Australia's present and future is multilingual.
Every child in Australia should grow up at least bilingual.
Languages education starts before school life and should continue throughout.
The Melbourne Language Picnic - 2010
The Melbourne Language Picnic is on again!
Date: Sunday, 21st March, National Harmony Day 2010, from 9 am to 5 pm.
Venue: Collingwood Children’s Farm, St. Heliers Street, Abbotsford.
Bring your family and friends, your lingo and share in some multilingual fun and games.
For further information, follow this link:
http://www.melbournelanguagepicnic.wordpress.com/
For those not able to attend the recent RUMACCC (University of Melbourne) seminar on raising bilingual children, the link below will take you to the handouts for the sessions on what parents can do to encourage language learning beyond the home, for their children and community alike.
Source: Mandy Scott
The turnout was similar to last year’s picnic – about 25 – and keen and useful links were made between a range of languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Indonesian and Welsh.
Most of the children who attended were too young for the ‘how many languages can you find’ game. However, those who had a go (and their mum!!) got something out of it. For anyone wishing to follow up on the above language connections, please contact Mandy.Scott@anu.edu.au
The link below leads to references on the role of maintaining a learner’s first language in relation to the acquisition of English.
http://www.tesol.org.au/Issues/Place-of-First-Language
“The Australian and international TESOL fields argue that the maintenance and ongoing development of a student’s first language (L1) provides learners with a solid base from which to acquire an additional language.
Awareness of the positive influences associated with supporting L1 development is particularly important for young learners. Older learners actively draw on knowledge of their first language and its structure, conceptual and content knowledge held in this language and their L1 literacy skills when learning a subsequent language. However younger learners do not yet have this depth of knowledge to draw on and without appropriate support they are at risk of failing to acquire full proficiency in either their first language or the main language of school instruction.”
Thank you, Mandy Scott, for this information.
Tags: Place of first language
Enjoy a holiday immersion into the German language and culture
12-22 JANUARY – Hobart/Tasmania
For details, contact the Goethe Institut at
www.goethe.de/australien
Tags: German, Goethe Institut, immersion program
Here’s an interesting bit of research to follow up on:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105092607.htm
To find out more or join the group, please contact Kaveesh Kumar via
Tags: Hindi, Western Australia
You are invited to a FREE seminar for parents, early childhood and pre-school workers, grandparents, teachers and others interested in bilingual education.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 12:45pm – 5pm
Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, Cnr Swanston St and Monash Rd, University of Melbourne
THE SEMINAR IS FREE BUT REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL by November 23rd.
