Languages Action Alliance: Lingo » 5. Type

‘EUROPEAN MASTERS’ AS LANGUAGE TEACHERS

BrigitteL — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:28:04 +0000

Of course the purpose of visiting art galleries is to appreciate weird and wonderful works of art, but at the current exhibition of European Masters at the National Gallery of Victoria, my family and I were also in for a pleasant linguistic surprise. Apart from trying to figure out the German and French titles of the Staedel Museum’s collection without the aid of the English translations, my grandsons, whose LOTE is German, particularly enjoyed the language activity that was incorporated in the display. Selected works were accompanied by questions to engage the younger generation, and these were labelled from A to Z, each letter linked to an English word and then its German equivalent, e.g. L for lonely – einsam, which expressed a feeling in Max Klinger’s painting of a woman on a rooftop in Rome.

The exhibition opened on 19th June and runs to 10th October, 2010, so there’s still plenty of time to enjoy this cultural experience and to get some basic German lessons as a bonus.

A picnic and multilingo animals down on the farm

BrigitteL — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:05:53 +0000

JOB AD: German-speaking playschool teacher and assistant teacher

spielwelt — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 05:51:29 +0000

(Updated 28-03-2010)

Join our wonderful team!

The German Australian Playschool in Canberra is looking for a German-speaking teacher and assistant teacher to join us for 3 days a week, starting in February 2011.

Approx 20 hours per week, Wednesdays to Fridays.

Email Lisa on spielwelt@homemail.com.au

Melbourne Language Picnic #2

BrigitteL — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:17:19 +0000

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/

Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroups: Parent Initiative – Community Benefit

BrigitteL — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:54:35 +0000

One of the presentations at last year’s seminar on raising bilingual children at Melbourne University discussed Languages Activism and the different ways in which parents can contribute to enhancing language learning in the wider community. Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroups are an outstanding example of such an initiative, and here is the story of the person behind its success.

Marisha Theeboom is an experienced, trained Mandarin teacher and volunteer community worker since 1987. She has worked with a variety of ages, cultures and in different continents whilst involved with a large charitable organisation that spans Taiwan, America and South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree from University of Cape Town, R.S.A.,1996.

She married an Australian Pilot in 2000, migrated to Melbourne and has three daughters. As a migrant herself, she is aware of the difficulties involved in settling within the local community. Thus she has turned her love of teaching and community work into establishing Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup Inc. Kimmba has been established for migrants and local residents to be able to gather together and understand each other through a fun and loving playgroup environment. In doing so, she hopes the establishment of Kimmba Bilingual Learning Playgroup enables more migrants from differing cultures to benefit by retaining their self-identity and at the same time develop proficiency in English language skills.

Marisha has developed her own bilingual education program for young children, called Jo Jo Bilingual Education Program and started the first Mandarin bilingual learning playgroup at Taiwanese School of Melbourne in July 2006. She has further studied and obtained a Certificate in the Professional Development Program in Second Language Teaching Methodology for Teachers in Ethnic Schools (Chinese Phase I) from RMIT University November, 2006.

This year Marisha is expanding Kimmba so that more children and families can be exposed to wide range of languages and cultures. She is opening a new Center in Prahran that will be available for students ranging from 0-6 years old to come from 1 hour- 15 hours a week to learn either Mandarin, German or Spanish. The Prahran center is set up as an early learning center with two fully qualified and trained teachers in every room. This center is hopefully the first of many to come as Marisha is passionate about exposing children and families to different languages and cultures to help build positive relationships with everyone in the community.

To find out more , please visit http://www.kimmba.com.au/

CANBERRA SEMINAR: Raising Children with More than One Language

BrigitteL — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:07:57 +0000

UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA
Australia’s Capital University

Raising Children in More than One Language

A free seminar for parents, grandparents,
early childhood and preschool workers, teachers, and others interested in bilingual education

Sunday 21 February
International Mother Language Day
1.30-4.30pm

• Hear from parents who have raised their children in more than one language – and from the children themselves
• Discover more about the benefits of bilingual education
• Find out about opportunities for language learning and bilingual education in the ACT

Building 2, University of Canberra, Bruce
(enter from ‘The Hub’ – see map at www.canberra.edu.au/university/maps )

FREE ENTRY & REFRESHMENTS

Bookings essential: phone Marina on 6201 2483 or email Mandy.Scott@canberra.edu.au

This project was made possible by the support of the
ACT Government’s Multicultural Grants Program 2009–10

How to activate language learning outside the home: tips to make a difference

BrigitteL — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:13:57 +0000

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.

http://www.rumaccc.unimelb.edu.au/schools/how.html

Canberra Multilingual Picnic

BrigitteL — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:47:30 +0000

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

Supporting Bilingual Children in Early Childhood

BrigitteL — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:56:09 +0000

This very informative article is published by Learning Links, an “Australian charity and non-profit organisation formed to help children who have learning disabilities, difficulties and developmental delays, and their families”.

http://www.learninglinks.org.au/information-sheets.htm

First Language Maintenance and Acquisition of English

BrigitteL — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:03:28 +0000

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.