Check the link below for recent developments on the issue of bilingual education in the Northern Territory.
Expert blasts bilingual education changes
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04Nov
Tags: bilingual education, Lajamanu, Northern Territory, Warlpiri
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07Oct
Source: Victorian School of Languages
Since the Public Meeting on this issue in August, the following action has been taken:
1. A Press Release was prepared and circulated with some media reports.
2. The matter was raised with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. A delegation made up of Professor Michael Clyne, Pandora Petrovska, Frank Merlino and Stefan Romaniw, met with the Acting CEO of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Mr David Howes on September 15, 2009.
The outcome of that meeting was as follows:
Continue reading » -
29Aug
In September (14 or 18), the ABC Four Corners program will present a documentary on the Lajamanu Two-Way language programme, one of the NT bilingual programmes that is due to be dropped.
Please join in a ‘postcard’ mail-out campaign to lobby against this decision. There are two types of postcards:
- ‘Don’t cut off our tongues’ , addressed to Paul Henderson (NT
Chief Minister).
- ‘Reinstate bilingual education’, addressed to our MP Julia Gillard.The postcards will be available in a couple of weeks. To support this initiative, please contact Greg Dickson, either by email (greg.dickson@batchelor.edu.au) or
c/- Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics
Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
Katherine Annexe
PO Box 1896
Katherine NT 0851and let him know which version and how many postcards you want. Distribute them amongst your friends, family and contacts, and ask them to forward on to the targeted parties.
Any other questions can be directed to Felicity Meakins via email, felicity.meakins@manchester.ac.uk.
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22Aug
Allysia Finley, 13 July 2008
Public schools aren’t helping students compete with foreign counterparts
The Register recently ran a story on HABLA, the Home-based Activities Building Language Acquisition program, which aims to help teach toddlers from low-income, Spanish-speaking families English and Spanish by sending language coaches into their homes.
HABLA is based on the premise that the more children communicate at a young age, the more quickly they develop language skills.
While the program remains controversial because of its bilingual approach, recent studies by the Brookings Institution suggest that improving toddlers’ native linguistic skills helps them more easily learn English.
Regardless of the arguments for or against HABLA, its premise – that children best learn languages when they are young and that frequent communication is necessary for language acquisition – should be considered in constructing foreign-language education in America.
Most public school students do not begin studying foreign languages until high school, and then it is usually to fulfill a graduation requirement. After all, it is difficult to see any reason to study a foreign language since much of the rest of the world is becoming fluent in English. Read more
Reprinted from Languages Education in Australia newsletter 21 August 2008
