![]() The following article is an indicator of what I consider the important place for languages in education in New Zealand. The world is morphing fast and far from the digital revolution singularising language into an English only world, the more digital our world becomes, the more fractured our world becomes and the less likely it is for a single language to control everything. The first language used on the internet was English and by 1990s it made up 90% of the content. However, this pattern is changing faster than expected. The share of French, German, Spanish and Chinese has increased and the share of English has shrunk to 30% in the past two decades. The use of Chinese grew by 1,277% in a decade since 2000! Monolingual English speakers run a huge risk. I saw it in Thailand first-hand at the Asia-Pacific German Olympics. You had students who not only spoke their mother tongue or tongues(!) but varying degrees of German and very often English too. Language is seen as a tool by these students to allow them to be active in a global environment rather than solely an academic pursuit and there are millions of them pouring out of the schools and universities of the rest of the world and looking for opportunities. If you want to communicate you need to be able to speak and you have to have experienced the joys and difficulties of learning another language. You need to have been confronted with the problem of adjusting to a different culture and not being able to make yourself understood and then getting the huge pay-off of in fact getting the thing you wanted or making the point you had in another tongue, regardless of how many hands and feet you used. Even the most basic of year 9 language education if it's done right opens up the student to accepting that there are such things as different ways of looking at the world and communicating in it. If we want to produce high-end scientists, mathematicians, social scientists, artists, designers or anything else and they think they might like to work in an international environment, frankly it's embarrassing if they can only speak English and they will be passed over if the person with the same or similar skill set also speaks a couple of other languages, just as Helen Clark was passed over. Try being an astronaut these days without the rudiments of Russian. You won't get off the ground. ~Chris Durrant The Lost Opportunities of Being Monolingual~Sally Hill Associate Professor Sally Hill is Head of the School of Languages and Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington. For all the attention paid to gender and behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing as reasons for Helen Clark missing out on the top job at the United Nations, the former Prime Minister revealed in an interview last weekend that a lack of language skills was also to blame. In an article on Stuff, Clark stated that not being able to “speak French or Spanish” was a factor in her losing out to Portuguese António Guterres as UN Secretary-General. Of the 12 candidates for the role, Clark was the only English native speaker and the only monolingual. If someone with the profile of a former Prime Minister can be negatively affected by a lack of language skills when competing on the international stage, what does that mean for the rest of us? What opportunities would be open to New Zealanders if we had better language and intercultural skills? And how can we turn around our woeful language-learning statistics and make sure Kiwi kids are well-positioned to seize these opportunities in the future? ![]() Eighty percent of New Zealanders speak only one language and rates of language study in schools and universities have been declining significantly since 1993, according to the Ministry of Education. As a country, we also have a record of taking pre-schoolers who speak languages other than English into our education system and turning them into monolingual English speakers. Yet recent Asia New Zealand Foundation research shows that more than 90 percent of us believe learning other languages is valuable and more than eight in 10 believe New Zealand children should learn a language other than English. We put ourselves at a disadvantage if we ignore the benefits of learning to function in other languages and cultures rather than expecting others to adapt to ours. It’s encouraging to see the issue of language learning on the agenda this election and widespread agreement that we can do better in this area (despite valid concerns about how best to go about it). After many years of relative neglect of languages, the Government’s commitment last year to invest $34.5 million in the Centres of Asia-Pacific Excellence signals greater recognition of a need for improvement if we want deeper, mutually beneficial economic, cultural and political relationships with the countries of our region. Shifts in global power relations and phenomena like Brexit and political turbulence in the United States suggest that relying exclusively on English won’t be enough in other parts of the world, either. While speakers of other languages will continue to learn English, we put ourselves at a disadvantage if we ignore the benefits of learning to function in other languages and cultures rather than expecting others to adapt to ours. According to a recent Economist report on The Future of Work, “virtually any career, public or private, is given a boost with knowledge of a foreign language”. A recent New Zealand employment market report notes that there is “a scramble for talented candidates with foreign language skills and access to global networks” in sectors like banking, while a trends report from IT Professionals New Zealand notes that “with many ICT/software companies operating globally, job candidates who are able to interact in multiple languages are highly sought”. Many international companies are well aware of what they stand to gain by employing people with knowledge of the languages and cultures of their clients. As former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt famously put it, “If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.” An estimated 65-70 percent of the world’s population speak at least two languages. They enjoy advantages that most Kiwis are missing out on. Beyond the economic and trade arguments, bilingual and multilingual students outperform monolinguals in cognitive tasks and achieve better results across the curriculum. Research also suggests that monolingualism limits our health and well-being: a recent study from the University of Edinburgh shows that learning another language, even as an adult, keeps your brain sharp as you age and can delay the onset of conditions such as Alzheimer’s by years. Studies conclude that any amount of language learning is good for you, and that, contrary to popular belief, anyone can do it, at any age. We need to make the most of the bilingualism and multilingualism that already exist in Aotearoa New Zealand. We should do three things in the short, medium and long term to make sure every New Zealander – from the toddler entering early childhood education to the next former Prime Minister aiming for the top job at the UN – can enjoy the benefits of language learning. First, we need to make the most of the bilingualism and multilingualism that already exist in Aotearoa New Zealand. This must start with Te Reo Māori, but should also include community and heritage languages. We need to do more to celebrate our rich cultural and linguistic diversity and encourage awareness that acquiring even a basic knowledge of another language can begin to transform our interactions with its speakers and aid our understanding of their worldview. Second, those entering the workforce over the next decade need to develop their knowledge of other languages and cultures by studying them at secondary and tertiary level and practising their skills through technology, work-related learning and face-to-face encounters. The curriculum should reflect how varying degrees of proficiency across different languages can be useful in different contexts. Third, we need to provide support and incentives for teachers at all levels of our education system to improve their language skills and for speakers of languages other than English to train as teachers. This is essential if we truly want to provide opportunities for all children in New Zealand to have deep knowledge of more than one language and culture. The result will be they grow up in a more inclusive, prosperous and internationally engaged nation – and can grasp opportunities denied to previous, monolingual generations.
1 Comment
Another Thing?I was really inspired by Alex’s speech in assembly last week. I thought she did so well to frame the irony of our human resistance to change vs our desire to see progress around us. It’s an all too familiar story. Just when you think you’ve settled into this new routine, you’ve figured out the baby’s sleep patterns, you’ve adjusted to the new expectations… bam! They hit you with another change!! And so it all begins again. So what makes us so resistant to these changes? I don’t think age = cynicism quite covers all the bases. But I do think that there is a sense of ‘having been round this mountain before’. This new innovation that will supposedly revolutionise our lives is really just a rebranding of something we’ve seen before, right? Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw
Resist Change or Drive it?So what makes us so happy to settle in with our comfortable way of doing things and bemoan anyone who comes along and tries to shift us? I think the answer lies in our sense of what is being changed. Everyday we are in the classroom with our students doing our subject area (I don’t say teaching because on any given day we could be facilitating all sorts of learning experiences). We know them. We know what they enjoy, we know what music they listen to, we know when they are engaged. And we know when we need to make changes to adapt to the needs of our students. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Nelson Mandela ![]() As teachers, we are also designers. We are the ones who design our curriculums and learning experiences (here is a bit more about design thinking if you’re interested). The first steps for designers is to consider the constraints or limitations that are in place around them. What can you change? What elements are you in control of? What limits can you push, which ones are fixed? What changes can you make? So, sick of change?When you put it in that order, change initiatives should be driven from the classroom. From the needs of our students (oooh, that sounds suspiciously like our new inquiry model), and from our goals to see their outcomes improve. Innovative practice from within the classroom should be what leads changes in school. Progress doesn’t come from policy and procedures, progress comes when groups of people decide that it is time to make a change. And we're not the only ones that feel like this either! Just google: Learning to Change - Changing to Learn Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Barack Obama ~Amy-Lee Budd
I have a confession to make. I have never actually kept a blog. Not a 'real' publicly accessible one where people I knew would read it. Why is this? Because a small, insidious voice inside my head whispers things like, "who would want to read anything I have to say?", "anything I write about, someone will have already written before... and better", "what if people judge me?" and "I don't have time to write one anyway". I expect my students to take a risk, try new things and keep practising until they feel comfortable, and even confident, at doing whatever it is I've suggested. I say things to them like, "come on guys, fail forward!", "F.A.I.L = First Attempt In Learning!", "You can do it! I believe you can!". I try to do every activity they do in class so they see that I do "practice what I preach". "So what is my deal with blogging", I wondered?
I quickly googled Carol Dweck's work on Growth Mindset to self-assess: There it was. Clear as day.
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/09/24/never-too-late-creating-a-climate-for-adults-to-learn-new-skills/ This reflection took me back to a post I read a while ago about professional growth mindsets. Do we practice what we preach, and model what we expect in our students, with our colleagues? The post reminded me that:
The thing is, I have read many blogs, including blogs about blogging (very meta), as well as research about sharing your thinking with others, utilising a network to enhance your professional growth, and more. I do know how good this could be for me. I just need to shift my thinking. And so here it is: I am going to learn in front of you. I am going to blog on here for you all to see. BUT... I am also going to ask for a first follower... Someone to join me on here and share a post in the next couple of weeks. It can be about anything you're interested in. If you like, we can collaborate on a post. Who knows... we may start a movement! ~Rowan Taigel
|
AuthorsWe'll have a variety of authors from OGHS over the year sharing their thoughts and experiences about education, teaching and learning Archives
June 2019
Categories
All
|