Teach Asian languages and cultures at all levels of education.
Asian languages and the cultures they articulate need to be taught at the Preparatory, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels of education.
Overwhelming evidence shows that the earlier children are exposed to a second language, the more interested and proficient they become in language acquisition. These early building blocks are crucial to maintaining students’ commitment later in primary and secondary school, when other priorities and life pressures intrude. The formative years of education are foundational to nurturing a culture that embraces and understands the opportunities that the study of languages promotes7.
A comprehensive Asia literacy program must simultaneously teach the culture which the language articulates. Learning the ambient culture of another language — pop culture, current affairs, music, art, internet, film — gives people a genuine linguistic and cultural literacy beyond simple competence in translating what they know into another language. Cultural exploration, via the internet, movies, music, cartoons, theatre, and art reinforces the learning of language.
Rebuilding language research and teaching in Australia’s tertiary education sector is also a priority. Our tertiary institutions are where our language teachers are trained, including in the broad range of skills that mark real ‘fluency’ in a language and the cultural realm to which it gives expression. They are where our linguists hone their skills and expand their knowledge of the crucial ambient elements of fluency (the thought, history, arts, literature, politics and society of the linguistic areas they work on), including the importance of translation as a crucial skill, and where research is conducted to improve language teaching techniques. The past decade has seen a precipitous decline in our Universities’ and Colleges’ capacity to teach and research languages8; this decline must be reversed if Australia is to become genuinely Asia-literate.
The benefits of language study on English literacy and communications skills means that including languages study in primary and secondary school curriculums will not detrimentally affect student achievement in other areas and on basic skills development. It is likely that participating schools will see marked improvements in their students’ performance in non-language subjects9.
Close attention must be paid to ensuring continuity of instruction between levels of education, ensured by a detailed national syllabus for each Asian language taught.
Students progressing through school must be able to study the same language as previously, and face minimal repetition, redundancy or jumps in instruction.
Footnotes
- J. F. Mustard, Early Child Development and Experience-based Brain Development – The Scientific Underpinnings of the Importance of Early Child Development in a Globalized World. The Brookings Institution, February 2006.
- When Fortune Fades, The Age, 6 May 2009.
- There is a wealth of research that links bilingualism to increased cognitive ability. Refer to footnotes 4 and 8 for beginning readings in this area.