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.
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
You are invited to attend a free public forum to explore the advantages of educating children bilingually, with focus on establishing an Italian Bilingual School.
When: Sunday, 11 October 2009, 2pm
Where: Co As It, 189 Faraday St, Carlton
Prof Joe Lo Bianco, from the University of Melbourne will give the keynote address.
This forum is being organised by a group of parents who are members of the Italian Bilingual School Project (a not-for-profit unincorporated association).
Tags: bilingual education, Italian
Following on from the successful Multilingual Picnic in Canberra in December last year, the first ever Melbourne Language Picnic attracted families associated with the following languages: Arabic, Chollo, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Swedish and Vietnamese.
While not everyone was able to come on the day, there was plenty of feedback and interest in supporting this kind of event in the future.
The presence of a Japanese exchange student provided an opportunity for the children with Japanese LOTEs to try out their skills, and prompted a similar exchange for those with Italian LOTE. A highlight of the day was some basic formalized language activity, and it was a joy to observe the enthusiasm with which all the children joined in.
Alessandro, one of the video stars below, gave us this spontaneous vote of approval: ‘The language picnic is cool!’
Some linguistic potential who could be persuaded to pose for a photo
Video clips:
Language bites in
If anyone would like to offer ideas, suggestions or become involved in organizing language-focused social events in their locality, please contact Angela or Brigitte.
AlphaTykes is an Australian company with a unique and successful Australian-created teaching concept.
We have created a comprehensive language teaching system that is exciting and enjoyable for both children and parents. Our curriculum includes activities in all lessons such as singing, music, story-telling, games and art to capture the imagination of every child.
We have a co-ordinated system of story books, flash cards, activity books, CDs and online access. You can actually make it as much fun at home for the kids as it is during the lessons! Your whole family will be exploring another language in no time.
We have 3 centres across Brisbane which teach French, Spanish and Italian to children aged between 18 months – 12 years.
LOTE@HOME is an innovative way for parents to participate with their kids as they all learn a second language, devised by a parent who was unable to identify an approach to learning a language other than English that focused on a home, family-based setting.
In the LOTE@HOME pack, there’s a set of 50+ laminated cards for rooms in the home. Families attach the cards to the thing they refer to – the stove, the door, the dishwasher, the cupboard, the bath, the tap and so on. There are cards for the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen.
Family members use the words on the cards, mixed in with their usual language, to make sentences. So for example, a parent could say to a child “… please close ‘la porta’ when you come in …” Gradually, everyone will absorb the Italian word for ‘door’. And so it goes with all the other cards.
