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The Forum > Article Comments > Repairing languages education > Comments

Repairing languages education : Comments

By Phillip Mahnken, published 16/5/2008

We need advocacy and promotion of languages studies to equip ourselves to be fit participants in the global community.

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Really, its fruitless to search for the solution to repair languages education in Australia. This presupposes that there was a golden age when it all worked. If ever this was infinitesimally so, it could only have been for the small number who had access to higher levels of school education and then university. it seems in fact that more young people are at least exposed to languages in primary and secondary schooling than used to be the case. Certainly, there are many improvements to be be made and those with interest put shoulders to the wheel. There are now national and state initiatives in languages education policy, professional standards for languqages teachers, a wide array of locally produced (and international)material as well as a variety of opportunities for language/culture use here and abroad. Yes, there are problems. Some of these affect all learning e.g. badly behaved students or unsympathetic community/colleagues. But there's no point seeing the bad without the good.
Posted by philw, Monday, 26 May 2008 1:36:25 PM
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How often do we read about illiteracy or semi-literacy affecting particularly english-speaking countries ?

Having reared several children, i observed that the inconsistencies in the spelling can be very discouraging; the cat sat on the mat - easy - phonetic - but too soon what you learn today is demolished tomorrow by "exceptions". I would suggest that the more intelligent a child, the more he/she will be dismayed; some can memorise unquestionningly, others will demand "why ?" and confronted by having to learn such illogical spelling many children get bored, resentful, which leads to bad behaviour in school.
Any ideas, out there, to remedy this aspect of child education ?
Posted by Henriette, Saturday, 31 May 2008 10:09:33 PM
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From my bottom drawer, here is a little piece that comforts me in my ignorance :

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another.

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
etc, etc, etc ...
Languages grew from primitive grunts. Can't we now do better for a tool of inter-national communication ?
Posted by Henriette, Saturday, 31 May 2008 10:27:42 PM
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Received yesterday : (easy enough to understand ?)

Kara Henriette,
Saluton! Mi tre g'ojas ricevi vian mesag'on el Aùstralio, vi estas vera esperantistino, mi pensas.
Esperanto estas simpla kaj logika,g'i estas pli facila ol aliaj fremdlingvoj por niaj azianoj, mi opinias.
Vi estas tiel ag'a,kiam vi eklernis nian lingvon Esperanton? C'u estas junaj esperantistoj en Aùstralio? Mi estas mezag'a komercisto, mi ofte faras aferojn per Esperanto. Kie vi log'as en Aùstralio? Mi esperas ke ni povas farig'i amikoj!
C'ion bonan al vi kaj viaj familianoj!

Amike via,
Xiao Fujun

Any words you wish translated ?
Posted by Henriette, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 10:21:56 AM
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ITA stands for Initial Teaching Alphabet and is a phonetic alphabet, in the sixties and seventies some schools taught reading with ITA books, but the experiment was not very successful, many people hated it. Even though learning to read with ITA was much easier, children often had big difficulties to move from ITA to real English. See for example http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1523708.stm

Now... IF english is sooo challenging for english-born learners, should it really be inflicted on all earthlings as a global language ?
Posted by Henriette, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 11:33:50 AM
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I’d like to make an interesting observation about languages education in regard to gender. For a few hundred years from the 1400’s the study of Latin was considered a sign of great intellect, and ‘aureate diction’ was certainly reserved for the wealthy elite. With only a small number of well-to-do female offspring receiving tutelage in basic reading skills (although not at formal education institutes), and an even smaller number in prestige subjects like Latin and Greek, language learning was mainly left to the boys and men, and held great importance and priority in society.

Fast forward to the current situation, exacerbated by overcrowded curricula; limited funding; political agenda; lack of quality teachers; and a whole range of complex issues, the status of language education in Australia is unfortunately, very close to, if not at the bottom of the heap. And if we look at the gender breakdown in our language classrooms today, we see a majority of girls in non-compulsory language classrooms.

To correlate my observation, we have seen the same thing with boys dominating mathematics and sciences in the 70’s. In one report I read that women pursuing lucrative math-intensive careers in US universities in 1970 made up less than 10% of student enrolments.

In the 2000’s we are certainly seeing a shift toward technology-related careers that until a few years ago may not have existed. It’s where the funding is going, it’s where the current status and priority is (while perhaps not keeping the same social elitism of Renaissance Latin), and once again, it’s where the boys are leading.

There is a long path to travel toward repairing and prioritising language education, but certainly there is some merit in looking at the correlation between the social status and perception of a subject, and the gender of those taking up study.

Shannon Mason
Posted by Shannon Mason, Saturday, 7 June 2008 3:08:49 AM
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