— Christopher Jolly is Chairman of the UK-based Jolly Learning Ltd and publisher of Jolly Phonics

Learning English has become essential for optimal development in almost any profession. The range of jobs available to young people without English is likely to narrow. But children learning with phonics learn twice as quickly

It’s quite accurately said that Winston Churchill successfully “put the English language into battle” in World War II. Both he and the German leader Adolf Hitler were good orators. But, because he used English, Churchill had a stronger linguistic palette to work with.

English is commonly seen as having become the world language because of empire. But is that the full story? Might it also have emerged as the most preferred global language because it enables more efficient and effective communication?

For a start, English has more vocabulary than any other language. With 800,000 words in the largest dictionary, it has 4x the 200,000 words of French, for instance. English grammar is also more extensive. With 12 tenses, English has twice the number of German, the next highest. Most languages have just three tenses (and Chinese just one).

Another advantage of early teaching of English is that it has more letter sounds than most languages. Especially, it has more vowels. While many languages have five-six vowels, in the Jolly Phonics programme I teach 17 vowels. This allows many more short words in English. Moreover consonant blends are used extensively in English, such as the ‘st’ and ‘mp’ in ‘stamp’. In Malay this word has been imported as ‘setem’, removing the consonant blends. 

So there is a depth in English, which is probably the cause of its enhanced global usage. Issues can be described more accurately, while the readiness of English to adopt new words allows words and technical terms to be co-opted easily.

As a result English has effortlessly emerged the language of business, scientific papers, international contact and aviation. It has become essential for optimal development in almost any profession, and its role and importance is likely to increase over time. The range of jobs available to young people without English is likely to narrow.

International travel increasingly requires working knowledge of English. It’s not just helpful for buying airline tickets and hotel accommodation. Increasingly, necessary visas and digital arrival cards need to be completed in English or the local language. With passage of time those who don’t know English will be restricted professionally and geographically. Manual jobs in their community will continue to be available, but not much more.

This has implications for policymakers and education communities. Firstly, it signals the end of EFL — teaching English as a Foreign Language. It requires teaching of English from the first language, and after that first language has been taught, requires teaching of English as a second first language, from the start of school.

While there is a strong case for children to learn their ‘mother tongues’, educators should bear in mind the features of English — more letter sounds, consonant blends, and so on — mean that the first language is ill-equipped to teach the basics of English.

Against this they should also bear in mind that young children are very adept at learning languages. In one study we found five-year-olds learning English (as a foreign language) faster than six-year-olds. We have witnessed very young children, often just a year or so old, able to identify letter sounds. All this points to the practicalities and advantages of teaching young children English from the very start of school. To delay is to restrict a child’s life opportunities. 

Importantly, it also means that English needs to be taught with a good phonics programme that teaches the structure of English. Studies show that children taught learning with phonics learn twice as quickly as children taught with alphabets-and-memorisation.

Adoption of phonics requires change of teachers’ mindsets. Most early years classrooms tend to have an alphabets wall frieze. They should be pulled down! And replaced with a phonic wall friezes showing the 42 letter sounds of English. If children are taught that the first letter of the alphabet is ‘ai’ as in ‘aim’, can we forgive them if they read ‘h-a-t’ as hate and ‘m-a-t’ as mate?

Choosing a well-developed phonics learning English programme offers three important advantages. Children will learn faster, all children will achieve (with few, if any, needing remedial help), and they will enjoy it. 

But far too many phonics programmes just teach the letter sounds in a dull way, with blending for reading, and segmenting for spelling. While this covers basics, they aren’t inspiring, nor do they allow teachers flexibility to craft their lessons. 

A good phonics programme is multi-sensory, with actions, songs and engaging software. It provides a variety of options to teach each language component. Therefore, if a child is struggling, there are more resources and ideas to enable her to keep up. Remedial programmes don’t have a good record of achievement. Children left to ‘catch up’ later, rarely do so. Therefore choosing a well-structured phonics driven learning programme initially will ensure all children can do well.