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Asian language teaching in Australian schools has declined to the point where more year 12 students are studying Latin than Chinese. Despite China's growing importance and the government's goal of...
Asian language teaching in Australian schools has declined to the point where more year 12 students are studying Latin than Chinese.
Despite China's growing importance and the government's goal of creating an "Asia literate" society by 2025, the students who will leave school that year are now entering primary school programs so inadequate as to be "destructive".
"After six years of bits and pieces, half an hour a week, they have no way of remembering the language, let alone mastering it so the majority decide when leaving primary school that they're not going to go on learning," the director of the Chinese Teacher Training Centre at the University of Melbourne Jane Orton said.
Experts say the problem stems from badly structured programs and incentives rather than a lack of student interest or teacher capabilities, as demonstrated by the achievement of some schools to create bilingual programs, despite little policy support.
At Richmond West Primary School in Melbourne, children spend about half their week learning in Chinese and are "genuinely bilingual", according to Australia's Chinese-speaking ambassador to China Frances Adamson, who visited the school in November.
The school's acting principal Lloyd Mitchell said there had been a groundswell of interest from families of all backgrounds yet his year 6 students faced the "ludicrous" situation of having no high school that could accommodate them. "You've got the government talking about the Asian Century white paper, but doing nothing," he said.
Sydney's Rouse Hill Public School also has a successful pilot bilingual program.
"The hardest part is funding," Rouse Hill's deputy principal Deb Cleveland said. Despite a "fabulous response" from the local community, she said she had only just learned the program would be renewed.
At high school level, the number of non-native-speaking Chinese language students has declined since the Howard and Rudd governments, largely because they compete against native speakers in tertiary entrance exams, experts say.
"There are actually fewer classroom learners of Chinese who don't speak Chinese at home taking Chinese at senior levels than there were four years ago," said Dr Orton, who is the author of Australia's only comprehensive report on Chinese language education.
At university level, programs are moving to in-country "enrichment" to create opportunities among school leavers who do not have Asian backgrounds.
"This is a really big and long-term problem that's going to take a long time to sort out," the dean of the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific Andrew MacIntyre said.
The government was committed to general "Asia literacy goals", but had not set benchmarks or revealed policies to achieve them.
The minister assisting Asian-century policy Craig Emerson said "everyone wants a gazillion dollars" but "governments can't just say 'thou shall teach Asian languages from tomorrow'." He said the national broadband network would be "a great enabler".
Dr Orton said the internet was an enabler but no substitute for quality teaching.
Caption: TWO PHOTOS: Asian skills: Rouse Hill teacher Miss Tan and her students. Learning Mandarin: Rouse Hill Public School students Jack Kelly, 8, and Ella Buchanan, 9, who are in the bilingual pilot. Photos: Brendan Esposito
(Copyright (c) 2013 Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited. www.smh.com.au. Not available for re-distribution.)