Many of us feel that it is both ridiculous and against the practice of good education to bore children by making them study languages at school that they have absolutely no interest in! Vietnamese or half-Vietnamese children are made to learn Italian. Chinese children are forced to learn Greek. Students and their parents are exasperated but feel helpless. Even if they have a chance to learn their language outside of school, they are still forced to take part in the language that is taught at school. I am a retired German/French teacher, now teaching TESOL, but would advise certain students NOT to study German or French but their parents' language. What can we do to make the Education authorities understand the waste, boredom and disappointment of students and their families when these students are forced to learn a (to them) useless language? Many students will not take their study seriously and also drop the language as soon as they can.

Hi,
as we spent several years overseas I think we are able to compare different school systems and their advantages or disadvantages. Our daughter had to learn two foreign languages (in addition to the native spoken language of that country)at school in Europe in order to achieve her TEE. Nobody asked her whether she liked it or not. But in fact it enabled her not only to widen her horizon, but to show more interest in foreign countries and people.
When we arrived back in Australia our son only had to study one foreign language, and to a degree or level, which is hardly worth mentioning. After year 10 this language was dropped completely as a subject by the school, not him. I do agree that it would be ideal for those migrating students to maintain the knowledge of their parents language, but quite frankly how would you want to achieve that in any school system especially given the fact that we are a multicultural society?
As an English speaking nation we already have the advantage of speaking a lingo, which is understood in many countries and by many people, but it should not enable us to drop our education level even further.
It is embarrassing enough if you travel the world to see how limited our language skills and the understanding of foreign cultures are and how many of us rely on the host nations ability to speak our English language.
Quite frankly, the efforts our son had to put in for his TEE achieved here in WA, was not even half demanding compared to what our daughter had to come up with in Europe. Every language learned is knowledge,
best regards Michael

ekastahr2,

From one perspective I would agree with learning the mother language.

On the other hand my experience with many 1st and 2nd generation children is that they are embarrassed by these languages and in many instances want to learn a more useful language.

I agree that early childhood is the best time to teach a second language.

I was raised in PNG and consequently by the age of ten I spoke pidgin and a local language fluently. Yet when I went to boarding school I was taught (?) Latin and German. All these served to do was give me 2 subjects to fail.

When My children got to school the languages were French, German at one school. Chinese, German and Polish at the next. By the time they were in yeas 7 all they wanted was to dump languages.

The above information tends to indicate that 2nd languages are only successful when teaching is consistent and there is a perceived NEED.

Education today should be more focused on NEED rather than academic niceties. No offence intended but what practical good is either F&G to the average person (in reality most students are now and will end up average people).

I see more sense in teaching Chinese and Japanese (Asian languages as that is where our future is.) Again I see the whole topic of 2nd language as being rarefied air for a minority. There are more important practical issues that need teaching.

NB I do however see great value in teaching cultural interchange as that has direct value and teaches tolerance and understanding.

Good day again,
it is in interesting subject, and I agree that for a student, who has to start learning a new lingo every time his or her parents move suburbs or towns, this subject is fruitless and disappointing.
Referring to Europe (Germany) again, English is generally the first foreign language which is taught. The second one varies from mainly French or to a lesser degree Spaninsh or Italian. But that is mainly it, across Germany.
Here too many schools offer too many different languages, which appear not to be coordinated within the school system, and are often taught to a minimal standard (sorry, but it is a comparable fact). With the proximity to Asia it appears to be the right way to teach at least one of those languages. So we have a cultural minister, who should decide for all schools, which lingo will be taught across Australia. Whether it is Mandarin or Japanese, wouldn't really matter.
As I had to learn 3 different languages myself, I often thought about the fact, that this still limits me to only a small number of people I would be able to comunicate, if you look at the big picture.
In the 1970's there was an attempt in Europe to create a new language, with the idea to be taught at every school in every country on this planet. It was an attempt, but didn't even survive the state it was founded in. Why? Too many local interests and teachers, who wouldn't believe in the idea, as well as neighbouring countries which didn't adopt on it and so on.
to be continued...

...
I think, that such a new language, which should be developed by all countries together, with inputs and refextion from every nation, would be by far the best solution for all of us. This new lingo would be taught on all continents. This way we would still keep our native language and cultur and local differences, but at the same time would be able to comunicate with all people, no matter where they live or come from. It would simplify so many things, just imagine world leaders can use the same language, to sort their problems out. Or you would travel to whatever destination, and this new lingo would enable you to talk to whom ever you want.
This attempt failed over 30 years ago, but as creative as we Australians are, wouldn't that be achievable? There may be lingoistic people out there, who would want to catch up on this idea and start this process again. We have enough foreign cultures in Australia to provide their input. And it would prevent us from slipping even further back behind other developed countries.
What a nice dream,
kind regards Michael

As a person who has managed language teachers this post is depressingly familiar. What is commonplace in most global education systems is a major problem and difficulty in Australia. One of the reasons is embedded in the post - there is a solid cohort of TESOL teachers who, to put it bluntly, are simply not competent teachers. In every subject there are so called resistant learners - students who do not want to be there and who can make life hell for teachers. We do not exempt them from Music, Maths, English or Science so why should we make special provision for languages? It has been my experience that the good and competent teachers are able to motivate their students to learn - no matter what the subject is. I know that there is a shortage of TESOL teachers and I can only feel for this person's supervisor who will be stuck with an unmotivated teacher who prefers to blame personal shortcomings on the system.

I am a firm believer in children
learning more than one language.
And I agree, competent teachers
are necessary to make the subject
interesting, and the students
wanting to learn. As with any subject.

Because Australia is so isolated from
the rest of the world geographically,
I can understand
the mentality of some people - who can't
understand why languages are necessary.

Travel, opens up the eyes and hopefully
the mind, and suddenly (as my sons did),
you begin to see certain advantages
in knowing more than one language.

But as I said earlier, good teachers
make all the difference.

What a load of racist Bull $#1^. Of course kids need to learn a second language & it should be an Asian language not a European language.

Foxy the sweetness on OLO

You are perfectly right in what you say in that context of your enlightened home environment.
The hard reality is that relatively few children benefit from extra languages.
Overseas travel is a luxury not enjoyed by a sizeable portion of our society.
As stated before in many cases languages are yet another subject that isn’t relative to their reality and often just another subject to fail. This can be demoralizing to the child. I moved state when my children were young they originally learned German and were succeeding but the schools where we moved to taught Polish and Mandarin. (Why Polish? There was a vocal and large minority of parents who being Polish extraction insisted on it.)
Trying to pick up the new subjects against the background of more advanced resident students had with one child a pronounced negative effect.
The issue here was further complicated in that the high school they went too had different languages again (different feeder schools).

Clearly the problem is that languages taught aren’t consistent amongst schools/states etc. The excuse given was both availability of teacher (good or otherwise) and parental lobbying i.e. Polish

Additionally simply maintaining children’s interests in core subjects in some areas is a tall ask.

Add to that we are as a nation falling behind international standards teaching keeping up with practical life skills. One wonders if extra language skills are all that important to most children.

I would substitute languages with cultural understanding subjects. We do need less blind ignorance (bigotry) to cultural differences in a multicultural nation

Dear examinator,

I can only speak from my own life experience,
of course.

My father firmly believed in teaching us
other languages (beginning with Latin).
Other cultures were always a part of the world
I grew up in, so of-course I passed this on
to my children. It took time for them to
appreciate any of it, (until they travelled
overseas). Then things seemed to come full-circle.

I understand that not every child (and their
circumstance), is going to work the same way.
However, I always believed - give children something
'higher' to aim for, teach them to 'reach for
the stars,' and even if they fall, the worst that
can happen is they'll land in the clouds. And,
isn't that better than grovelling in the mud?
(my apologies for this cliched imagery, but
you know what I mean...)

Still, this is only my opinion ...

As examinator and others have suggested the problem with continuity is a real problem for some children. The vast majority of children complete their primary education in the one school and then proceed on to a clearly defined set of feeder schools.
The teaching of languages tends to be unique in that it is the only subject where schools are subjected to parental lobbying regarding which languages ought to be taught. Part of this is driven by a misplaced notion of utility. There are a number of reasons for teaching a second language - the ability to use the language in conversational situations is perhaps the least important.
The most important reason for learning an other language is for cognitive development. A second language gives you a deeper appreciation of the logic of both your own language and that of the second language. This is not a trivial benefit. When taught properly students improve their understanding of their own language as well as develop their ability to reason.
A second or third language gives access to other cultures in a way that cultural studies are simply incapable of doing. In essence it teaches students that there are as many ways of looking at the world as there are languages.
The third benefit is that learning a second language when young makes it much easier to learn a third, fourth or fifth language.
Coming in fourth place is the opportunity to use the language in transactional situations.
Therefore given that the vast majority of students complete their education in one setting it follows that the priority of education systems is to provide local continuity. This will mean educating parents so they understand the benefits that students get from learning a second language.