An Asian language in every school.

[Phteven]

I do believe that by not offering all our students access to a second language we are dumbing down the education system. In some states it is already compulsory and I think we would all benefit if it was a nation wide policy.The benefits of learning a second language are huge. If parents won't do LOTE readers then give children vocab homework or even send them home with DVD's to watch. Nearly all the most popular children's movies are available in LOTE.

[MLR1901]

FWIW I grew up in a rural area in Victoria.
Primary school had no language offered (but region even though not catholic school!)
High school offered Indonesian or French, I choose Indonesian - my grandfather spoke this along with 6 other languages so helped with homework.
I moved to suburban Melbourne in year 10, where I was one of a handful of Anglo based ethnicity, Spanish, Vietnamese or Chinese were offered, only to those from that background.
So no formal language offered.
BUT I learnt more languages and cultural education by interacting with friends!

Schools should offer as options for say Saturday school then students from other schools can join.
Maybe not a mandatory addition to the curriculum.
For somewhere like Canberra with defence, government etc then it would be something those kids will be exposed to.
Also very much up to the parents to wavy to encourage their kids to learn. But this is just my two cents worth!

[Trillian]

If parents won't do LOTE readers then give children vocab homework or even send them home with DVD's to watch. Nearly all the most popular children's movies are available in LOTE.

Good luck with that! I'm not disagreeing that learning a second language is not enriching, far from it. It is just that the curriculum is already so overloaded with what they really need to learn first, that making it mandatory is going to be hard, if not impossible, when working with the timeframes that we currently have. There is only so much that you can fit in to the daily school schedule. I know of schools where they are flat finding the time for PE, which is something else that 'they' are really pushing for as well. Where do you think it should all fit in? What is your 'ideal' school day?

[little_O]

I am somewhat intrigued that all the curriculum fit into my school day when I was there, why can't it now? Has there been other things added since I was a child? (Genuine question!)

[Phteven]

The thing about LOTE is that it can be combined with just about anything. PE, you can play games using the words for jump, run, square, triangle, ball, in, out etc. Art, you can use it to teach the names for colours, shapes, textures discuss the art/artists of a different culture. Maths, counting, shapes, sizes and so on can all be expressed in a different language. Primary school science concepts can be expressed in other languages. Instead of being a stand alone subject it can be woven through other subjects without diminishing the time that is given to those subjects.

Maybe other children won't watch DVD's in LOTE but if I sit my boys down in front of Cars they don't care if it's in English or their second language.

[Heaven]

Can someone link an article or something about why learning a second language is important?

All I remember from school was it was a PITA and I learnt a few different ones due to changing schools, but mostly Japanese. I now know barely anything from any of them despite doing Japanese for 5 years. I just can't see in my case how in helped me at all. I don't even remember anything about Japanese culture and we even had a Japanese exchange student stay at our house in high school! I remember things that I was interested in like biology and ancient history. So I don't get making it compulsory. If a kid is not interested in it then they're not going to remember it anyways. Though I'm only talking from my experience and I could be totally abnormal, lol.

So would be interested to read some research on the benefits if anyone can point me in that direction!

[Jellyfish]

Maybe it is time to start looking at immersion programs where other subjects are taught in a different language? That is how it was taught at my school.

[Phteven]

How many articles do you want? lol.
Give me a minute and I'll hit you with a few...

http://voxy.com/blog/2011/02/why-it-...ew=infographic
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-...tory?track=rss
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0418152332.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0218092529.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...fl-linguistics - http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/studie..._part_1_en.pdf
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/20...mp=clp-sb-ascd
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Lifestyle_11_1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/sc...n.html?hp&_r=0
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=232018
http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morn...y/12040315.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/op...lism.html?_r=3
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012...ms?ps=sh_sthdl
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_ch...?storyid=29226
http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/column...ingual-1.74072

Happy reading

[Heaven]

Yikes! LOL. Thank you!

[Phteven]

Lots of them are quite short. Apparently languages are very good for preventing dementia.

[Amy_jellybean]

I learnt Indonesian from year 3 - 9 compulsory and then continued it in year 10,11 and 12 and went on to do it for my TEE (same as HSC for those of you in the east). I now work in the travel industry and cannot even begin to explain how valuable it has been for me!

[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

[Trillian]

The thing about LOTE is that it can be combined with just about anything. PE, you can play games using the words for jump, run, square, triangle, ball, in, out etc. Art, you can use it to teach the names for colours, shapes, textures discuss the art/artists of a different culture. Maths, counting, shapes, sizes and so on can all be expressed in a different language. Primary school science concepts can be expressed in other languages. Instead of being a stand alone subject it can be woven through other subjects without diminishing the time that is given to those subjects.

Maybe other children won't watch DVD's in LOTE but if I sit my boys down in front of Cars they don't care if it's in English or their second language.

I see your point, and to an extent that is already done if the teacher is motivated to do it (DD2 had a HSIE unit this year about Japan and they learnt numbers and a few words etc), but that's a long way short of teaching them a language properly with a teacher who is equipped to do it isn't it? Better than nothing at all, but still well short of what you want, which is for every child to become fluent in another language.

[Heaven]

Thanks for all those Onyx. The evidence very clearly seems to suggest that being bilingual is advantageous. Although I still don't agree that making foreign language compulsory in all schools is the answer. I don't know one person at my school who came out actually 'bilingual' after having studied another language at school. We could all say a few sentences but that's far from 'bilingual' IYKWIM. So I still don't see the point. It was just a waste of time for a lot of people. I think for sure it should be available to all students so that the ones who are interested are able to learn. But it's not for everyone. I'm much more interested in my kids learning things that they enjoy. I think that has a far bigger impact, than making them sit through things they are not interested in at all.

[little_O]

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression learning a language in school isn't so much that it will mean you are bilingual, but more that you have stimulated that part of the brain and have given it a basis to expand in if you so choose.

The Australian curriculum does not support learning a language as do say our European neighbors efforts. They are to soley speak that language in class, learn the history, geography, culture of the chosen language. That is truly being educated in a language.

I also don't agree (this is purely personal) that my daughter shouldn't be made to something she doesn't like. If she doesn't like maths, bad luck. You need to learn it and it will benefit you. I didn't like physics. I had to stick at it and I still worked hard to get A's. In the work force we all have to do jobs we don't like. We can't say to our boss, "oh um typing doesn't suit me, can I just file?". To me language is the same. It's hard work but the benefits are huge. As onyx said, it helps with the understanding of our own language. TBH, if I had done German I would have had no idea what a past participle was. We certainly didn't learn it in English.

This is all just my opinion though! everyone is entitled to their own!

[Heaven]

I was just talking about the articles Onyx posted. They showed the advantages from being bilingual, but IMO taking a language class at school isn't going to make you bilingual so is not going to have the same effect IYKWIM?

I agree, there is some stuff kids do need to learn i.e. reading, writing, maths, etc. But IMO a second language isn't one of them. It's not essential for life, you know? Most people get by just fine with only one language. So I wouldn't be pushing my child to do it if they were really not into it. I would rather they spent time on something they valued more.

[little_O]

I can see your point. I am just thinking "ideally".

I just feel the curriculum keeps getting "dumbed down", but I guess the onus is on us parents to supplement. And you're right, I wouldn't force my child to continue with language at the cost of a more accepted essential subject, but I also think that choice shouldn't have to be made itms.

[Jellyfish]

The Australian curriculum does not support learning a language as do say our European neighbors efforts. They are to soley speak that language in class, learn the history, geography, culture of the chosen language. That is truly being educated in a language.

There are some schools do have language programs that stretch across other classes. My school for example did when I went to school but I don't think they do anymore. It was called German immersion and things like history, social science and science were taught completely in German.

I was just talking about the articles Onyx posted. They showed the advantages from being bilingual, but IMO taking a language class at school isn't going to make you bilingual so is not going to have the same effect IYKWIM?

How does one become bilingual if they don't learn a second language? You have to start somewhere and 12yrs of schooling is a long time to be exposed to a language. It is how people in Europe become bilingual so it is possible.

All that said I wouldn't be forcing my children to take a language against their will but I would be encouraging and supporting it. I did not initially appreciate the piano lessons my parents encouraged until I came to learn other things I enjoyed (drums, flute and trumpet) and realised how it built the foundation to make those things a lot easier! I think language is similar, it sets up a good base to be worked off.

I think you can enjoy learning anything with the right people and environment though. I think sometimes passions need not be something that was always internally bubbling but can be inspired by the people who introduce them to us in a way we can relate to. I will always be following the lead of my children but I think that involves exposing them to many different things so they can know what sort of options there are to choose from in the first place.