Transcript Document
Perceiving Change in Languages Education
as Opportunity
Plenary Address MLTAQ Annual Conference
Shifting Gears and Years:
a Time of Transition
Brisbane, October 2-3, 2014
Jane Orton, PhD
The University of Melbourne
Facing Change
• I have believed for as long as I can remember
in an afterlife within my own life – a calm,
stable state to be reached after a time of
troubles. When I was a child, that afterlife was
Being Grown Up. As I have grown older, its
content has become more nebulous, but the
image of it stubbornly persists.
(Beyond the Stable State, Donald A. Schön, NY: Norton, 1973, p. 1)
System Changes in Queensland
• A National Curriculum for Languages
• Starting languages in Grade 5
• Shifting Grade 7 into the secondary
school
Change as Opportunity
• Four matters giving us in languages
education just what we have wanted for
ages
• Understanding the opportunities
• Planning to minimise loss and maximise
gain from these changes
1. Bilingual is Normal, Bilingual is Valuable
• Recognition that most of the people on
Earth have been through the process of
learning a second language
+
• Understanding that the process of
language learning is an educational
process, one that develops very
worthwhile capacities in the learner
Language Learning is Educational
• Language lessons are about language
learning, not just language study
• The benefits are brought about by activities
which are mentally and affectively engaging.
• A confidence that language acquisition will
be a natural by-product of students
engaging today and tomorrow in
meaningful activities.
Benefits of Being Bilingual
Bilingual adults have been shown to
– tolerate ambiguity
– respond quickly to change
– expect and seek other solutions when failing
– recognise equivalents as OK
+ develop communicative capabilities
+ fulfill personal goals
Second Significant Change
The Australian Curriculum for Languages is learner
centred.
It aims to develop the knowledge, understanding
and skills to ensure students:
– Communicate in the target language
– Understand language, culture and learning
and their relationship, and thereby develop
an intercultural capability in communication
– Understand themselves as communicators.
Learner Scope
• The National Curriculum for Languages endorses
3 separate streams of language study – L1, L2,
and in between, the Background Language
Learner (or Heritage learner) course
• It is understood from linguistic research that L2s
are not just further back on the Backgrounders’
track and the Backgrounders just a bit further
back down the line on the L1 track, but that each
group is on a whole other track from the others.
Third Significant Change: ICT
• Politicians and bureaucrats want more use of
ICT in language teaching, even whole courses
presented using digital technology.
• They mostly want this done to save money.
• But it carries other opportunities as well!
ICT can…
• Show language in full context
• Open students’ eyes and hearts to target language
country wonders
• Allow you to set up exercises that develop skills,
tirelessly repeating and shuffling items of vocabulary
and spellings, sentence structures, etc.
• Save teachers hours of labour by replicating, saving
• Allow students to share and collaborate
• Provide contact with other learners, especially those in
the country of language origin, Skyping with buddies
from exchange visits or proposed buddies for up and
coming sojourns.
Fourth Significant Change: Going Global
• The feasibility of shorter and longer sojourns
• Exchanges, not just visits – develop knowledge
• Really getting to know something of the country
and some real people
• The chance to develop friendships
Development of language mastery
+ deepening of cultural understanding
+ growing intercultural awareness and competence.
Realising the Opportunities
1. You can’t do it all by yourself!
Must develop the tripodal relationship:
Principal, Senior Role Person and Teacher/s
– Who are they in your school?
– Do they know about changes 1, 2 and 3?
– Do you? If not, you need to get clear about these
matters yourself, first.
A part for MLTAQ to play in educating School
Leaders in the benefits of language learning
Making Time Spent with You Educational
• Study the National Curriculum for Languages
• Discuss it and try things out
• Work out where what you like to do fits, and
where resources you have now can be used
• Learn how to teach two+ levels in the same
class
• Develop a clear idea of what the benefits are
of being in your language class for just 2 years.
Get Going with ICT
• Assess the nature and scope of your ICT use
• Choose 3 programs to learn which will assist
students with vocabulary and structures
• Choose three new Web 2.0 tools to learn to
use
• Learn them one by one till you are expert
• MLTAQ PD on the place and function of ICT
tools in the design of a month’s curriculum
Becoming Global
• Learn how to make an in-country visit more
than just a trip (see CTTC sojourn reports)
• Ensure that preparation is more than just
emergency phone numbers and insurance
forms
• Design the ‘off ramp’ = what happens when
they come home
• Help them develop a relationship – topics,
language needed, reflecting on experience
Conclusion
• Use this time to renew yourself professionally
• Don’t simply tack new bits on to old practices
• Assess your current practice and identify what
you want to keep
• Find colleagues to talk and work with
• Plan a graduated learning program for each of
you and your Leaders/parents
• Feedback. Adjust. Continue. Get help: MLTAQ