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The Forum > Article Comments > Languages at school > Comments

Languages at school : Comments

By Jane Orton, published 15/5/2008

Learning a new language is a multifaceted educational experience which offers a range of potential benefits.

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Well, NALSAS is being funded again in the Budget. Of course, there have been many false dawns, but it looks like languages might finally be coming in from the cold...
Posted by Mercurius, Thursday, 15 May 2008 11:35:41 AM
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Encouraging to read this summary identifying the challenges facing us in our demand for change; interesting too to read an educator's justification for change (perhaps reducible to "Smarter Country"). Although I do not criticize that specialist view and its disciplined context, I suspect that it would be very hard to convey effectively to, and capture the imagination of, the Australian community. I fear there be some hypersensitive knee-jerk against being told to “get smarter”; I expect some vested-interest educators too could pose fierce resistance there. It seems of such strategic importance that it needs leadership via all-of-government initiatives spearheaded by diplomatic, defence and PM&C action. Some neat 2020-style slogans for starters?

As Orton alludes, great language study benefits come from international school partnerships. But how can such opportunity be offered to nurture a gifted linguistic elite rather than to just certain social strata? I think it will take enormous effort of organization, imagination, logistics and, perhaps most important, fairness to so promote a healthy spread of proficient youth, effectively a core or vanguard for the country's necessary change in this area. It is unclear whether that is what Orton means by "wisely directed", but I suggest that such fairer, more efficient opportunity would be the viable support for the "most powerful boost to learner motivation" that she backs.

Along similar lines: can anyone enlighten a little further on the article's mention of VIC/NSW Saturday programs covering more than 40 languages? My children's primary school has publicized no such program: as I mentioned in a an earlier post, parents are compelled to seek private, extra-curricular tuition for such fostering of "heritage" language skill. Given the migrant-heavy situation at my children's school and adjacent community, I fear such a program may have been underdeveloped, mis-directed or both. If my anecdote here is typical (I'm in Melbourne), it may also dull the supportive sheen of Jane Orton's comment on the program. Or are the programs I see really just PPPs, and what I see locally a manifestation of such “Third Way” corporate venture?
Posted by mil-observer, Friday, 16 May 2008 9:40:32 AM
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Mercurius' optimism needs to be tempered with the realisation that NALSAS is NOT coming back. What is coming is NALSPP, an allocation of some $60million (the exact figure has not been announced), whereas NALSAS (1994-2002) received $208 million in funding.
Posted by JayO, Sunday, 18 May 2008 1:41:02 PM
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To answer mil-observer's question about the language school mentioned in Jane Orton's article, it is the Victorian School of Languages.
Visit their website for more information.
http://www.vsl.vic.edu.au/
Posted by Eloise, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 12:36:01 PM
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