Why Learn a Foreign Language

1
Why Learn a Foreign Language?
2
Languages Matter!
3
(No Transcript)
4
An Australian Government Priority

• Quality languages education for all students,
  in all schools, in all parts of the country.
• Shared vision by all States and Territories

5
Language skills and cultural sensitivity will
be the currency of the new world order
General Peter Cosgrove 2002
6

• We want young Australians coming out of school
  with the tools that they need to work in that
  modern environment, and increasingly that
  environment will require them to be able to
  converse with people in our own region in their
  own language.
• Julia Gillard Deputy Prime Minister Minister
  for Education, March 2008

7
(No Transcript)
8

• The Rudd government is trying to halt the
  decline in the number of students graduating
  without foreign language skills by pushing the
  states towards a nationally consistent language
  curriculum
• Sydney Morning Herald March 2008

9
(No Transcript)
10
To effectively participate in a globalised
world there should be the compulsory learning of
a foreign language from 7 years or earlier.
Australian Chamber of Commerce - Skills for a
Nation A Blueprint for Improving Education and
Training 2007-2017 April 2007
11

• Monolingualism will not serve the next
  generation well - it implies inflexibility and
  the presumption that others should always be
  prepared.
• To use English creates a culture of dependence
  on the linguistic competence and goodwill of
  others
• Nuffield Languages Inquiry 2000 - UK

12

• Top unis to tackle languages crisis
• LEADING universities are demanding radical
  action to tackle a crisis in the number of Year
  12 students graduating with a foreign language.
  The Group of Eight universities want a second
  language to be compulsory for all students from
  primary school to Year 10, more incentives to
  study languages at university and an advertising
  campaign promoting the benefits of learning a
  foreign tongue.
• The Australian 2 June 2007

13

• As the Go8 paper noted "Monolingual English
  native speakers are already losing the advantage
  in their own language because English language
  skills are becoming a basic skill around the
  world.
• "Australians are increasingly competing for jobs
  with people who are just as competent in English
  as they are in their own native language and
  possibly one or two more. The London business
  world prefers graduates from European
  universities rather than British institutions
  because they speak English as well as at least
  one other language, and often two or three."

14
(No Transcript)
15
Why do students study a Foreign Language?

• Academic reasons
• I enjoy learning it
• Im good at it
• I find it easy
• Personal Interest Relationships
• Career Reasons
• It might be useful when I get a job
• Great skill to have in life
• Can help in a future career path

16
Learning languages helps foster intercultural
understanding

• In an increasingly culturally and linguistically
  diverse world, intercultural understanding is
  essential for effective participation in the
  workforce and in society.

17

• Putting Aboriginal languages on the curriculum in
  Walgett has improved race relations. SMH March
  2008

18

• Putting Aboriginal languages on the curriculum in
  Walgett has improved race relations. SMH March
  2008
• Ned and Geoffrey are two of the 170 children at
  St Joseph's and an estimated 5000 across the
  state who are learning some of the oldest
  languages on earth, because they attend a mostly
  indigenous school.They say it's fun. But
  teachers, parents and linguists say it is
  improving self-esteem, literacy and school
  attendance, rescuing indigenous languages from
  near oblivion and bringing communities such as
  the 8000-member Walgett shire, 700 kilometres
  north-west of Sydney, closer together.

19
In the future, students will live and
work in an increasingly shrinking world. They
may need to interact regularly with people
from other countries, including online. The
intercultural skills that students will attain
from learning a foreign language will help
them deal respectfully and effectively with
others.
20
Through learning LANGUAGE we learn
about culture. Through learning about CULTURE
we learn respect for others.Through learning
RESPECT for others we can hope for PEACE.
Anonymous2008The International Year of
Languages
21

• If you speak to a man in a language he
  understands, you speak to his head.
• If you speak to a man in his own language, you
  speak to his heart.
• Nelson Mandela 2007

22

23
It is essential that schools
prepare students to operate effectively for
this culturally diverse and multilingual
future.
24
Careers

• It is a multi-lingual world and Australian
• companies are now realising that they need
• languages to compete when trading
• internationally.
• 94 of the worlds population does not speak
• English as their first language. 75 does not
• speak English at all.
• The salary uplift for those using languages at
  work can be anything from 8 to 20

25

• A second language is now becoming a vital part
  of the basic preparation for an increasing number
  of careers. It can enhance career mobility and
  improve chances of promotion. The study of
  another language also enables the study of the
  culture, the beliefs, the attitudes embedded in
  that language and a full understanding of another
  society can be developed.

26

• The evidence is clear. If Australian students
  have the opportunity to learn a language other
  than English there will be many benefits - not
  only for the individual, but for our nation as a
  whole.
• Julie Bishop Former Minister for Education,
  Science Training October 2006

27
Enhances literacy

• By learning a foreign language, students gain
  insights and understandings about how languages
  function including knowledge about
• The structure of words
• The structure of sentences
• The sound patterns possible in a
• language
• How the structural features of a spoken
  language can be manipulated

28
Enhances literacy

• Knowing one language helps you understand
  another. Our first language and other languages
  work in partnership to strengthen and enrich our
  repertoire of literacy practices.
• Australian research (Clyne 1995) showed that
  exposure to as little as one hour per week of a
  foreign language in the earliest years of primary
  school advances the age of reading readiness in
  English.

29
Stimulates Intellectual Development

• Researchers from University College London
  studied the brains of 105 people - 80 of whom
  were bilingual. They found other languages
  altered grey matter - the area of the brain which
  processes information - in the same way exercise
  builds muscles. They also found that people who
  learned a foreign language at a younger age are
  more likely to have more advanced grey matter
  than those who learned later.

30
Improves cognitive development and thinking
skills

• Children in foreign language programs have tended
  to demonstrate greater cognitive development,
  creativity and divergent thinking.
• Studies also show that learning another language
  enhances the academic skills of students by
  increasing their abilities in reading, writing
  and mathematics.

31
(No Transcript)