A new study out of the UK has found that bilingual speakers tend to have a more open-minded perspective when it comes to other cultures, as well as increased cognitive health.
Double language speakers have also been found to be more employable than individuals who only speak one language.
To many, these findings come as no surprise, so why are we still seeing such a shortage when it comes to students pursuing a second language in school?
Chelsea Olle looks further into the story.
** Full media statement provided to Panorama on Wednesday the 29th April by the Victorian Department of Education:
The new Victorian Government has been clear that they expect languages to be delivered as core curriculum, which is why we are supporting every government school in Victoria to offer a quality languages program. From 2012 to 2014, there has been a significant increase in government schools offering languages; from 60.1 per cent to 72.6 per cent in primary schools and from 85.5 per cent in 89.7 per cent in secondary schools. The growth in program numbers and the improvements in program quality can be attributed to a range of factors, and important ongoing work. A scholarship program has boosted the number of languages teachers available to schools and we are supporting schools, particularly in regional Victoria, to offer programs by sharing teachers with other schools and using video conferencing to connect students to classes remotely. This year we are also increasing our focus on languages leadership to entrench best practice in our schools and ensure this good work is shared. The Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership offered a Leading Languages Course in 2014 and again in 2015, and this year Bastow will partner with Beijing’s National Training Centre for Principals to offer a Principal Shadowing Program.
There are 14 designated bilingual programs in Victoria in 12 primary schools:
Abbotsford Primary School Chinese Aurora School Auslan Bayswater South Primary School German Benalla Primary Indonesian Camberwell Primary School French Footscray Primary School Vietnamese Gruyere Primary School Japanese Kennington Primary School Auslan Lalor North Primary School Greek and Macedonian Richmond West Primary School Chinese and Vietnamese Caulfield Primary School Japanese The number of schools with designated Bilingual programs has been stable over a number of years.
In addition to the Designated Bilingual programs, the Department of Education and Training (DET) has been supporting a language teaching approach known as Content and Integrated Learning (CLIL) which involves the teaching of other subject areas such as Mathematics, Science and History, in and through a target language. CLIL is a highly successful language teaching approach that is based on the Canada’s French-English bilingual programs. CLIL is now a widespread language teaching approach in Europe and in many other countries. In a CLIL program, students learn another curriculum subject (for example, Science) while simultaneously learning and using the target language (for example, Italian). CLIL has the advantage of addressing the ‘crowded curriculum’ issue as it enables one or more curriculum areas to be taught in and through an additional language, and thereby extends the time on task for language learning. CLIL has also been shown to be successful in engaging students by providing a purposeful approach to learning a language.
DET commissioned the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne to develop a CLIL course for language teachers and to date 150 teachers have undertaken a credit bearing CLIL course. A further 30 teachers will undertake a CLIL course in 2015 which will be provided by the Bastow Institute of Educational leadership and the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
Chelsea Olle 