Should more Australian pupils be learning Mandarin?

Should more UK Australian pupils be learning Mandarin?

I was really inspired to see this news item about dedicated students learning Chinese in England. There wasn't anything really new or outstanding about a small group of  enthusiastic students learning Mandarin.  I am sure there may be a similar project in Oz, though I have never heard of one. 

It is a pity that the majority Australian parents and students do see language learning as important.  Still it is good to know that some people (like the students and teachers in the video) do see Chinese as important to the future.

What do you think?

Should more UK pupils be learning Mandarin?

Australia in the Asian Century White Paper

Australia in the Asian Century White Paper was released on 28 October 2012.  Lots of media coverage. debate and discussion has and is happening now.  It is our road map for success. A road map for a journey to 2025.

So what does it mean for Ozzies?  I am glad you asked. Some of the highlights of what is supposed to happen or is going to happen are many. There is a series of ambitious goals. 25 goals or plans to be exact. Divided into five key areas: the economy, education and skills, commerce, regional security and culture. Too many to go into details here.  The full paper can be read here Australia in the Asian Century White Paper
However here is what is supposed to happen in regards to Education and in particular Languages Other Than English (LOTE) learning by young Ozzies.

• Asian studies will become a core part of the Oz curriculum
• All Ozzie students will have access to one of the priority languages; Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese or Chinese Mandarin.

Quotes at the launch from our Prime Minister include;
"Above all, success for an open Australia in a middle-class Asia starts in the classrooms, training centres and lecture theatres of our nation. Where we open minds, not just markets, to our region."
“Children in kindergarten now will graduate from high school with a sound working knowledge of Asia”
"All students will have access to at least one priority Asian language: Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. These strategies will be part of our national plan for school improvement,"
Want to know more?  Of course you do.  Details available here;
Slide Show
Fact sheets
Media releases
Issues Paper from December 2011

What next?

Australia in the Asian Century -White Paper release on 28 October 2012

Australia in the Asian Century
White Paper release on 28 October 2012

Much discussed since its inception the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper is to provide a direction for Oz to engage with Asia.  The rest of the world is doing this…we are discussing and thinking about it. I wonder what to expect. 
Is this long awaited White Paper the panacea or the Silver Bullet for a solution to our lack of engagement to our Asian neighbours?
Is it a case of ready, set, engage with Asia Now?
I fear that it is going to take a lot of re-education for many in Oz. 
Here is an example of some older outback Ozzies view our place in the world…

CWA keen to be part of outback royal visit

“…but a lot of the older ladies do look to the monarchy for leadership and for being part of our organisation.”
"Our motto that we say at each meeting is 'honour to God, loyalty to the throne, service to the country, through country women, for country women, by country women”.
God Bless you Country Women’s Association.

The Winds of Change....?

So are we (i.e. Language Learners, Language Teachers and anyone in the Language Learning business) about to see change? So are we entering a period of "Boom Funding" for languages?. There is some quite interesting (well at least for me) comments in the media about our current state of language learning in Oz.  Our polititions and academics have a lot to say about current and future language learning. Lots of 'Killer Facts' follow.

April 2012

Queensland Labor backbencher Kevin Rudd Australia is failing to do enough to become China-literate and Asia-literate in the 21st century.

• Decline in the teaching of the four principal languages of Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Korean.
• A reduction from 569 schools teaching Chinese to 380 or so;
  • In Chinese, while the number of schools teaching Chinese has gone down, there has nonetheless been a modest increase in the number of students studying Chinese from 78,765 to 92,931.
• From 2276 schools teaching Japanese in 2000, down to 1921 in 2008;
  • In Japanese, the number of students has gone down from 419,488 to 351,579;
• In the case of Indonesian language 1795 schools to 1077 schools; and
  • In Indonesian, the number of students has gone down from 265,366 to 191,316;
• In Korean, the number of students has actually gone down from 3672 to 3190; and
  • In the teaching of Korean, we have actually gone up (but don’t hold your breath) from 42 schools in 2000 to 46 schools in 2008.

Learn a language they said...It will be fun they said...

Incidentally Study of Mandarin in British schools floundering

"The study of Mandarin in British schools appears to be floundering. The number of pupils taking the subject at A-level has gone up by only 88 in the course of the year. Heads and language experts said that many of the 3,425 candidates now sitting the subject were likely to be native speakers who happen to live in the UK."

May 2012
Mr Abbott (Leader of the opposition) started the ball rolling with Preschoolers to learn second language under Tony Abbott and the Coalition

• Plan for every preschool child to learn a foreign language
• 40 per cent of Year 12 students to study second language

Potential Language Learners of the future (well Tony Abbots future dream)

August 2012
Education Minister Peter Garrett  Parents blamed for Asian study fall and Decline in Asian language studies parents

• $60 million + spent on language learning (from current government) and there is a decline in language learning
• No driving culture of parents wanting their children to learn Asian languages

August 2012
 Dr John Hajek, of the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities Pollies to blame for language lapse, not parents

• Boom and Bust funding over the past 10 years for language programs is to blame for the lack of serious language learning in Oz
• "The amount of funding made available for NALSSP was very small, considering the target school population and time frame: $15m per year, well below one dollar an Australian per annum.''
• "Parents are aware that the 30-50 minutes a week that are provided in many schools are not sufficient for proper language learning."
• "If federal and state governments wish to effect real long term change in favour of Asian and other languages, then the funding investment from all parties needs to be much greater and over a longer time frame...''

The declines cited by all sides in the debate come from Asia Education Foundation reports

To return to my orriginal questions. So are we about to see change? So are we entering a period of "Boom Funding" for languages?. You bet we are!  

Despite all the political retoric in the media, we are still at possibly the lowest point for language learning in OZ. Can this debate be the catalyst for change?

So when will we see change?  

When will the debate end?  

When will the reports (interesting though they are) stop being written?

When will see see funding back in schools for LOTE?  

Will LOTE be taken seriously by all parties in our education systems?

LOTE in Australia many are called but few are chosen

To be continued...

What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...

Australian Education Minister Peter Garrett had this to say about Asian Languages during an television interview;
"...we don't have a driving culture in this country .....which is saying from a parental point of view we want our kids to be in these schools learning these Asian languages."
What an interesting twist....usually teachers are blamed...
Highlights of the newspaper article include;

• Rates of Asian Language study is in a "state of freefall and collapse".
• The government spent $60 million to boost the uptake of Asian Languages

However, there has been a decline
This old chestnut was mentioned again....

• 5.8 % of year 12 students accross Australia are studying Asian Languages
• Only 300 of these are of a non-Chinese background
• Even fewer study Bahasa Indonesian

......and the solution is (drum role here).........our Ozzie Government has convened a working group of business and academic leaders to examin the issue...

They will consider making Chinese Mandarin part of the Australian National Curriculum (this means it would have an compulsory aspect)...this could be very unpopular with the following groups;

• Parents
• Principals
• non-LOTE teachers
• Students

However, apart from these players we should be fine.

Yep that will work.
So no suprises there.
Parents blamed for Asian study fall

CHIN202 Intensive Study Weekend Day One

Meanwhile in Sydney...

This weekend I shall be in Sydney NSW, UNE holds a study weekend for students who learn by distance education / online. I have been looking forward to going for some time. It is always good to meet others who share an interest in learning languages.

See they are doing it all wrong they are only rote learning...

Another media report comparing East Asian education to our Australian education system. Killer report is from Dr Ben Jensen, School Education Program Director of the Grattan Institute.

There are  killer facts from this article (some of which we have seen somewhere before);

• Money is poured into Oz education

However it is certainly not encouraging or increasing the number of our students learning an Asian LOTE. Asian LOTE study is at an all time low in Australian schools. 

• Rhetoric between policy and reality of what is going on in the classroom does not match. Lot of talk and little implementation.

There was 44% increase in spending on education in Oz schools between 2000 and 2008. Yet we are falling behind. This is most embarrassing. 

• In East Asia teacher status is high.  Perception is that they are doing an important job preparing youth for for the future. As they are respected these teachers are given time and resources to prepare awesome lessons to teach their students. 

Australian teachers on the other hand...

 "In modern Australia it is a different story. Teachers are certainly not given this status; indeed mention the word status and Australians immediately equate this with salary and perks. Too often our schools are treated like repair shops as the community dumps more and more of its social problems on them. Nor are teachers the proper focus of government rhetoric in the so-called education revolution."

More here; When it comes to status, the teachers get less than top marks

There is a perception that when we compare our Oz Education system to East Asian education systems that it is like comparing apples to oranges.  Learning by rote: why Australia should not follow the Asian model of education

Here comes a very oversimplified generalisation which many in the Ed. business and Oz media like to believe.  East Asian studentS only learn by rote, whereas our Ozzie kids are learning problem solving abilities and higher order thinking skills.  Taking this one step further Oz Education is doing it right....whereas those East Asian systems are doing it wrong. After all those killer facts and figures are based on a European tests and league tables.    We can dismiss the fact that a 15 year old student in Shanghai, China is performing at a level two or three times above an Australian student of the same age. Apparently we in Oz can dismiss that three out of the top four education systems are in East Asia.Sigh.....

See they are doing it all wrong they are only rote learning...

East Asian students years ahead of Australian counterparts: report 

Audio here

Less Europeans....More Chinese

Meanwhile in Oz...


Australian tourism told 'Gear up' for Chinese tourism. What does this 'gear up' mean? Doesn't really say how to 'gear up'. 


Does it mean start preparing congee for breakfast for Chinese guests in hotels?

Does it mean train your staff in Chinese etiquette?  

Does it mean learn Mandarin?  Which is placed in a place of prominence... at the bottom of the article. 


More Chinese, fewer Europeans visit Australia

Are Australians too slow to understand others?

Quite a mixed bag of language related stories this week. All saying much the same thing. It seems that government is good at producing reports about learning languages and the media is good at reporting the same information in a slightly different way. 

"The pledge from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in his Budget reply speech last month to lift the study of foreign languages dramatically, particularly Asian languages.

He said exposure to foreign languages should begin at preschool. And he committed to having at least 40 per cent of Australian Year 12 students taking a language other than English within a decade if he wins government."

Only 12% of Australian students study a language.  Australia Education is one of the worst in the world at teaching schoolchildren second languages. We are far worse than European or Asian countries.


There is a popular argument that our students must learn to speak and write English first before starting a foreign language. Research has found that second language learning can enhance skills in their first language.


Language teaching requires specialist teachers.  To achieve Mr Abbot's universities need to train a new generation of language teachers. Australia is not isolated from the rest of the world, we need to do more than talk about language learning.


Australians too slow to understand others

Right now Australia has approximately 6700 language teachers in secondary schools. A recent survey was intended to show if there were language teacher shortages. Questions have been asked in parliament about the current supply of language teachers, the past supply of language teachers and Tony Abbott's promise of language teaching in the future. 

Dilemmas of language teacher supply

Under a Coalition Government the following would happen;

"If elected, the Coalition says it would work "urgently'' with the states to make sure at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students take a language within a decade. The proportion doing so now is about 12 per cent; about 6 per cent study one of the four Asian languages."

 Our current Federal Government has recently done the following;

"Last week school education minister Peter Garrett announced funding of $870,000 for the Asia Education Foundation to help put into practice Asian literacy elements of the national curriculum."

Bernard Lane explains why Australia's tertiary institutes are falling behind with their foreign language policies.  Australia's Language Problem Video 

Highlights include;

• 60 or more reports of past years about language learning in Australian education.
• Policies keep chopping and changing
• Australian students do poorly in learning languages
• 12% Year 12 students are currently learning a language other than English
• Only 6% are currently learning an Asian priority language, Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian
• Only 3% of year 12 students are learning Chinese Mandarin
• Of that 90% of those learning Chinese Mandarin are of a Chinese heritage background
• Mandarin hardly exists as a mainstream language in Australian education
• Mixed messages are being received by parents and students
• It is important to learn a language, however in schools language learning is not taken seriously.  This is confusing everyone.
• Language teachers are often running part-time language programs across different schools
• Streaming is a problem
• Students learning Chinese are often discouraged by competing with Chinese heritage speakers
• A profound cultural change is necessary to improve current language teaching

When will serious teaching of Asian languages in Australian schools happen?

How can Australian Education compete with top performing Asian Education systems?

Is Australian education catering to the needs of what will be an Asian led century? 

The link to the report below, from the Grattan Institute, states some facts about Asian education and Australian education.

Four of the top five educations systems are Hong Kong, Shanghai, South Korea and Singapore.  Learning from these successful systems of our near neighbours and using them in Australian classrooms may improve our students lives. 

Catching up: learning from the best school systems in East Asia

Download a Copy of the Summary Report

Download a Copy of the Full Report

Download a Copy of the Media Release

The above report was received well when it was released in February this year. 

However, Nicola Yelland  Professor of Education at Victoria University has a counter argument for the above proposal.  The focus of learning in the East Asian education system is all about performing well in tests. Assumptions have been made that being the "best at testing" is something Australian education should not embrace. This states what we should not do. Yet there is nothing here about what we should do. 

Learning by rote: why Australia should not follow the Asian model of education


So do Australian children need to be able to compete with their Asian peers?  


Is Australian education catering to the needs of what will be an Asian led century?  


Are current Australian education systems encouraging students to connect, learn about and engage with Asia?


How can Australian Education compete with top performing Asian Education systems?

Australian Funding for Asia Literacy - AEF $870,000

Australian Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett announced additional funding of $870,000 to support the work of the Asia Education Foundation.

The funding for the AEF includes:

The Leading 21st Century Schools: Engage with Asia project which will receive $500 000 to support principals and school leaders develop strategies and resources to support the implementation of the Australian Curriculum and encourage students to engage with Asia.

The School to School Partnerships with Business project which will receive $170 000 to help link businesses, students, teachers and school communities within Australia and internationally, building upon the success of the Asia Literacy Ambassadors project.

The Asia Literacy Curriculum Forums project of $200 000, which will deliver forums for teachers and school leaders to share strategies, identify resources and develop best practice to support the implementation of the cross-curriculum priority of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia in the Australian Curriculum.

Excellent news indeed. I wonder if we shall see an increase in the uptake of Asian LOTE across Australian schools, colleges and universities? 

Source of information:  Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

 

"Language skills vital in an Asia-led world"

"Language skills vital in an Asia-led world"

Ten reasons Australian students should be learning Asian Languages now.

10.  Australia's future economic prosperity depends on our ability to be part of Asia's economic growth.

9. Australian school students now perform at levels significantly lower than their Asian peers.

8. We are failing to provide students with knowledge and skills in Asian languages and studies necessary for their futures.

7.  Current Asian language education in Australia  is poor. Too few teachers, teaching inadequate programs to a small number of students.

6. By 2050 the broader Asian economy will the largest in the world.  The Australian economy in 2050 is predicted to be out of the top 20 economies.

5.  Parents should demand that schools teach increase Asian literacy and  language teaching.

4. Governments should be supporting schools that are currently or starting Asian language and culture programs .

3. Even if reforms were made now it will take between 10 and 15 years to train and employ teachers.

2. A plan needs to be put in place now with appropriate funding. This plan needs to improve the quantity and quality of Asian languages in Australian schools.

1.  If the Asian literacy, language and culture program is implemented properly the current weakness and deficit in our inability to engage with Asia, could become our advantage.


Ten things paraphrased from this source Language skills vital in an Asia-led world

Should our tourist operators learn Chinese dialects and customs?

I just heard a brief  radio interview about the tourism business in Oz.

Background information is that tourism in some parts of QLD has been suffering because of;

• the global financial downturn
• the rising Ozzie dollar
• the summer of natural disasters 

"Should our tourist operators learn Chinese dialects and customs?"  

Questions asked were;

Q:  "How many local businesses, Australian owned businesses are adjusting and preparing for the Chinese market?...learning Mandarin, learning Cantonese....even common 'Thank you', 'Good morning' phrases, basic courtesies? "  

 A:  I would say a majority of business are looking at it at the moment...

Q: "Should we be learning Mandarin?"

A: "Well I probably should....It wouldn't hurt...we should make the effort to have more Mandarin speakers..."

One would think that in an effort improve tourism the operators would be doing everything they can to attract Chinese tourist.  The writing is on the wall people.

For example:

More Chinese Visitors Turn to Australia "Every year around 40 million Chinese head overseas, and Australia is one of the favourite destinations for these tourists."

Queensland urged to lure Chinese tourists with its shiny skyscrapers...give Chinese tourist what they want.


Figures show value of Chinese tourists Visitor Information  and Chinese tourists flock to Gold Coast seems they are getting it right on the Gold Coast, QLD, but this is only one area of QLD.

It seems that Queensland tourism operators are unprepared for Chinese visitors.  Most schools and colleges are still teaching Japanese or no language at all in the Sunshine State. How can future workers in the tourism industry learn Chinese?  If they don't learn it at school and they don't get training when in the industry, there is no way tourism workers can successfully cater to the needs of Chinese tourists. Language skills vital in an Asia-led world

Tourism in QLD seems slow to react to change. In comparison Sydney, New South Wales tourism is going to great efforts to prepare for Chinese tourists. Is Sydney doing enough to attract Chinese tourists?

Tourism Australia is this enough incentive?

Full interview can be viewed here Should our tourist operators learn Chinese dialects and customs?

Why study Chinese?

Why study Chinese?

Chinese lesson Australians must learn

Found this article which outlines some of the cultural ways of doing business with Chinese.  Chinese lesson Australians must learn

Highlights from the article;

"...in China, “yes” does not necessarily mean yes, contracts aren’t always binding and sharing a meal and booze with your Chinese counterpart doesn’t make you his best new mate."

"There is more to business in China than just dollars and cents."

"Relationships are key in China, but it takes time to build trust."

"“Confucianism puts emphasis on guanxi,” says Chen. “To maintain a good relationship is important to work efficiently in China."

From The Australian Financial Review - ROBERT GUY



Chinese lesson Australians must learn

Preschoolers to learn second language under Tony Abbott and the Coalition | The Courier-Mail

I will believe this when I see it. Some big pre-election promises from our opposition government.

• Plan for every preschool child to learn a foreign language
• 40 per cent of Year 12 students to study second language

However there are no specifics of how this will be done. 

The rest of the article is the rehash of the current 'doom and gloom' of the current state of our language learning across Australia. 

Read more here --> Preschoolers to learn second language under Tony Abbott and the Coalition

Another article, which quotes language experts, reports that;

• $2bn needed to achieve Abbott’s language vision
• Language experts have applauded Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s pledge 
• Mr Abbott vowed to increase the number of Year 12 students studying a language other than English to 40% 
• Mr Abbott said he would also promote Asian languages from pre-school in a bid to improve the opportunities of Australians in the region 
• “His aspiration to have "40% of high school students learning another language” is absolutely achievable

$2bn needed to achieve Abbott’s language vision

Difficult Chinese

Difficult Chinese

Three sites discussing the difficulty of learning Chinese. This is probably something I should not be reading right now. In one month I will have my CHIN201 exam.  My Uni. has switched to trimesters. One of the changes is that there is no 'study week', the semester ends and exams begin. So the pressure is on to 天天学中文。(study Chinese daily).

For the time being I shall not concern myself with how difficult learning Chinese is or is not.

How difficult is Chinese?

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard
How difficult is it to learn Chinese?

Call to drop Chinese lessons for Year 12 | The Australian

There has been a call to drop Chinese lessons for Year 12 students.

This is a radical idea. Many good points are made in this article. These include;

• Students should give up competing with Chinese background speakers
• Teach Chinese only up to a year 10 level while interest in the subject remains strong
• Re-engage these learners to study Chinese at a tertiary level
• Clumsy system streaming of students needs to change
• Universities need to look to be flexible if the secondary students stopped learning at year 10.

All very interesting and adding to the Chinese language education debate / discussion in Australia. Call to drop Chinese lessons for Year 12 | The Australian:

'via Blog this'

Rudd's latest game of Chinese whispers: join Weibo

"Australia's former prime minister Kevin Rudd has rekindled his love affair with China by embracing the popular Chinese social media site, Weibo."

Read more: Rudd's latest game of Chinese whispers: join Weibo:

'via Blog this'

Australia has dropped the ball on Asian languages

"Australia has dropped the ball on Asian languages"

This article echoes yesterday post Speaking their language prudent lesson in new history

Kevin Rudd says Australia has to lift its game to reverse declining student enrolments in Asian languages "if we are to secure our future in this century of the Asia-Pacific".

The Queensland backbencher foreshadowed speaking about the issue of Asian language take-up at greater length throughout the year.

Aust failing on Asian languages: Rudd