Primary schools to change languages for lessons

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Primary schools to change languages for lessons
Topic Started: Jun 15 2009, 04:30 AM (117 Views)
Sayf Udeen Ismaeel	Jun 15 2009, 04:30 AM Post #1
Icon by meagan_chelsea @ LJ Posts: 7,579 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: May 2, 2008 Gender Male Religious Views Muslim Political View All over the shop.	Primary schools to change languages for lessons SOME NSW primary schools will soon offer students a bilingual education, with subjects taught in Asian languages. The NSW Government is funding the four-year $2.25 million program in tomorrow's state Budget, with the first four schools to start offering the stream next year. Schools will have to apply to be part of the program, which will be taught by specialist teachers and run alongside the standard English curriculum. NSW Education Minister Verity Firth said that with Asia on the doorstep, the program was vital to the state's future economic and social prosperity. "We are preparing the future workforce to be fluent in key Asian languages including Mandarin, Korean, Japanese and Indonesian," she said. Ms Firth said research showed the best way to master a language was to start early. She said students would devote 90 minutes each day to language lessons starting in kindergarten, and the language would then be integrated into other subjects. "For example, students will learn the grammatical components of Mandarin and will also be taught other subjects such as creative arts, health and technology in that language," she said. She said specialist teachers would have to be native speakers trained in primary education. "We are committing extra resources for schools to excel and these specialist language teachers will be employed in addition to normal staffing allocations," she said. Ms Firth said the first four schools would be announced in the "near future". A independent report last week said Australia needed to quadruple the number of students learning Asian languages in order to compete with other nations. The Griffith Asia Institute report claims Australia faces a looming skills crisis and a decline in international status unless half the population learns an Asian language by 2040. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25637544-29277,00.html



gingerwitch28	Jun 15 2009, 06:22 AM Post #2
twenty-first century ennui Posts: 1,688 Group: Members Member #589 Joined: Apr 18, 2009 Gender Female Religious Views Atheist Political View Social Democracy	'Decline in international status'? Is that even possible? But I'm a little confused as to how this would affect standardised testing and exams, e.g Basic Skills. School Cert, Selectice Test, the HSC (or VCE if you're Victorian) because wouldn't that just give all the kids of Asian origin a huge advantage? Unless the tests won't have anything to do with the language elements of what they're doing in school?



Belle	Jun 15 2009, 06:24 AM Post #3
Posts: 4,630 Group: Moderators Member #288 Joined: Oct 12, 2008 Gender Female	I suppose it would be the same kind of advantage native English speakers get over Asians in the current set up. I think it's a pretty cool idea, I would have loved something like this when I was at school.



Bunny	Jun 15 2009, 09:02 AM Post #4
A Godless life seems sweeter Posts: 1,866 Group: Members Member #17 Joined: May 4, 2008 Religious Views Atheist Gender Undisclosed Political View Rt Wing. Less Govt is Better!	I'd be hopeless at it. I can barely do french.



thelovablevagabond	Jun 15 2009, 12:32 PM Post #5
Exceptionally Pretentious and Opinionated Posts: 289 Group: Members Member #524 Joined: Feb 4, 2009 Gender Male Religious Views Christian Political View Christian Socialist	Saya berbahasa Indonesia, dan pendapat saya berbahasa asing kepandaian seperti bermain olahraga, atau bermain musik. Jika pemerintah Australia mau berawan bahasa-bahasa asing, itu mungkin gagal karena siswa-siswi tidak selalu ada kepandaian bahasa. Tetapi, saya pikir jika kamu berawan anak-anak yang muda, kamu ada lebi sukses. Find a translator lol. Seriously though, it is a skill. My uncle and aunt both speak several languages fluently, yet my father does not; similarly he is pretty good at soccer but the aunt and uncle have basically no co-ordination (like me :P). It is unrealistic to assume people will be able to speak fluently.



gingerwitch28	Jun 15 2009, 12:49 PM Post #6
twenty-first century ennui Posts: 1,688 Group: Members Member #589 Joined: Apr 18, 2009 Gender Female Religious Views Atheist Political View Social Democracy	bahasa = language? And you're cheating, you're majoring in Indonesian! Me llamo Trisha, y estoy in año doce en la escuela. Odio escuela mucho, porque siento como todos que hago es inútil. El postmodernismo no es pertinente para mi, y para la mayoría de los estudiantes que lo hagan. ¿Que relevancia tiene postmodernismo a las ciencias naturales? YO no se.



Belle	Jun 16 2009, 12:11 AM Post #7
Posts: 4,630 Group: Moderators Member #288 Joined: Oct 12, 2008 Gender Female	Languages are definitely a skill, and it's one I wish I had more time to focus on. I think that learning another language (beyond the current crap being taught in primary/high school) is a really important skill, because you're not just learning the language, but the culture and so on.



thelovablevagabond	Jun 17 2009, 01:47 PM Post #8
Exceptionally Pretentious and Opinionated Posts: 289 Group: Members Member #524 Joined: Feb 4, 2009 Gender Male Religious Views Christian Political View Christian Socialist	Saya berbahasa Indonesia, dan pendapat saya berbahasa asing kepandaian seperti bermain olahraga, atau bermain musik. Jika pemerintah Australia mau berawan bahasa-bahasa asing, itu mungkin gagal karena siswa-siswi tidak selalu ada kepandaian bahasa. Tetapi, saya pikir jika kamu berawan anak-anak yang muda, kamu ada lebi sukses. = I speak Indonesian, and it is my opinion that the speaking foreign languages is as much of a skill as being able to play sport or music(al instruments/singing). If the aussie gvt wants to teach foreign languages, it will probably be fairly abortive (totally used the wrong word lol), as girl-and-boy-students (good ol gender non-specific plurals) do not always possess this skill. But, I think that if you start teaching kids that are younger, you will have more [bad grammar - should have used makin-lama-makin; increasing) success.



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