Australia: STUDENTS as young as four must learn a foreign language

[Harold Schiffman]

LUCY HOOD
February 25, 2008 08:30am

STUDENTS as young as four must learn a foreign language or the
Australian workforce will lose its competitive edge, a report to the
Federal Government warns. The report, handed to the federal Education
Department, is calling for an urgent overhaul of the national
curriculum to make language study compulsory from kindergarten to Year
10.  The report's co-author, University of South Australia associate
professor Angela Scarino, said Australian students were not being
positioned for "global employment".  "They will be sitting around a
table with people of multilingual capability and they will only have
English - it's just not enough," she said.

"We are going to have to decide as a nation whether we are going to be
monolingual and be left behind or really embrace languages and
cultures."  State Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith endorsed the
study's findings, saying that learning a second language was
increasingly important in a globalised economy. Other key
recommendations of the report, which is yet to be released, include:

NURTURING the use of a student's native language at school.

RECOGNISING indigenous languages as an integral part of the curriculum.

ALLOWING students to choose from a wide range of languages.

ADDRESSING language teacher shortages.

MORE training for teachers.

The $2.2 million report, Investigation into the State and Nature of
Languages Education in Australian Schooling, involved over 400
teachers in each state and territory.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Julia Gillard said it was "not
appropriate" to comment on the contents of the report because it had
not been released.

However, she said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was "still committed" to
his major election promise to revive Asian languages.

Last April, the Mandarin-speaking Labor leader announced the $68
million plan in an attempt to reduce the decline of foreign languages
in schools.

He promised that over four years, schools would have additional
Asian-language classes, teacher training and support, and a specialist
curriculum would be developed for students who excelled in Asian
languages and Asian studies.

But almost 10 months later, Associate Professor Scarino said educators
were still waiting for Mr Rudd to take action.

She also questioned his focus on Asian languages, saying strengthening
"trade ties" was not the major goal of school languages.

"They are running around saying Asian languages are important for
trade and diplomacy . . . internal security and defence," she said.

"We're getting away from the fundamental fact that our kids should
come out of their education knowing how to communicate with the world,
not just with Asia."

Statistics show Australian school students now spend less time
learning a language than students in any other OECD country.

 In South Australia, the number of students studying a language in
Year 12 has fallen by 14 per cent over the past eight years.

It is a similar situation in Australian universities, with the number
of languages offered dropping from 66 to 29, or 56 per cent.

Associate Professor Scarino said Australia was falling behind the rest
of the world.

"Most developed countries are teaching a second language, such as Hong
Kong and Singapore, which are to be envied," she said.

"Not only do they have the language of their own communities, but
students also have to learn English and in many cases a third
language."

But Association of Independent Schools SA executive director Garry Le
Duff said it was often parents, not policy-makers, who caused
problems.

"Many independent schools teach languages from Year 1 to Year 9, but
it is trying to convince the parents of the relevance which is
difficult," he said.

Dr Lomax-Smith said bilingualism was a vital skill.

"A second language is important for young people in their lives and in
an increasingly globalised economy," she said.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23269180-5006301,00.html

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