[lg policy] Australia: Foreign languages on coalition agenda

[Harold Schiffman]

Foreign languages on coalition agenda
Updated: 05:33, Friday May 11, 2012
Foreign languages on coalition agenda

At least 40 per cent of year 12 students will be studying a language
other than English and pre-schoolers will be exposed to foreign
languages under a coalition federal government. Opposition Leader Tony
Abbott announced the plan on Thursday as he delivered his reply to
Labor's 2012/13 budget handed down on Tuesday. The aspirational target
was to increase knowledge of languages of key regional partners to be
met within a decade, Mr Abbott said.

China was Australia's biggest trading partner but there are just 300
Year 12 students of Mandarin who aren't of Chinese heritage across
Australia.
Japanese, the language of Australia's second-biggest trading partner,
had seen a 21 per cent decline in students studying it since 2001.
'Indonesia is a vital partner in Australia's long-term future and on
current trends Indonesian will disappear from Year 12 studies within
four years,' Mr Abbott said in a joint statement with his deputy Julie
Bishop and education spokesman Christopher Pyne.

Korean had all but disappeared from the education system - a concern
because Korea is Australia's third-largest trading partner. 'Similarly
Australia's relationship with India is of growing importance and the
Australian-Indian community numbers more than 300,000,' Mr Abbott
said.

'But there has been a steady decline in the study of Hindi in
Australia - for example in 2010 only 16 students sat the NSW HSC in
Hindi.'

If Australians wanted to make their way in the world, they could not
rely on other people speaking their language, Mr Abbott said.

'The coalition believes that starting in pre-school every student
should have an exposure to foreign languages,' he said.

The shift would be generational because foreign language speakers
would have to be mobilised and teachers trained.

'We will urgently work with the states to ensure that the Australian
workforce of the future can grasp the full opportunity of the Asian
century,' Mr Abbott said.

The announcement mirrored the coalition's policy on teaching children
foreign languages in its 2010 election platform but provided more
specific targets and details.

Finance Minister Penny Wong dismissed the plan as a 'rehash of a
previous policy that they then backflipped on'.

'The language that Mr Abbott needs to recall is the language of
working families and the language of the family budget,' Senator Wong
told reporters in Canberra.

'Tony Abbott has simply rehashed old policy, not put forward any
detail, in an attempt to pretend that he has something other to say
than No'.

'He said nothing in his speech about the budget, the economy ... or
any costed policies.'

http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=749088&vId=

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
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)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list