[lg policy] NZ: Call for languages policy 'a step in right direction'

[Harold Schiffman]

Call for languages policy 'a step in right direction'

Tuesday, 5 March, 2013 - 09:29

The Royal Society of New Zealand has released a paper on Languages in
Aotearoa New Zealand, and key stakeholder COMET Auckland is taking the
opportunity to support the paper’s call for a national languages
policy.

Susan Warren, Chief Executive of COMET Auckland, a charitable trust
and CCO aiming to advance education for Auckland, says the Royal
Society’s paper is a valuable step to getting language promotion and
preservation on the national agenda.

"Around the world, a language becomes extinct every 14 days. As
education and skills advocates, and as Aucklanders, COMET Auckland
says: not here, not on our watch. We are heartened to see the Royal
Society make such a strong, evidence-based call for action in this
area because it is high time there was a more cohesive national
approach to looking after languages and ensuring they can thrive."

"We constantly see the impact that the current lack of language
support has on families across Auckland. Our Maori, Pasifika and
migrant populations bring a richness of language strengths which could
be contributing more to our educational and economic wellbeing as a
city. As the Royal Society has highlighted, for monolingual students
there may be education benefits across the board when they learn a
second language, and there are cognitive improvements for children
raised bilingually- in a country that needs increased equality and
equity in education, isn’t this worth exploring further?

"From our perspective, language is critically important to the
improvement of education and skills. In response to the Royal
Society’s paper, we are working with the Human Rights Commission and
others to develop an Auckland languages policy, to bring coherence to
the many efforts to support language in our city.

"Once the Auckland languages strategy is in full swing, we anticipate
that other regions will see the value in taking a formal stance on
protecting languages and make moves to develop their own strategies.
Of course, if there was to be a national policy, this would provide
both the scale and legislation needed to ensure language is a
country-wide priority." Warren says it is her hope that the Royal
Society’s paper will make Government take notice of the importance of
languages in Aotearoa, and move to formally adopt a nationwide policy.

"While we are fortunate that more than 160 languages are spoken in New
Zealand, and that Auckland is one of the most culturally diverse
cities in the world, the importance of language is not yet being given
the priority it needs, so the Royal Society’s paper is certainly a
step in the right direction."

http://www.voxy.co.nz/entertainment/call-languages-policy-step-right-direction/5/149127

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