THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

Language is the foundation of all abilities. Children with an outstanding level of language skills have almost without exception, been raised in homes where language education is rich. Kumon observes that children who are having trouble with Mathematics and other subjects are usually weak in language skills. Poor language skills may entail poor memory and analytical skills. It is not difficult to understand why some children lose interest in language as their language skills were never systematically developed and the school texts may eventually surpass their skill level. When this happens, other subject performances in school may also suffer.

In order to tackle this situation, students must have good reading comprehension skills and the ability to read widely. That is why the creation of the Kumon English worksheets focuses on improving reading comprehension. The Kumon English worksheets are structured study towards critical reading. Students studying the English programme are required to understand the texts, interpret text through examples and descriptions, identify an element of the topic of a paragraph, do summarization, analyse literary characters and so on. These elements train students to gain better comprehension skills, enhance their vocabulary as well as their think critical thinking skills.

The method of summarization requires the ability to read precisely and read quickly. The act of summarization will complement and strengthen these skills. On the other hand, by analysing literary characters, they are also equipped with the knowledge to think critically. If they lack a good comprehension of the character, they will not be able to analyse it accurately. As they gain this capability, they will apply this to other aspects in their lives as well. With high reading ability , children can read a greater number of books, exposing themselves to new ideas and broader horizons. From this exposure, children will gradually develop their own views of society and life. They will then ask what they can do for society. They begin to develop future goals and mold their own ideas.

Next, if students have strong reading comprehension, they will become eager to learn or, they will refer to dictionaries or encyclopedias when they encounter problems they do not understand, thus developing their self-learning skills. This means that the student can read, understand and perform well in English, Mathematics and other subject as well. On the other hand, when students possess a high level of reading comprehension, they will have ability to read books beyond what they learn in school. Student will also gain the ability to self-learn and will be able to advance beyond their school grade levels. It can be said that improvement in the language makes it easy for them to advance beyond school grade level in Mathematics and English.

If children surpass grade level, they will become motivated to take on new areas. Reading provides them with opportunities to think for themselves, and such well-read children will eventually grow into individuals who are capable of living happy, productive lives and actively striving to help make the world a better place.