Asian languages in primary schools (1 Viewer)

[Phoenix Fury]

NSW kids to get '90 minutes a day' of Asian language

By Bruce McDougall | November 04, 2009

Article from: The Daily Telegraph
CHILDREN in their first years of primary school will be required to learn and use an Asian language in NSW's first bilingual classes.
Starting in kindergarten, students will take up Mandarin, Korean, Japanese or Indonesian for at least 90 minutes a day, across every class except English and mathematics, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Four government primary schools - Rouse Hill Public and Murray Farm in Sydney's north-west, Scotts Head Public on the North Coast and Campsie Public in Sydney's inner-west - have been selected as the first to specialise in an Asian language.

The Rees Government committed $2.25 million over four years to the Bilingual Schools Program.

"Young children have a far better chance of developing bilingual fluency from an early age," Education Minister Verity Firth said yesterday.

"These bilingual schools will teach two classes of students in kindergarten and Year 1 for 90 minutes each day and eventually will be expanded to all grades," Ms Firth said.

Mandarin-speaking volunteers will assist teachers in class.

It is part of a major push by the Department of Education and Training to put Mandarin at the forefront of language teaching in NSW public schools.

Board of Studies data shows Chinese with 1243 enrolments in the HSC, is now the third most popular language after Japanese and French.

Personally I think it is disgusting that it is limited to Asian languages. If they really MUST do it, it should allow for a wider range of languages, but really this is Australia not Asia we speak English. A much stronger focus on English is needed in a childs early years to improve our literacy levels and introducing languages to that age group certainly wont help.

I'm all for learning languages but don't think it has a place for primary students when some students aren't coping with english. I spose a lot will disagree with that so i put forth my other question, why would they restrict to Asian when there are European and other languages that are just disregarded?

 

[Absolutezero]

I agree with you completely. An improvement in English literacy levels is more important than bilingual skills. Similarly, while it may be easy to provide teachers in inner suburbia, the amount of language specialists in regional areas is extremely minimal. In my high school, maybe 3% of students were from a direct foreign cultural background.

While China may be a growing economy, I don't see the need to make it a primary focus of primary education. Especially when most foreign links don't use that language at all. Additionally, how would schools select which language they are to teach. If anything, I builds cultural barriers between local schools, rather than break them down.

 

[murphyad]

When I go overseas to somewhere like Japan or France pretty much ever person <30 can speak English. The reason that these people have learnt it from an early age is because there has been a recognition of the prominence of the english language throughout the world.

Now that Asia is an up-and-coming power, Asian languages are going to be more common. I guess it just makes sense for our schoolchildren to learn these other languages in the same way that many foreigners can speak english, particularly asian due to our geographical proximity and aforementioned increase in Asia's world role.

I remain capable of speaking only English (though I will learn more languages soon) and to this day consider one of the greatest failings of my education the fact that in neither primary nor secondary school I was never encouraged to learn. Only now do I have the benefit of hindsight to recognise that it would have been a damn good idea for me.

 

[spence]

I'm all for having a compulsory second language, but I don't think it should be limited to Asian languages. Although I wish this had happened when I was in primary school

 

[Absolutezero]

Get everyone to learn Esperanto as the universal second language. Universal understanding, and the continuation of traditional language forms.

 

[Fish Tank]

Why don't they teach Klingon?

 

[Phoenix Fury]

I remain capable of speaking only English (though I will learn more languages soon) and to this day consider one of the greatest failings of my education the fact that in neither primary nor secondary school I was never encouraged to learn. Only now do I have the benefit of hindsight to recognise that it would have been a damn good idea for me.

Yeh, I wish we had a wider array available however that would mean a lot more specific teachers and stuff too. Guess I just always considered languages a post HSC thing. I got some French in during primary and secondary might go back to some of that at some stage. I started learning some Finnish outside of school and plan to continue that and learn a few others over the next few years.

 

[SylviaB]

Let's get teaching kids English down pat before we move on to even harder languages, no?

 

[Tangent]

out closest neighbour is asia, so it stands to reason that we primarily teach asian languages.

but!, although younger children generally learn different languages quicker than adults, i think they should focus on english, and get that done first. If anything teaching them this young, while teaching them english, will just confuse them.

 

[Iron]

My first reaction was yuck asian, as was my second. But it seems to make sense in a way that makes me feel dirty

 

[U.S.A]

90 minutes a fucking day? WTF

 

[zstar]

but really this is Australia not Asia we speak English

Please don't tell me you buy into that Oceania nonsense, Australia is in Asia.

Having said that most Australian kids can barely speak proper English let alone master Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

 

[Mudkip94]

Umm... I used to go to Campsie Public and we already had that...

 

[xeuyrawp]

A much stronger focus on English is needed in a childs early years to improve our literacy levels and introducing languages to that age group certainly wont help.

[[Citation needed]]

Let's get teaching kids English down pat before we move on to even harder languages, no?

Mmm, yeah English is really easy. /sarcasm

Get everyone to learn Esperanto as the universal second language. Universal understanding, and the continuation of traditional language forms.

Yeah, or people could learn a real language... Synthetic languages are bullshit. Your claim that it's somehow universal is bullshit. Putting aside the issue that there are similar languages that have FAR more speakers, the issue that it's eurocentric, etc etc, people who understand language acquisition will tell you Esperanto is bullshit.

To put it simply, language competency requires cultural competency. Anybody who teaches a language will tell you that. But Esperanto has no culture, therefore it is impossible to actually have fluency in it.

 

[strasiotto]

We had something like that when I was in primary school, it really works- even today I can count up to ten in Italian.

Learning a language seems like a decent idea, but as said before, making sure kids fully understand key elements of todays society such as maths and english is probably more important.

And, I also I agree that it shouldn't just be limited to asian languages- yes, chinese is the 'most' spoken language on the planet, but its also quite limited (most chinese speakers live, funnily enough, in China). Wouldn't a more common language, shared over several countries be a better option?

 

[jennyfromdabloc]

When I go overseas to somewhere like Japan or France pretty much ever person <30 can speak English. The reason that these people have learnt it from an early age is because there has been a recognition of the prominence of the english language throughout the world.

Now that Asia is an up-and-coming power, Asian languages are going to be more common. I guess it just makes sense for our schoolchildren to learn these other languages in the same way that many foreigners can speak english, particularly asian due to our geographical proximity and aforementioned increase in Asia's world role.

I remain capable of speaking only English (though I will learn more languages soon) and to this day consider one of the greatest failings of my education the fact that in neither primary nor secondary school I was never encouraged to learn. Only now do I have the benefit of hindsight to recognise that it would have been a damn good idea for me.

Wow. I totally agree with murphyad.

The assumption that learning an Asian language is at the expense of learning proper English is nonsense. So much time is wasted in schools that could be devoted to this.

Naturally I don't support the government doing anything, but if it insists on setting school curriculum, this is certainly an improvement.

Please don't tell me you buy into that Oceania nonsense, Australia is in Asia.

Good point. Though it wouldn't really matter where Australia is located geographically.

Just as non-native English speakers all over the world sensibly taught their children English because the dominant nation last century was the United States, this century it makes sense for people all over the world to learn Mandarin. Obviously English will persist as the dominant global lingua franca for quite some time, but since we already speak English anyway, it makes sense to learn the next most prominent language which is Mandarin.

 

[loquasagacious]

1. I can't really say that I'm a massive supporter of government education but that is an issue for another thread.

2. I'm not particularly worried about declining english literacy - this is 90 minutes a day... also the French manage to learn German and English without forgetting French, etc.

3. It is much easier for children to learn languages than adults

4. As the global balance of power shifts and Australia becomes increasingly integrated into the asian economies it will be a good skill to have.

5. The European languages simply aren't relevant in the same way asian languages are.

No objections on my part and I would have liked to have learned another language.

 

[SnowFox]

My highschool made us learn Spanish, fucking fail class.

 

[xeuyrawp]

1. I can't really say that I'm a massive supporter of government education but that is an issue for another thread.

2. I'm not particularly worried about declining english literacy - this is 90 minutes a day... also the French manage to learn German and English without forgetting French, etc.

3. It is much easier for children to learn languages than adults

4. As the global balance of power shifts and Australia becomes increasingly integrated into the asian economies it will be a good skill to have.

5. The European languages simply aren't relevant in the same way asian languages are.

No objections on my part and I would have liked to have learned another language.

100% agree. There's some saying in French that non-French can't appreciate French poetry, let alone write it. Yet it really seems to me that the only people who really understand their own language are those who are competent in another.

I would really have to say that much of this problem is caused by the fact that Australians and the Australian education systems are very insular and have little regard for anything beyond 'getting a job'. /shrug

 

[jennyfromdabloc]

5. The European languages simply aren't relevant in the same way asian languages are.

Also there is little point in learning a European language as around 50% of the EU speaks English anyway.

In terms of population and GDP at PPP, the most dominant European country Germany lags way behind China and Japan and the gap is continuing to increase.