Why learning a new language should be your New Year's resolution

Dr Ruth Arber and Dr Michiko Weinmann of Deakin University's Centre for Teaching and Learning Languages argue that learning a new language should be top of your list. 

Here are their top five reasons why learning a new language should be on your to-do list in 2016.

1. For each new language you learn, you'll stave off dementia for about five years
2. You'll recover from a stroke much more quickly
3. You'll become a better multi-tasker and boost your memory and attention span
4. You'll become more employable
5. You'll become a better traveller

To read more CLICK HERE

For ideas about where you can add to your language repertoire in the Canberra Region for adults CLICK HERE and for children HERE

Help Save S4C - the ONLY Welsh language TV channel in existence

This may be of interest for anyone with a connection to, or interest in Wales and the Welsh language, or involved in promoting or maintaining minority languages.

Funding for S4C, the ONLY Welsh language TV channel in existence is under threat. S4C not only produces top quality TV programs but many are available internationally and are a great resource for learning and maintaining Welsh language skills (see http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/e_category.shtml?id=99). However, overseas viewers are apparently not counted when the viewing figures for S4C are tallied up.

Henddraig has created an online petition for S4C viewers across the world to express their support for the channel and asking that current funding levels be maintained. You can Sign the Petition by clicking on that link.

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update December 2015

An update about language-related activities and issues. Please feel free to pass on to colleagues and friends who may be interested.  

• University Languages Portal Australia: which languages are available at which Australian universities, why learn languages, which unis give a language bonus and more.
• Canberra languages teacher wins national award
• Upcoming events at the ANU at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
• News of cuts in staff and language courses at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
• Australian curriculum languages: curricula for Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Vietnamese now endorsed and available
• Google+ Community OzLangED : a new resource site for language teachers
• Publicise languages at the multicultural festival in February 2016
• Calling rappers and slam poets in various languages
• ACT Mandarin Blueprint to enhance the learning of Mandarin and promote understanding of Chinese culture in ACT schools officially released.
• New Japanese book club for kids
• Alliance Française Canberra: French courses for all ages, cultural and events program, library and other services.
• Learn Mandarin over summer in Tasmania
• Articles that may be of Interest:

• Myth: young people have abandoned language learning: Fact: applications to language degrees have plummeted – but students are finding novel ways to learn
• Speaking two languages can double hopes of stroke recovery
• Indonesian language study headed for extinction at Australian Universities
• Aboriginal languages will become a new HSC subject from 2016

For more details see http://actbilingual.weebly.com/uploads/4/4/9/1/4491774/languages_forum_update_december_2015.pdf

Open Day of new Chinese Culture Centre

A collaboration between Canberra Grammar School and the Australian School of Contemporary Chinese (ASCC).

• 10:00 am - 12:30 pm, 7 November 2015. Snow Centre, 
• Canberra Grammar School, 40 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill. ACT 2603

Free Chinese classes, painting, calligraphy, paper cutting, book fair and public seminar by Dr Xiaomei Ma, the Director of the HSK Test Centre in Canberra.

For more information CLICK HERE of contact Fuxin.Li@trilong.com.au or 0419 541 336

ACT Community Language Schools Day 2015

Community language schools and playgroups from across Canberra gather to celebrate and share their learning through displays and performances.  

• Saturday, 7 November 2015, 2pm-6pm
• University of Canberra Refectory
• Free admission and all welcome 

All are invited to this day of celebration organised by the ACT Community Language Schools Association with the support of the ACT Government through the Community Language Schools Program.  

Some schools will be cooking some of their traditional foods for you to purchase.

For more information: phone 6230 5191 of email admin@actclsa.org.au

Find out more about this great community resource!

Achieving multi-level success in managing a foreign language content course with multi-level students

ANU Language Teaching Forum

•  Monday 26 October, 4.15 to 5.15pm

• Room W3.03, Level 3, Baldessin Precinct Building (BPB) , ANU.

Consuelo Martinez Reyes will be talking about Achieving multilevel success in managing a foreign language content course with mulitlevel students.

Abstract: While teaching language courses we introduce our students to basic cultural and linguistic content through practical grammar exercises. But once students gain enough grammatical skills, they venture onto specialized courses in literature, culture, and linguistics. These content-based classrooms often offer challenges specifically linked to the variety of their student body. How do we engage learners presenting differing levels of language skills? How do we encourage students to reflect upon content despite their perceived grammar limitations? This talk will focus on strategies to successfully manage foreign language content-based courses with students from multiple language-levels. I will share useful techniques to engage both mid and advanced level students in courses coded at the 2000-level that welcome students above it. I will look at ways to promote the incorporation of research, reflection, and writing exercises that allow each student to make the best of their individual language skills with the least amount of frustration. The talk will touch on issues like how to mix and match students according to the aims of group activities, and how to reutilize individual reflection exercises in future course assessments. We will also question the role of grammar “limitations” in hindering and/or promoting classroom communication and engagement with cultural content.

This forum is jointly coordinated by the College of Arts & Social Sciences (the School of Literature, Languages & Linguistics and the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies) and the College of Asia & the Pacific (the School of Culture, History & Language).

For more information and/or to be added to the mailing list contact: Dr Louise Jansen (SLLL, CASS) louise.jansen@anu.edu.au, Dr Duck-Young Lee (CHL, CAP) duck.lee@anu.edu.au or Ms France Meyer (CAIS, CASS) france.meyer@anu.edu.

Teaching grammar – Why? When? How? Monday 24 August

Teaching grammar – Why? When? How?  Some perspectives from research in language learning and teaching

Dr Louise Jansen, School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics (SLLL), ANU

• Monday 24 August 2015, 4.15 – 5.15 pm
• Room W3.03, Level 3, Baldessin Precinct Building #110, ANU
• FREE admission ALL WELCOME 

Do we need to teach our students grammar? Most of us would say “yes”. But why is teaching grammar necessary? When is the optimal point of teaching grammar? And how do we best go about it? In this talk I will present for discussion some perspectives on these questions from research in language teaching and learning. The starting point will be research in the early eighties, which hypothesized that teaching grammar is not necessary. We will see that when it was put to the test, this hypothesis failed. The body of the talk will review subsequent research into the role of focus on form in communicative language teaching and present a range of techniques, which researchers have proposed and tested. These will include more reactive approaches, such as recasting a learner’s utterance in the correct form, as well as more pro-active approaches, which focus on the nature of the input and/or form-focused communicative activities. I will then broach the question of grammar learnability as it relates to optimal timing of focus on form. The presentation will conclude with some cognitive perspectives on the possible positive role, and possible pitfalls, of grammar explanations, or inductive rule search activities, in fostering accuracy in learners’ communicative target language use. Arising for discussion will be a range of issues relating to teaching practice, such as the possible contribution of grammar lecturing, the role of writing in grammar learning, and whether achieving optimal timing in focus on form is feasible in practice.

This presentation talk is part of the ANU Language Teaching Forum jointly coordinated by CASS - the College of Arts & Social Sciences (SLLL and the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies) and CAP - the College of Asia & the Pacific (School of Culture, History & Language).

Next Forum: Monday 26 October with a presentation from Consuelo Martinez Reyes.

The November forum will be a pre-LCNAU (Language and Culture network of Australian Universities) colloquium.  

For more information about the ANU Language Teaching Forum and/or to be added to the mailing list contact: Dr Louise Jansen (SLLL, CASS) louise.jansen@anu.edu.au, Dr Duck-Young Lee (CHL, CAP) duck.lee@anu.edu.au or Ms France Meyer (CAIS, CASS) france.meyer@anu.edu.au