[lg policy] Canada: Second Language Policy for Alberta's Future Sucess

[Harold Schiffman]

Second Language Policy for Alberta's Future Sucess

Monday, November 28, 2011

We need to alter the thinking process when it comes to learning
second, third or fourth languages in an educational setting.

Our global world requires the students who are leaving our schools in
the next 15 years to be able to deal with the markets that will be the
driving force for this century.  The Government of Alberta when
funding education should place an emphasis on learning a second
language or more if possible prior to them leaving the K-12 system.
That funding though should not be handcuffed to the old thinking that
the secondary language should be French.

Every student attending school should have moving with them in the
system a language credit that should be treated as a valued commodity
by the School Boards and Schools themselves.  Each school year
students should be polled to inquire what language they would like to
have offered, and based on numbers and ability to deliver the program
that should be what schools offer.

What I see is a blindness in the second language policy that sees
French as priority one.  When if you look to our neighbor to the
south, they and every nation below them has Spanish as either their
first or second language.   Then if we look Westward to Asia, with the
growth of China we can expect that this market of 1.4 Billion people
will offer our future Albertans the opportunity to develop new markets
and open new links of trade.

We need to remove the bias and realize that our language policy
handcuffs our children and the future growth of Alberta.


http://ideas.education.alberta.ca/engage/current-initiatives/education-act-getting-it-right/getting-it-right/setting-students-up-for-success-in-life/seco

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