[lg policy] NZ sitting on language goldmine

[Harold Schiffman]

NZ sitting on language goldmine
By Isaac Davison Isaac_Davison
5:30 AM Tuesday Mar 5, 2013



Cultural complexity at 'superdiverse' levels but paper shows plans to
harness multilingualism sadly lacking.

Richard Le Heron said the research outlined a strong case for a
national languages policy in New Zealand.



New Zealand has reached a rare level of diversity with 160 languages
spoken by residents, but completely lacks a plan to harness the social
and economic benefits of multilingualism, a paper released today says.
The Royal Society of New Zealand paper highlights that over the past
two decades New Zealand has become a "superdiverse" country, with a
level of cultural complexity far greater than previously experienced.

But unlike countries such as Australia and Britain, which have similar
diversity of language, New Zealand does not have a plan to encourage
multilingualism, with only a number of disparate policies and
practices. AUT head of languages Dr Sharon Harvey, who contributed to
the paper, said: "Although we live in a publicly monolingual country
and a bicultural legislative framework, there is a lot more going on
in people's homes that isn't publicly acknowledged."

The paper shows a strong language policy can reduce barriers to trade,
improve student performance across the curriculum, and influence
better health and well-being, particularly among Maori, Pacific and
migrant groups. The costs of a monolingual society were high, such as
reduced international trade, weaker integration of immigrants, and the
potential decline or loss of indigenous languages.

Royal Society vice-president of the social sciences and humanities
Richard Le Heron said the research outlined a strong case for a
national languages policy in New Zealand. Australia's languages policy
is nearly 20 years old and its government is pushing for more access
to Asian languages in schools.

Britain was considering making every English-speaking child learn a
second language from age 7.In New Zealand, a Labour-led 1992 languages
policy discussion paper, "Aoteareo: speaking for ourselves", was
dropped by the next National-led government. Language learning is not
mandatory at any level in New Zealand.

An education policy introduced in 2002 placed more emphasis on
learning Asian, Pacific and European languages, but this has faded.
More primary and intermediate students were studying languages
compared with 2000, but fewer secondary school students were learning
a language.

Education Minister Hekia Parata's office said that the number of
students learning Japanese and Chinese had climbed over the past five
years, and the ministry had developed services to support Pacific
languages from early childhood centres to high schools.

There was no immediate plan for a shakeup of the education sector's
approach to languages.

Dr Harvey said a good first step in a national-level policy would be
to focus on Te Reo Maori and Pacific languages, but also encourage
Asian language learning with an eye to improved trade connections.

Labour MP Phil Goff felt that New Zealand had a responsibility not
only for the Maori language but the Pacific languages spoken by our
neighbours.

"For small countries, the majority of their population reside in New
Zealand. Letting a language, and therefore a culture, become extinct
would be unforgivable."

His Mt Roskill electorate was the most diverse in New Zealand. When he
attended the opening of an ANZ bank branch last week, the staff spoke
eight languages between them.

Mr Goff, who spoke "one and a quarter languages", was concerned
immigrants had no encouragement to maintain their mother tongue.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10869226

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