Teachers love enthusiastic students who want to learn, and Australia’s language teachers are no different. A group of language advocates has called for Australian politicians to set a good example and learn Asian languages. Will Steed explains.
READ MOREFirst language education is a matter of common sense
The Our Land Our Language report unequivocally calls for the reinstatement of bilingual education programs in remote areas, for compulsory English as an Additional Language training in teaching degrees, and for changes to be made to how NAPLAN testing is carried out. But what do these measures mean and how effective will they be in ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in remote areas get the best education we can provide?
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How not to report on Indigenous education
Greg Dickson writes… On Monday I got a phone call out of the blue from a journalist from The Australian. Initially, I felt a bit chuffed being cold-called by a big newspaper. I soon realised however that the journo was asking me about stuff that wasn’t really my area of expertise. She wanted to know [...]
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NZ Herald ignores facts, perpetuates fears
The NZ Herald reported on a research paper on migrant intergration and specifically multilingual signs, but as Lauren Gawne writes, their article didn’t faithfully represent the research.
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The monolingual mindset isn’t just an Aussie problem: A Kiwi case
Lauren Gawne writes: We reported a week ago that the Monolingual Mindset cropped up again in Victoria, with the Department of Human Services declining to have a residents’ survey translated for the roughly 60% of intended surveyees for whom English is not a first language. It seems that there are similar attitudes towards languages other [...]
READ MOREHow can multilingual bureaucracy be incentivised?
The Victorian Department of Human Services is seeking feedback from residents in public housing, but only if they can understand and fill out the English-only form. Aidan Wilson says the bureaucracy be doing more to help non-English speaking people by providing documents in their first language.
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Too monolingual for our own good
Aidan Wilson writes: Every so often, the lack of language education in Australian high schools becomes a topic of acute but peripheral political debate, before quickly submerging again. At the moment we’re right in the middle of a trough of that cycle, but a couple of weeks ago, Julie Bishop announced her personal ambition to [...]
READ MOREMigrants, black people and other bilingual freaks
…bilinguals and multilinguals are associated with migrant populations, Aboriginal people, language freaks and other nutjobs who don’t quite fit in…
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