<div dir="ltr"><h1 id="ctl00_cphBody_bb4714517d0f476493103cd8fbbd2f94_h1TitleOnly">Confucius Classrooms: If government won't pay for language teaching, China will</h1>
<div class="">3 June 2016 10:48AM</div>
<p>Language policy in Australian schools isn't likely to become an election issue but perhaps it should be. A <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/behind-confucius-classrooms-the-chinese-government-agency-teaching-nsw-school-students-20160525-gp3882.html" target="_blank">recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald</a>
detailing the expansion of the Confucius Classrooms program at primary
schools in Sydney and Melbourne quoted parents who were unhappy with
this development and said the classrooms 'were viewed uneasily by some
China watchers'.</p>
<p style="text-align:center"><img src="http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/image.axd?picture=%2f2016%2f06%2fconfucius.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Of course, any program run by a foreign government in Australian
schools should be scrutinised. However, fears that the teaching of
Chinese language has been politicised should be put in the context of
the broader education debate around foreign language acquisition.</p>
<p>The Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) is part
of the Chinese Ministry of Education. It has set up Confucius
institutes and Confucius Classrooms around the world to promote Chinese
language and culture. There <a href="http://english.hanban.org/article/2010-07/02/content_153910.htm" target="_blank">are now</a>
more than 554 Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in 88 countries,
giving foreigners the opportunity to learn Chinese and learn about China
virtually for free. As the SMH article says, schools are given $10,000
in the first year for teaching, and are provided with resources
including teaching assistants hired and paid for by Hanban.</p>
<p>There are concerns that Confucius Institutes are a propaganda tool of
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), limiting freedom of expression and
promoting censorship within independent schools and universities. Such
concerns have prompted a number of universities, including the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-confucius-institute-hearing-met-20141204-story.html" target="_blank">University of Chicago</a> and Penn State University, to end their relationship with Hanban. Penn <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/penn-state-latest-school-to-drop-chinas-confucius-institute-1412196655" target="_blank">cited</a> a 'lack of transparency and academic freedom'.</p>
<p>It is right to question the objectives and operations of the
Confucius Classrooms program, and the SMH article rightly challenges the
appropriateness of a Chinese government body to run programs in
Australian schools. But it misses another important point, which is that
Australia has a shortage of Chinese teachers. </p>
<p>In 2013, the <a href="http://www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/2013/docs/australia_in_the_asian_century_white_paper.pdf" target="_blank">Australia in the Asian Century White Paper</a>
suggested all Australian children should have access to one Asian
priority language (Japanese, Mandarin, Hindi and Indonesian). Children
would also be encouraged to undertake a 'continuous course in an Asian
language'. When Tony Abbott came to power he pledged $2 billion to help
lift the number of year 12 students studying a language other than
English by 40%.</p>
<p>Despite such lofty objectives, the number of students studying <em>any</em> language continues to decline. In 2014, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-hawke-to-turnbull-asian-language-learning-in-decline-47163" target="_blank">there were</a> only 798 high school students studying an Asian language in NSW high schools, down from 1500 students in 2000.</p>
<p>If Malcolm Turnbull is re-elected there is unlikely to be a substantial change in policy. On his blog in 2012 <a href="http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/the-asian-century-and-learning-chinese-in-school" target="_blank">Turnbull wrote</a>
'linguistic fluency does not...entail a knowledge of (or) empathy for
the culture and history of the country concerned'. Labor has yet to
release its policy on language learning but, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-28/labor-budget-black-hole-could-be-less-than-20-billion-analysis/7455476" target="_blank">given all the talk of budget black holes</a>, substantial support for language learning appears improbable from either of the major parties.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to the Confucius Classrooms controversy. Given <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/staff-australias-schools-2010-main-report" target="_blank">the shortage of language teachers</a>
in schools across Australia, the Confucius Classrooms program is, as
the SMH noted, 'an attractive package for cash-strapped public school
principals eager to offer their students Asian languages.' While <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24672295" target="_blank">there are some examples</a>
of successful English-Chinese bilingual schools, these are the
minority. As there is very little other funding for schools to carry out
a comprehensive language teaching program, the offer of a Confucius
Classroom is an easy way for schools to outsource their language
teaching requirements at minimum cost.</p>
<p>While successive Australian governments have vowed to increase the
number of students learning Chinese, none have offered a funded,
targeted and realistic plan. If governments increased funding for Asian
languages, principals and schools would not need to rely on a Communist
Party-influenced Chinese language curriculum.</p>
<p>Even if there are election vows to increase funding for Asian
languages, history suggests these are likely to be empty promises. This
is a shame as teaching Chinese in primary and secondary schools would
ensure students are interested in, and equipped for, engagement with
China in their future careers and academic pursuits. Better language
skills would assist the policy-makers of the future to think critically
when it comes to China, and to move beyond knee jerk reactions of fear
and alarm.</p><p><a href="http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/06/03/Confucius-Classrooms-If-government-wont-pay-for-language-teaching-China-will.aspx">http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2016/06/03/Confucius-Classrooms-If-government-wont-pay-for-language-teaching-China-will.aspx</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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