Number of HSC language students falls to record low (1 Viewer)

[silkroads]

http://www.smh.com.au/national/educ...dents-falls-to-record-low-20131002-2usv2.html

The proportion of students studying a foreign language for the Higher School Certificate is at a historic low and less than a fifth of what it was during the 1950s, new data shows.
The figures underline the challenge facing the new Abbott government, which has set a target of 40 per cent of high school students studying a foreign language within a decade and called for greater engagement with Asia.
Tony Abbott.
"Within a decade, the new government aims to have 40 per cent of high school students studying a foreign language" : Tony Abbott. Photo: Melissa Adams
Only 8 per cent of the more than 75,000 students enrolled in the HSC this year will sit a foreign language test when the written exams begin on October 14, down from more than 50 per cent in the '50s.
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French remained the most popular language for school leavers in NSW, but enrolments in all of the top five most popular languages except Japanese fell in the past year.
The popularity of Indonesian as a HSC course has fallen 76 per cent since it peaked in the mid-1970s, with just 173 students enrolled in the course this year.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has reaffirmed his government's commitment to lifting the number of students studying foreign languages during his diplomatic visit to Indonesia.
''Within a decade, working with the Australian states and territories, the new government aims to have 40 per cent of high school students studying a foreign language - as was the case in the 1960s - only this time the emphasis will be on Asian languages as well as European ones,'' he told a business breakfast in Jakarta on Tuesday.
An undersupply of language teachers was central to the decline in students taking a language course for the HSC, according to the president of the Secondary Principals Council, Lila Mularczyk.
''There most definitely is an issue in getting language teachers into schools,'' said Ms Mularczyk, particularly when it came to Asian and community languages.
The most popular subjects for students doing this year's HSC, after English and mathematics, are biology, business studies and PDHPE (personal development, health and physical education). The least popular - with just three students each - are the languages Dutch, Maltese and Ukrainian.
Certain subjects continue to be more heavily pursued by one gender. While Standard English is evenly split between male and female students, the higher-level English subjects are skewed towards female students, who make up 58 per cent of Advanced English students, 66 per cent of Extension 1 English students and 70 per cent of Extension 2 English students.
The opposite is true for mathematics. While male students make up 49 per cent of General Mathematics students, they account for 59 per cent of Extension 1 students and 64 per cent of Extension 2 students.
A NSW Department of Education and Communities spokesman said there was an adequate supply of language teachers but that their National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program included a range of initiatives to further increase teacher supply and stimulate student demand.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/educ...-record-low-20131002-2usv2.html#ixzz2giE3hoTL

What do you think? Personally, I find this very sad. Learning a language can enrich anyone's education.

 

[SuchSmallHands]

Not at all surprising46, the language forums are always dead. I think it's a shame, a second language is such a great skill to have, it allows you to communicate with millions of other people across the world and opens up a lot of job opportunities.

 

[silkroads]

Not at all surprising46, the language forums are always dead. I think it's a shame, a second language is such a great skill to have, it allows you to communicate with millions of other people across the world and opens up a lot of job opportunities.

Judging from the amount of people who have seen this thread (2 lol), I think you're sadly right

Why do you think people don't take them? Difficulty? Perceived lack of relevance in this globalised world?

 

[raggiedoll]

I believe there is an attitude that foreign languages are becoming irrelevant due to the perceived Anglicisation of global society. How often do you hear things like "everyone in Paris speaks English anyway" or "Japanese people love practicing their English with Americans!". While English is indeed becoming more widespread in use, these statements disregard how foreign languages are beneficial in developing linguistic ability and allow an individual to really think about their own native language and how ideas are expressed in the confinements of its words. Not to mention that it's pretty damn cool to be able to express yourself in an entirely foreign system of linguistics. I wish there were more students who appreciated this, there's more to education than just science, maths and getting 99.95 ATAR

 

[wgy182]

I wish there were more students who appreciated this, there's more to education than just science, maths and getting 99.95 ATAR

so true....

 

[Chronost]

I believe there is an attitude that foreign languages are becoming irrelevant due to the perceived Anglicisation of global society. How often do you hear things like "everyone in Paris speaks English anyway" or "Japanese people love practicing their English with Americans!". While English is indeed becoming more widespread in use, these statements disregard how foreign languages are beneficial in developing linguistic ability and allow an individual to really think about their own native language and how ideas are expressed in the confinements of its words. Not to mention that it's pretty damn cool to be able to express yourself in an entirely foreign system of linguistics. I wish there were more students who appreciated this, there's more to education than just science, maths and getting 99.95 ATAR

I do a language but I probably wouldn't do it for the HSC if I had 4 unit maths/sciences to deal with. Languages aren't for everyone either, some people just don't have the patience to learn a language from scratch, yet again you would need at least some interest outside the language to move forward, because languages become fairly dry just themselves,as a motivator to learn. Let's face it, the problem solving skills you learn in maths are typically a better skill to have in life then being able to express yourself in another language. As globalised as this world is,English will get you pretty far around it.

 

[raggiedoll]

I do a language but I probably wouldn't do it for the HSC if I had 4 unit maths/sciences to deal with. Languages aren't for everyone either, some people just don't have the patience to learn a language from scratch, yet again you would need at least some interest outside the language to move forward, because languages become fairly dry just themselves,as a motivator to learn. Let's face it, the problem solving skills you learn in maths are typically a better skill to have in life then being able to express yourself in another language. As globalised as this world is,English will get you pretty far around it.

Of course I appreciate the skills learnt in Maths, and I know I'm biased in my opinion since I'm more attracted to the humanities anyway. I greatly admire people who do 4 unit Maths. Languages aren't for everyone. But I find that certain people seem to think the only problem solving skills a student can learn is in maths-based subjects, with the belief that the only skills learnt in English/humanities/arts is how to bullshit and rote-learn.

 

[hazelpug]

Yey for languages!!! I'm learning a 4th language and it's awesome

 

[WileyWanimal]

Of course I appreciate the skills learnt in Maths, and I know I'm biased in my opinion since I'm more attracted to the humanities anyway. I greatly admire people who do 4 unit Maths. Languages aren't for everyone. But I find that certain people seem to think the only problem solving skills a student can learn is in maths-based subjects, with the belief that the only skills learnt in English/humanities/arts is how to bullshit and rote-learn.

GO THE LANGUAGES!!!

Anyway, apart from that little moment of celebration that people do actually visit the BOS language forums occasionally, I have to say that as someone doing 4U of Maths and 5U of foreign languages, I know that the languages are going to be way more useful in the future, and much more of a life skill than maths. However, before some avid maths student jumps on me, it does of course depend on which direction your future's going to take you. If you're going to be some sort of engineer or astrophysicist, maybe you will need to know the sort of crazy stuff that 4U teaches you...
But I really think that in everyday life I'm more likely to come across a person/situation that requires me to speak a foreign language that I know than a situation/person who needs me to find the cube roots of some imaginary number or something like that... Just me though.

Btw, if anyone wants to talk about/in italian or has a question about it, you could PM me. I love helping people out with it, and I'm sure it helps me learn along the way as well.

 

[Kittikhun]

I'm kind of neutral with this.

You don't really need to go to school and take a language subject to learn a foreign language, but you do need to go to school and take science subjects to learn it properly. In fact, a lot of the great polyglots in the world did not learn most of their languages at school but by either immersion or self-learning of the languages. You cannot do this for science, especially physical sciences, as there is a practical side to it that needs specialist teachers and facilities. You need to go to the chemistry lab to do and master chemistry and physics lab to do physics. So if I were a student planning to do engineering or science as a career but who has an interest in learning a foreign language, I would take the science subjects at school and learn the language through other means (Skype pal, private tutor or working overseas for a considerable amount of time).

But I agree that learning languages is an extremely enriching experience. If God were to give me a choice between being a mono-linguistic billionaire or a polyglot fluent in 20 languages but of modest wealth with enough to get by, I would pick being the polyglot without hesitation.

 

[cadd1ct]

And I totally agree with the last sentence of the above post


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[trungduong12]

ppl from overseas have two or three languages, which are beneficial in their studying and career in the future ^_^