

idols, whilst others have enrolled in English classes to improve their understanding of the

dialogue in films and TV shows.

Or perhaps they have embraced English to enjoy the writing of Stephen King, George Orwell or

J.K. Rowling. They may even have an interest in speaking English just to converse with travellers

from other countries, who communicate by using the English global interlingua while travelling

abroad.

Finally, if you are studying English at school, college or university, remember that getting an A

grade in English is almost worthless, in terms of communication, if you cannot speak the

language. Spoken English is used in the best careers, the best universities, and is increasingly

being used at job interviews. So like it or not, English is a very important language to learn how

to speak.


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Why education is important to us

What kind of students come to our campus?

Students from all over the world study at our campus.We are from manycountries. Our campus is the most international campus.Our studentsare from 18 to 81 years old. After studying English, the Civic Centerstudents want to find a better job, or study in a university, or learn morecareer skills and understand American people more. Education isimportant because it will help us get a higher-paying job. Also, educationhelps us to have better communication with other people. Education alsoimproves our lives here in the U.S. Free education is important becausewe don't have money yet, but maybe later we can make sure we study ina different program, or get better jobs. Free classes in English forimmigrants are a good idea, because we need to understand each other.We will learn English better learn, if we go to school. In California,English is very important so we should all speak English together. Also,later we will earn more money, pay more taxes, and pay back for oureducation.


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Important of english

The English language has been the common language of the world for decades. It is now

impossible to find a country where learning English has not become a norm. While there are

some people who would like to stick with their native language and who would prefer not to

learn English, the benefits of learning and mastering English goes beyond the four corners ofone's own country.

Whenever you wish to travel someplace, you have to communicate. If you don't know the

language of the country where you intend to go, just try speaking English and you would be

understood right away. Now imagine yourself traveling to a country, and you don't know how

to speak English. The encounter with a foreigner would be a disaster if you don't know how

to explain or ask questions in English. In effect, if you have already learned English, talking

to a foreigner would prove to be an easy time.

The majority of media publications including newspapers and magazines are in English. If

you are hungry for information with regards to what is happening at the other side of theworld, you can always acquire a newspaper and start reading. But when you started to read

the first sentences, there were already some words which you didn't understand, and instead

of reading further, you just set aside the material and chose some other activity. Now, if you

have learned English continuously and have become familiar with most English words, you

could have finished the whole reading material and have gotten the information that you

wanted.

Immigrants also need to learn English especially if they will be working at firms or other

companies where English is the medium of communication. Instructions would be clearly

understood, and therefore the room for error is minimized. At the same time, an immigrant

who would try to explain himself to his boss and co-employees would be clearly understood

if he could construct his ideas into a single coherent thought. This can only be achieved by

learning English seriously.

For those immigrants who are in the process of looking for a job, a mastery of the English

language would put them at a higher leverage compared to those who don't. Considering that

communication is an essential component in a workplace, persons who are able to

communicate well using the English language would always have an advantage over others.

The English language plays an important role in all aspects of society, and therefore learning

and mastering it would greatly give advantage to the person concerned.


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Why English important in Job Requirements

This paper is concerned with the English language requirements (both level and importance)of occupations in the United States, as measured by the O*NET database. These scores arelinked to microdata on employed adult (aged 25 to 64) males, both native born and foreign

born, as reported in the 2000 Census, one percent sample. Working in an occupation thatrequires greater English language skills, whether measured by the level of these skills or theimportance of English for performing the job, has a large effect on earnings among thenativeborn, and an even larger effect among the foreign born. This effect is reduced by 50 percent,but is still large, when worker characteristics, including their own English language skills, areheld constant. Earnings increase with the respondents own proficiency in English, with theEnglish proficiency required for the occupation, and when those with high levels ofproficiency work in jobs requiring English language skills (interaction effect). There is,therefore, a strong economic incentive for the matching of workers English skills and the

occupations requirements, and this matching does tend to occur in the labor market.

INTRODUCTION

Jobs in the U.S. labor market differ in many ways. They obviously differ in terms

of the levels of education and training they require. But they also differ in a host of other

requirements, covering, among other aspects, job-specific skills (e.g., time management,negotiation, instructing), abilities (e.g., deductive reasoning, memorization, arm-hand

steadiness), and knowledge (e.g., of economics, the English language, a foreign

language). The focus of this study is on the extent to which jobs in the U.S. labor market

require, or offer a premium for, English language proficiency.

Information on the skill requirements of jobs can be obtained from official

agencies in many countries. A well-known source is the Dictionary of Occupational

Titles (DOT) developed by the U.S. Department of Labor (Rumberger 1981). The DOT

has now been superseded by the Occupational Information Network, or O*NET,

database.1This is a comprehensive database of worker attributes and job characteristics.

Of primary interest to the current study is the information on work-related areas of

knowledge. Knowledge areas are, according to the O*NET Knowledge Questionnaire,

sets of facts and principles needed to address problems and issues that are part of a job.

One knowledge area is the English language. The O*NET database has

information on occupational requirements concerning Knowledge of the structure and

content of the English language, including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of job

requirement.


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Importance of English

There is considerable variation in the importance of knowledge of the English

language to job performance. The mean standardized score is 46.8, which is close to the

mid-point (Important) of the scale used in data collection. The standard deviation is

24.6, which is the equivalent of a change in one category in the underlying five-pointscale. Moreover, the importance varies from minimal amounts (standardized scores

around zero) in some occupations, to occupations where knowledge of English is very

important. Occupations where English is not important include Maids and Housekeeping

Cleaners (score of 0), Bakers, Bread and Pastry (4) and Slaughterers and Meat

Packers (8). Examples of occupations where English is very important are Public

Relation Specialists (90), Government Service Workers (92) and Judges, Magistrate

Judges and Magistrates (95).

The relative frequency distribution in Figure 1 shows that the occupations in the

U.S. labor market cover a full range of values on the standardized measure of the

importance of the English language.


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Why English Important in Education

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