<h1 class="heading">Language push translates to high cost
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<span class="source-prefix">by:</span>
<cite>
Bernard Lane
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<span class="source-prefix">From:</span>
<cite>
<a class="source-theaustralian" href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/">The Australian</a>
</cite>
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<span class="datestamp">May 12, 2012</span>
<span class="timestamp">12:00AM</span>
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<img src="http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/05/11/1226353/369255-120512languageteaching.jpg" alt="Cate Whitty; Deputy Principal of Open High School in Sydney, wit student Theresa Boon and her teacher David Trigg" height="366" width="650">
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<p class="caption">
<span class="caption-text">Cate Whitty; Deputy Principal of
Open High School in Sydney, with Latin student Theresa Boon and her
teacher David Trigg. Picture: James Croucher </span>
<span class="image-source"><em>Source:</em> The Australian</span>
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<p><strong>
TONY Abbott's ambitions for foreign language learning would require a
new generation of teachers and mandatory classes for very young
children, according to educator Cate Whitty.
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<p>"We are talking about a generation -- a generation plus -- because
not enough language teachers are coming out of university at the
moment," said Ms Whitty, deputy principal of Sydney's Open High School,
which teaches nothing but languages. "And the way to get more teachers
is scholarships." In his budget reply, the Opposition Leader said a
Coalition government would work "urgently" with the states to make sure
at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students took a language within a
decade. The proportion doing so now is about 12 per cent.</p>
<p>He
zeroed in on Asian languages, where experts blame meagre funding,
stop-start policy and popular indifference for abysmally low student
numbers.Kevin Rudd yesterday ridiculed Mr Abbott's newfound commitment to
boosting language studies, saying he had never shown interest in the
issue before this week. The former prime minister added that Mr
Abbott was part of the Howard government when it scrapped a key foreign
language program and language had not rated a mention in Mr Abbott's
manifesto Battlelines.</p><p>"Why did Howard government abolish all funding for Asian language education for schools in 2002?" Mr Rudd tweeted. Asia
studies scholar Michael Wesley observed on Twitter: "Tony Abbott's
languages policy will cost $11.3 billion over 30 years -- money well
spent." The costing comes from Dr Wesley's 2009 report Building an
Asia-literate Australia, which hints that investing in these human
skills would return more value than yet another covered outdoor learning
area.</p><p>Yesterday, the Coalition said the price ticket for its languages policy would be revealed before the election.In
power, it would begin "a generational shift", finding ways to use
foreign-language speakers to help school learners and making a start on
teacher training.Ms Whitty endorses the idea of a big shift --
but it has to be big enough to embrace all languages, not just those of
Asia, she said.Her school teaches more than a dozen languages to 2000-odd students in Sydney, and further afield using video conferences.</p><p>Some
languages have a local cheer squad (Italian has Italian-Australians,
for example) and others are touted as career-boosters, she said.
Japanese was seen that way a generation ago, Mandarin is today. A few
have classic appeal, such as Latin, the choice of Year 12 student
Theresa Boon, from North Sydney Girls High. For Ms Whitty, what's
important is that languages open a window on another culture, even if
that culture survives only as inherited traditions.</p><p><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/language-push-translates-to-high-cost/story-fndbwnla-1226353428478">http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/language-push-translates-to-high-cost/story-fndbwnla-1226353428478</a><br>
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