Community language school initiatives in 2013

1. Chinese Camp

The Australian School of Contemporary Chinese ran an innovative Chinese Camp in Canberra during the October school holidays. Over 140 children had fun in a number of activities while being immersed in the Chinese language. Although the majority of participants had Chinese heritage, the camp was open to all students interested in learning about Chinese language and culture.

Teachers and professors from Shangdong Province teamed up with local Chinese teachers in the ACT to teach a range of arts, crafts and skills such as clay sculpture, Chinese knots, calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting, Peking Opera styles of makeup, paper-cuts, dancing and martial arts. Scroll down the page HERE to see some of their work. 

The camp was supported by the China Overseas Exchange Association (Qiaoban), Shandong Overseas Exchange

2. Pilot course at FCCCI Chinese School

The FCCCI Chinese School is trying new ways to inspire students to build on their family languages. At a workshop for parents and teachers in November 2013, the school reported on a trail of a new series of text books written by Dr Liping Ma from Sitanfu Chinese School in the San Francisco Bay Area for children from Mandarin-speaking families. 

The results of the pilot class using Book 1 in the series in 2013 have been remarkable in terms of students' Chinese proficiency and engagement with language learning. For example, one boy who had refused to speak Mandarin at home is now speaking and enjoys going to weekend school. 

Book 1 focuses more on reading than writing, allowing more vocabulary to be introduced and thus more interesting stories, riddles and songs to be read by the students. Another key component is that parents are expected to help students go over they have learned in class during the week.

Due to the success of the pilot class, the school will continue with Book 2 in 2014 and also open another Grade 1 class if there is sufficient interest from parents.

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update November 2013

Some good news about language education plus information about language-related events and issues.

CLICK HERE for more details about:

• Call from the local Bangladesh Australian community to celebrate mother tongue and heritage languages in Australia.
• Languages Potluck Lunch, Saturday 30 November, for families raising children in more than one language and people interested in bilingual education.
• Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Australian National Dictionary, Thursday 28 November 2013
• Information about the revised draft Chinese and Italian curricula in the Australian Curriculum: Languages
• Language news from the ACT Education and Training Directorate (innovative Indonesian Hub Model in two high schools, increasing numbers of students in Asian languages, including Year 12, Policy for languages education, 26 schools with sister school relationships in 9 countries
• Languages at the ANU: Bonus points for high school students' ATAR if take a Language other than English, $1 million donation for Portuguese, Russian and Indigenous Australian languages, Intensive Summer courses in Mongolian and Arabic, Immersion workshops in Japanese and Chinese for students in Yr 10 and 11 in ACT region, support for CAP students to study in Asia or the Pacific, new centre for Hispanic Linguistics in Australia
• Awards and Nominations for language champions in the ACT

National Curricula Languages

The draft Chinese and Italian curricula have been revised based on feedback from national consultation and the validation process. The revised documents are available for comment until 22 November 2013 (see links below). This is not a formal public consultation process. Formal feedback will be sought from state and territory education authorities through the ACARA Languages National Panel. 

Any written feedback from individuals or groups outside of the National Panel is welcome and should be emailed to languages@acara.edu.au by 22 November 2013. 

Revised Introductory Pages November 2013.pdf

Revised Draft Chinese Curriculum November 2013.pdf

Revised Draft Italian Curriculum November 2013.pdf 

OVER 40 COMMUNITIES TO MEET IN CANBERRA AT NATIONAL COMMUNITY LANGUAGES SCHOOLS CONFERENCE

Over 40 community languages schools instructors and teachers from over 40 languages will attend the 11^th National Community Languages Schools Conference at Rydges Lakeside Hotel London Circuit Canberra Saturday 12 October commencing at 9.30am.

Delegates from throughout Australia will blend together in a tapestry of diversity around the common goal of delivering strong linguistic and cultural maintenance programs to over 100 000 students in 71 languages.

The Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minster for Education and Training Ms Joy Burch will open the conference at 10.00am and provide participants with an overview and support for community languages schools.

The conference theme partners in delivering language education in Australia reflects the strong role community languages schools play in linguistic and cultural maintenance and the endeavour to build meaningful partnerships with students, families and the community.

The conference will look at strengthening relation with mainstreams schools, principal; and school council associations and inter community activities.

It will also examine the role of community language schools in the new proposed national languages curriculum.

A range of workshops will lead teachers and instructors in examining leading practices and classroom teaching strategies.

“Today we see students, parents, school communities working in partnership in ensuring languages are maintained and taught with the highest degree of effectiveness” President ACT Community Language Schools, Javad Mehr said.  

“This conference will set strong policy positions and also give practical advice on how to be effective teachers in the community languages schools setting and how to form and utilise partnership” Javad Mehr said.

“having such a great number of participants from so many backgrounds, gathered together, committed and focussed, is again a reflection of how diversity is respected and used practically for the benefit of Australia” Javad Mehr Said.  

The conference is being hosted by ACT Community Language Schools Association.                                     Further information – Javad Mehr 0412 222 473

To find out more about community language schools CLICK HERE

Learning a new language alters brain development

The age at which children learn a second language can have a significant bearing on the structure of their adult brain, according to a new joint study by the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro at McGill University and Oxford University. The majority of people in the world learn to speak more than one language during their lifetime. Many do so with great proficiency particularly if the languages are learned simultaneously or from early in development.

 

The study concludes that the pattern of brain development is similar if you learn one or two language from birth. However, learning a second language later on in childhood after gaining proficiency in the first (native) language does in fact modify the brain’s structure, specifically the brain’s inferior frontal cortex. The left inferior frontal cortex became thicker and the right inferior frontal cortex became thinner. The cortex is a multi-layered mass of neurons that plays a major role in cognitive functions such as thought, language, consciousness and memory.

The study suggests that the task of acquiring a second language after infancy stimulates new neural growth and connections among neurons in ways seen in acquiring complex motor skills such as juggling. The study’s authors speculate that the difficulty that some people have in learning a second language later in life could be explained at the structural level.

“The later in childhood that the second language is acquired, the greater are the changes in the inferior frontal cortex,” said Dr. Denise Klein, researcher in The Neuro’s Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and a lead author on the paper published in the journal Brain and Language. “Our results provide structural evidence that age of acquisition is crucial in laying down the structure for language learning.”

Using a software program developed at The Neuro, the study examined MRI scans of 66 bilingual and 22 monolingual men and women living in Montreal. The work was supported by a grant from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from an Oxford McGill Neuroscience Collaboration Pilot project.

The Neuro

The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital — The Neuro, is a unique academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience. Founded in 1934 by the renowned Dr. Wilder Penfield, The Neuro is recognized internationally for integrating research, compassionate patient care and advanced training, all key to advances in science and medicine. The Neuro is a research and teaching institute of McGill University and forms the basis for the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre.  Neuro researchers are world leaders in cellular and molecular neuroscience, brain imaging, cognitive neuroscience and the study and treatment of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and neuromuscular disorders. For more information, visit theneuro.com.

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update August 2013

1. New ANU Language teaching forum: second Monday of every month, 4 - 5.30pm, followed by drinks & nibbles. 

2. A Forum on Mandarin Education the ACT region, ANU, Saturday 10 August 2013

3. Homestay host families needed for international students attending ACT public schools.

4. Time to apply for the ACT government's Participation (multicultural) grants program.


Full details in the Update available HERE  

Protest about the abolition of language courses at University of Canberra

Where?  Lawns of Parliament House, Canberra

When: Friday 12 July, starting at 4pm.  

For more information see www.facebook.com/events/664490400232555/