An Asian language in every school.

[*Efjay*]

I don't agree that they *must* teach a second language. I think it just adds pressure to kids who are already struggling. For me it would mean just one more class my kid sits out off because its causes too much stress/pressure. To me it should be an elective that people can opt in for.

For example, my older boys can not do music. They can not handle the noise of a music class & struggle with reading music due to their learning problems. So for that 40 minutes of the day, they sit out & do something else (usually not an alternative educational activity but supervised play on the computer) Add yet another subject like language & its just another area they will struggle with. Its like Religious Education. My kids don't do that either so there is another time slot of their day wasted because its seen as an unfair advantage if the kids who don't attend RE do other educational study so they have to sit & colour in or some other pointless activity.

I might be closed minded in a way but I think school is over complicated as it is. When it comes to kids with special needs, inclusive schooling will never work if they are expected to learn stuff that to many would seem pointless. I could just imagine the arguments my 10 yr old would come out with. Everything has a reason to him, how would I justify the importance of learning a 2nd language when we speak English here at home. He struggles with concepts of future use, so telling him that one day he might be faced with a situation where it would be handy to know just wouldn't cut it.

Plus I did Japanese in school, none of it stuck. A pointless waste of my time if you ask me. If I want to go to Japan or converse with someone in Japanese I will need to learn how too.

Im hesitant in posting this because I don't think I am putting into words how I feel/what I think very well..

[Tinks]

All schools have to teach a 2nd language, I wasn't aware that it had to be an Asian language though. The primary school DD goes to teach Japanese but they are part of a program where Japanese university students come over to teach in schools. Another school in this area teach Auslan as their 2nd language. The high school my DS and DD1 go to teach Japanese and German, the students choose 1 when they start year 7.

[Rowellen]

I wasn't aware of any requirement for schools to teach a second language. One of the schools I was looking to send DS to didn't offer any. When I asked, they said that if the student wanted to, they could do one by distance ed but they didn't have enough students wanting to learn to justify hiring a teacher but that was for high school, not primary. The primary section didn't offer any at all. I'm in qld though, not sure if that makes a difference.
I did German, French & Japanese at different times at school. I loved learning Japanese & would love for my kids to be able to learn it too. I don't think it is a necessity though.

[little_O]

I wasn't aware of any requirement for schools to teach a second language. One of the schools I was looking to send DS to didn't offer any. When I asked, they said that if the student wanted to, they could do one by distance ed but they didn't have enough students wanting to learn to justify hiring a teacher but that was for high school, not primary. The primary section didn't offer any at all. I'm in qld though, not sure if that makes a difference.
I did German, French & Japanese at different times at school. I loved learning Japanese & would love for my kids to be able to learn it too. I don't think it is a necessity though.

I could be wrong but I was under the impression it was compulsory here in SA....(please correct me if I'm wrong )

[Trillian]

Until they bring in the National curriculum then each state is going to be doing it's own thing. It is not compulsory in NSW to teach a second language, nor do I think it should ever be made compulsory. Certainly offer it as an elective and non compulsory subject, but teachers have bigger fish to fry in teaching kids how to read and write in their own language without adding a second on it to that! It's all well and good to say it should be done, but the majority of people simply have no idea how impractical it will be to implement it. Where for example would the school that my kids go to find someone that was not only fluent in Mandarin/any other language, but was also able to teach it? Where would the funding for this come from? Sounds like a bunch of shiney asses sitting in offices making decisions that only suit kids who live in metro areas if you ask me.

[Phteven]

Trillian, I can see your point about how difficult it might be to implement in rural areas but.....are there any people in your area who can speak indigenous languages? I would love to see more schools offering students a chance to learn indigenous languages and cultural traditions.

In some states it is already compulsory for all schools to teach a second language and they seem to be able to cope with it so on a practical level it is already demonstrated to be workable. However, it becomes much less workable when the language is restricted. Currently there are schools that change language when the teacher who teaches LOTE changes. If Asian language becomes compulsory then the pool of LOTE teachers is reduced overnight for those schools. In some schools the LOTE is Auslan. I would hate to see the number of Auslan 'speakers' in our community diminished.

[Trillian]

Not to my knowledge, but we don't have a large indigenous population here - I can count on one hand the number of families. there are Asian families and some PNG families that do speak a traditional language though.
I"m not saying that it shouldn't happen, I just don't think it should be compulsory in primary school. I really do not think that people realise the pressure this places on schools and teachers, especially primary schools. They are already under so much pressure to do just the basics because they don't have time to fit it in.

can someone actually link the policy documents concerning this? I use the National Curriculum as part of my studies and I've not found anything to support it being compulsory. If anyone is interested, you can download the National Curriculum from here http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Download

[Phteven]

All schools have to teach a 2nd language, I wasn't aware that it had to be an Asian language though.

You are correct that at the this time it doesn't have to be Asian however it is part of the new national framework.

Re Mandarin being more useful for business - I wouldn't dispute this however not everyone wants to be involved in international business and other languages are more useful for other things. If you happen to want to sing Opera Italian is more useful and if classical French cuisine is what rocks your boat the obviously French would be your language of choice. And we do significant trade with non-Asian countries if we can't communicate with them then that sucks for business.

I couldn't disagree more that language shouldn't be compulsory. Language doesn't just teach us language it teaches cultural understanding and stimulates parts of the brain that are pretty much dormant unless engaged in language acquisition. Education is about opportunities. Just because I didn't take the opportunities offered by physics doesn't mean that I think it should be dropped from the curriculum. For all students to miss out on opportunities because it is too challenging for a minority would be terrible unfair. Australia lags behind many countries in languages, it would be nice to see us catch up just a little.

[little_O]

You are correct that at the this time it doesn't have to be Asian however it is part of the new national framework.

Re Mandarin being more useful for business - I wouldn't dispute this however not everyone wants to be involved in international business and other languages are more useful for other things. If you happen to want to sing Opera Italian is more useful and if classical French cuisine is what rocks your boat the obviously French would be your language of choice. And we do significant trade with non-Asian countries if we can't communicate with them then that sucks for business.

I couldn't disagree more that language shouldn't be compulsory. Language doesn't just teach us language it teaches cultural understanding and stimulates parts of the brain that are pretty much dormant unless engaged in language acquisition. Education is about opportunities. Just because I didn't take the opportunities offered by physics doesn't mean that I think it should be dropped from the curriculum. For all students to miss out on opportunities because it is too challenging for a minority would be terrible unfair. Australia lags behind many countries in languages, it would be nice to see us catch up just a little.

I'm on Team Onyx

We lag SO much behind the rest of the world as it is with our schooling. My SIL is European and she learnt 2 extra languages at school. To move here she learnt a third. She can’t believe how simple our schooling is. Somehow the rest of the world manages to learn the maths, sciences and languages without any issues.

I don’t doubt some students have learning issues, and everyone learns differently. I don’t have a problem with them getting help, or different subjects, but why make the rest of the country have reduced education possibilities. It’s like saying, my child doesn’t like outdoor activities so it shouldn’t be necessary for any children to be active??

Trillian, I do see what you mean though about funding and country areas. There is an inequality (my rampage is probably education in general lol). I couldn’t imagine being a teacher who has to cater to all the children. They do an amazing job. I just feel that language is such an important part of education that it should still be an essential.

[Mother Goose]

All schools have to teach a 2nd language, I wasn't aware that it had to be an Asian language though. The primary school DD goes to teach Japanese but they are part of a program where Japanese university students come over to teach in schools. Another school in this area teach Auslan as their 2nd language. The high school my DS and DD1 go to teach Japanese and German, the students choose 1 when they start year 7.

I think it's awesome that a school teaches Auslan! It seems something that is often overlooked...

I actually found it really hard to find a school that taught my chosen language. At my first high school, I had the choice of Japanese, German, or French. I loved Japanese but when I moved to another State, I had to travel 45 min to attend a school that taught Japanese... most of the schools only taught French and German.

I know that where I went to school in NSW, there was a large demographic of Vietnamese people moving to the area, so the school then offered Vietnamese as a language.

I personally feel that a language should be offered but there should be more than one offered in High Schools. Whatever the language, it should try and fit in with the School's aims/values/ethos/specialty. For example, if the school has a strong Cooking Program (which I've seen a few schools have as part of a work ed program), French makes sense to me as I'm told that is the language used universally in international kitchens (but maybe someone lead me up the garden path with that one!).

But I do feel that the language should be taught by someone who is fluent in both English and the language being taught. I was taught Japanese by a teacher who had little understanding of the language - as a result, my whole year 10 class failed because she was unable to teach us adequately. So if it can't be taught adequately, it shouldn't be taught at all... but that's my view.

I would also like to see some links between the languages Primary Schools teach and the local High Schools. My DD is learning Italian at school - it is compulsory...but none of the local High Schools offer it...

[Rowellen]

But I do feel that the language should be taught by someone who is fluent in both English and the language being taught. I was taught Japanese by a teacher who had little understanding of the language - as a result, my whole year 10 class failed because she was unable to teach us adequately. So if it can't be taught adequately, it shouldn't be taught at all... but that's my view.

This is so true. I had excellent japanese teachers in years 8-10 but changed schools. I really wanted to continue Japanese so went to the only one in the area that offered it. Waste of time. My year 11 teacher spent most of the time whinging about his year 8 CE class & my year 12 teacher just wrote sentences from the teachers guide up on the board. Needless to say, my plans to continue on in uni dropped & now I can't remember much except hello, goodbye, please & can count to 10

THe school DS will be going to offers Japanese so it will be interesting to see how much comes back to me