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Monday, 15 November 2010 07:31

Push To Get Students Into The World Of Languages

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Keen linguist: Wantirna College student Corbin Vetter, who is sitting his VCE exam in Spanish today

MOST Victorian public primary schools are failing to teach the recommended 150 minutes of languages a week, with Australian students spending less time learning a second language than any other students in the industrialised world.

An Education Department report says only 56 per cent of state primary schools and half of high schools offer a continuous languages program where students can study the same language over time.

The report - which outlines a 10-year plan aimed at increasing student participation in learning languages and reviving Aboriginal languages - also says there are too few new languages teachers entering the workforce.

''We need to improve participation and achievement in languages-learning to maintain our competitive place in the world and give Victorian students the best education and career opportunities.''

The strategy includes groups of schools working together to improve the continuity of languages from primary to secondary school, a scholarship program to attract languages graduates into teaching and greater use of technology, such as video-conferencing, to communicate with students overseas.

''As globalisation continues to affect us all, the ability of Victorians to communicate in multiple languages is becoming progressively more important,'' Education Minister Bronwyn Pike says in the report.

Despite a $62 million federal plan for 12 per cent of year 12 students to be fluent in Japanese, Mandarin, Korean or Indonesian by 2020, fewer than 6 per cent of students nationally now study these priority subjects.

A report by the Asia Education Foundation earlier this year found the target of 12 per cent would face huge challenges unless there were sweeping changes, with Indonesian at risk of disappearing from Australian schools given present enrolment trends.

Asia Education Foundation executive director Kathe Kirby said on the whole Australians hadn't valued language-learning and the Victorian strategy was an important contributor to change.

''Of all the states, Victoria has the best track record in languages education and we welcome this report as a further example of Victoria's commitment to getting right what has proven to be a tough area of the curriculum for any education system,'' Ms Kirby said.

Twenty-two languages are taught in Victorian state primary schools, 19 in high schools and 44 are offered at VCE level.

Wantirna College student Corbin Vetter, who will sit his VCE Spanish exam today, said he believed a second language was an important life skill.

''It gives you good insight into what's happening in the world - if you learn about the language, you learn about the culture,'' he said. Wantirna College offers three languages - Spanish, Mandarin and Indonesian - but Corbin said few year 12 students chose Spanish. ''This year we had a class of two year 10 students, five year 11 students and five year 12 students. They had to put us all in one class because there weren't enough students,'' he said.

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This article originally appears at: the age.com.au
Article taken from the following publication: The Age
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Push To Get Students Into The World Of Languages

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