International Year of Languages - Australia

and the tongue is a fire

2011-12-28T01:13:00.005+11:00

"Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! And the tongue is a fire ..."

My attention was caught by this biblical quote in Marilynn Robinson's novel GILEAD (2004). So I looked it up. So much poetic expression in this General Epistle of James. Here are the surrounding verses.

3:2 For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3:3 Now if we put the horses’ bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. 3:4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth. 3:5 So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! 3:6 And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. 3:7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind. 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison. 3:9 Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: 3:10 out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 3:11 Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither can salt water yield sweet. 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. 3:14 But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. 3:15 This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 3:16 For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed. 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy. 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace. eBible

And that is a first century CE philosopher with a linguistic bent saying Life's what you make it with your discourse. Language matters much, content, diction, tone and attitude in context, and our speech acts determine war and peace, happiness and suffering. It also makes me think how much linguistics (before the term) grew out of the translation and interpretation of religious scripts.

I only read Housekeeping this month and now GILEAD. What a writer! Encouraging that she began later in life!

The slobbery origins of speech

2011-10-28T14:01:00.003+11:00

“When you stop to examine the way in which our words are formed and uttered, our sentences are hard-put to it to survive the disaster of their slobbery origins. The mechanical effort of conversation is nastier and more complicated than defecation. That corolla of bloated flesh, the mouth, which screws itself up to whistle, which sucks in breath, contorts itself, discharges all manner of viscous sounds across a fetid barrier of decaying teeth—how revolting! Yet that is what we are adjured to sublimate into an ideal. It's not easy."

Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night, 1932. Celine was a doctor who survived WWI, a misanthrope whom I expect the Absurdists would have adored. It's fun to read a counterbalance to starry-eyed adoration of the miracle of language. Be in a tough or quirky frame of mind if you consult this collection of Céline quotes.

LCNAU - the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities

2011-08-15T16:05:00.001+10:00

LCNAU - the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities Colloquium

on September 26-28, 2011 at the University of Melbourne. Most papers or powerpoints now available.

Layla K Paada

2011-08-08T19:52:00.005+10:00

Writings and travel and social observations of Laila Kurniawati Paada in English and Indonesian, including one translation, "Unbending as Coral", by Queensland student Kiah and me.

The poetry of Bill Ndi

2011-08-07T22:35:00.005+10:00

Bill writes in both French and English

Bleeding Red: Cameroon in Black and White
Sing Love 101
Toil and Delivery
or look up all Bill's work on Amazon.com and many samples at
http://www.postnewsline.com/bill-f-ndi/

Alexander Adelaar on historical linguistics

2011-02-20T17:40:00.002+11:00

Want to know what a world expert linguist does? Visit the Melbourne University podcast series UpClose Episode 127 is about Alexander (Sander) Adelaar, Dutch born expert on Malay/Indonesian languages. Listen online or download to your computer or mp3 player: An ocean away: An African nation's roots in Southeast Asia. Especially helpful is his answer when asked to give a brief description of the mechanics of what an historical linguist does: "hunting for regular correspondences". Looking for who's related to who in language families. How does linguistics work with archeology (incisions in animal bones?), mythology and even maternal mitochondrial DNA research? Look up Austronesian languages on Wikipedia to see a good map of distribution of this language family. UpClose Episode 127, 25 MIN 13 SEC , MP3 FORMAT You can listen and/or read a transcript

"Christmas Tree – Genealogy of an Island"

2011-02-19T15:15:00.014+11:00

by Hélène Bartleson

A geologist friend of mine used to say that the only thing you can do with Languages and History is teach languages and history. (Surely geology is the history of the planet under its skin.) This talk "Christmas Tree – Genealogy of an Island" presented by Hélène Bartleson at the National Archives of Australia in Perth on 23 February 2010 shows how those two fields can yield such personally rewarding knowledge. Her dad was fascinated by old cemeteries especially with Chinese headstones and their 'hidden history' of itinerant Chinese tinkers and peddlers. 'He was fascinated by their lives, I was fascinated by their language which I did eventually get to study, and it has been a huge help to me, as you'll see shortly.' Hélène also reads Jawi (Malay written with an adapted Arabic script).
She describes photos taken by 'poor Fred Christian ... of mixed-race groups together; the Malays and Chinese and the Europeans were all together and they were all enjoying themselves and actually talking to each other.' Christmas Island sounds like a symbol of multicultural Australia, of what our world might be if everybody just had Hélène's curiosity and interest in people, different people whose hidden histories require us to make the effort to learn their languages. How terrible that it is instead the place currently associated with refugee detention centres and boating tragedies. Read "Christmas Tree – Genealogy of an Island". There's an audio file so you can download and hear it also - link at bottom of that Archives of Australia page. Christmas Island on Wikipedia and on googlemaps.

une culture où on est belle

2011-02-12T21:30:00.000+11:00

"Faut decouvrir une culture où on est belle!" Bon motto crée aujourd'hui par Jenny Lynd, Melbourne. Pour moi, ca veut dire trouver un état d'esprit où on se sent heureux et à l'aise avec les autres.

Words sing, hurt, teach, sanctify

2011-01-04T11:48:00.005+11:00

Words sing. They hurt. They teach. They sanctify. They were man's first, immeasurable feat of magic. They liberate us from ignorance and our barbarous past. Leo, Calvin Rosten, 1972.
BUT
The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.
~ ~ ~Philip K. Dick
AND
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought, and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.
~ ~ ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
More amusing, provoking quotations about words and see my collection of pro-languages quotes down in left hand column.

LiveMocha and Busuu

2010-11-19T14:14:00.002+11:00

Just received this email reminder:
Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini said, “A different language is a different vision of life." As a member of Livemocha you know learning a new language is more than grammar and vocabulary - you're experiencing new cultures and bringing the world closer through language! Return to Livemocha and continue to learn and contribute to the global community.
There's also BUSUU offering six European languages.

Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages

2010-11-17T21:36:00.004+11:00

"Re-awakening languages: theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages" Edited by John Hobson, Kevin Lowe, Susan Poetsch and Michael Walsh. Sydney University Press. ISBN: 9781920899554 And this potent quote was on the email from John Hobson that brought me notice of the book.
"When you lose a language, you lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art. It's like dropping a bomb on a museum, the Louvre." Comment by the late Kenneth Hale, cited in The Economist (November 3,2001).

Budget cuts to schools hurt health, business and foreign languages.

2010-11-13T13:10:00.004+11:00

Budget cuts to schools hurt health, business and foreign languages. [The Daily News Online]
"Foreign language instruction has never been a strong suit for American public education. There are relatively few strong foreign language offerings at the elementary and middle-school levels. Most high schools around the country offer basic introductory courses in just a couple of languages. Opportunities for language study have declined in recent years. John Schmid of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that, "From 1997 to 2008, the share of all U.S. elementary schools offering language classes fell from 31 percent to 25 percent, while middle schools dropped from 75 percent to 58 percent." These are the latest figures from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Applied Linguistics. But anecdotal evidence suggests that this trend has continued and may have accelerated with the recession."
"For both the student and the nation, the ability to speak another language is a difference maker as far as competing in the global market place. Indeed, it's small world. That's something most other nations have long recognized. Most country's in Europe and Asia make foreign language study compulsory from elementary school through high school."
Did you spot the grammar/punctuation error in the above? That's ironic in an article lamenting the decline of language study. Foreign language study definitely makes us more aware of accuracy in speaking and writing conventions. Hey, we all make typos and spelling errors - to err is human (and common in journalese). And there's no fun being a stuck up language maven. Language is all about flexibility (variability in systematicity, M Long) and the more language(s) you know the easier it becomes for the brain to adapt and enjoy linguistic variety through established systems, or even creatively disrupting them. To be blithely unaware and not even proficiently monolingual is pure disadvantage. To be obstinately monolingual and monocultural is dangerous.

Education systems of the world, do your job - for your people! Invest in languages education.

Clichés

2010-11-08T20:39:00.003+11:00

"I should have worn jeans and a Hawaiian shirt; everyone thinks Australia is an outpost of America anway. I should have been a walking cliché; clichés make people relax. They stop asking questions. They assume they know." [Roberta Lowing, 2010, Notorious, Allen and Unwin, p.30.]

Language champions

2010-11-08T18:00:00.002+11:00

This is an inspiring little collection of pages at Asia Education FOundation. The quotes from Major Michael Stone are brilliant, especially from a humane military man. It would be good to get school students to debate these claims, shake students out of apathy. Michael Stone and Gen. Peter Cogsgrove ask, how do we avoid the obscenity and stupidity of war except by intelligence, respect and responsibility? We in advanced countries have responsibility to forestall misunderstanding by being able to communicate with different others in their languages. To be educated to high levels only in technical and economic matters is to deny that human cultures are rich, complex and diverse, so of course cross-cultural relationships are challenging. To refuse to make the persistent effort is obstinate ignorance that leads to the deaths in war of our children. Debate that.

Two only sample quotes:

Language skills form the foundation for ‘relationship building’, life’s greatest skill and ‘force multiplier’.

Many of the world’s problems could be dealt with peacefully if we had the skills to listen to each other. Learning each other’s Languages is critical in this regard.

Forgetting the culture of cake

2010-11-03T12:24:00.002+11:00

Forgetting the culture of cake Scott Steensma November 03, 2010
"My sister and I are the products of what could be seen as a perfect example of migrant assimilation. We are the second generation of a family that arrived in Australasia with minimal English and no friends, slotted themselves into menial work and adapted to an alien culture where cake was strictly avoided before 10am. On the surface we are textbook examples of what many say migrants should do when they arrive in Australia. Under the surface the waves of shock and cultural loss still ring through our family."[Winner of a MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD for young writers]. A very touching and thoughtful reflection.

Language Quotes at WorldofQuotes.com

2010-10-13T16:41:00.002+11:00

I can remember the lush spring excitement of language in childhood. Sitting in church, rolling it around my mouth like marbles--tabernacle and pharisee and parable, trespass and Babylon and covenant. Author: Penelope Lively

To God I speak Spanish, to women Italian, to men French, and to my horse--German.
Author: Jason Chamberlain Source: inaugural address at University of Vermont, 1811

Pedantry consists in the use of words unsuitable to the time, place, and company.
Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Source: Biographia Literaria (ch. X)

To have another language is to possess a second soul.
Author: Charlemagne

More delicious language sayings at worldofquotes.com/language and see my own collection at left lower down on this page.

What makes etymology an interesting subject?

2010-10-03T14:34:00.004+11:00

LIBERMAN: "Everything in our world leaves a trace in language. If you know the history of language and understand the main forces that make language change, you have one of the most important windows into the growth of the human mind, civilization, and even politics. Take any word, from guitar to democracy. While studying their development, we inevitably learn a good deal about music and the rise of social institutions. And only the history of language is able to reveal the history of thought, for, unfortunately, an examination of the gray matter in our heads is not sufficient for that purpose. Let me repeat: there is nothing in the man-made world that is not reflected in language.".

The Hidden History of Words is just one entry on the fascinating University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Discoveries blog. An intellectual labyrinth to get delightfully lost in. The College offers studies in many languages and cultures, including Asian, African, American Indian, European, linguistics, anthropology and more. See departments and majors, Research Languages & Literatures or Language instruction. You can even hear Prof. Liberman on public radio Word origins with Anatoly Liberman - the Minnesotan equivalent of Australia's Roly Sussex.

World Languages Day (University of Minnesota) 2010

2010-09-15T15:47:00.004+10:00

Conversations in the Language Center: World Languages Day! (University of Minnesota)

What a difference one day makes!If ever you think all your promotional efforts are in vain, here's reassurance. World Languages Day: Step One on My Journey to Italy by Teran on April 13, 2010

Testing words to their utmost power

2010-07-22T11:07:00.005+10:00

"When you are writing laws you are testing words to find their utmost power. Like spells, they have to make things happen in the real world, and like spells, they only work if people believe in them." From Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, probably the best fictionalised life of Thomas Cromwell ever written. What skill is needed to avoid cliché when an artist resurrects such well known material and characters, as people did with stories and figures from the ancient classics and the Bible for thousands of years. Henry VIII, Wolsey, Cromwell, More, the Boleyn woman, Pope Clement, the whole cast, even the period, have become stock characters in so many plays, films, novels and 'serious history'. For language teachers this book is full of interest, given that most courtiers and merchants of that time were adept in four or five languages required for scholarship, diplomacy, trade, war, law and even marriage. See Washington Post Review http://www.wolfhall.com/

20 reasons to prefer a virtual classroom to only Skype

2010-07-03T18:10:00.000+10:00

20 reasons to prefer a virtual classroom to only Skype - of interest to CALL educators

Hugh Lunn, 1989, Over the top with Jim, Latin class

2010-06-26T15:12:00.008+10:00

Hugh Lunn, 1989, Over the top with Jim, University of Queensland Press.

Latin was a subject I just could not do, no matter how many times I got the cuts for not knowing my vocab, or no matter how many declensions I learned by heart, like "amo, amas, amat,amamus, amatus, amant". We used to say in the C class: "Latin is a dead language, dead as dead can be, it killed off all the Romans, and now it's killing me." We sang hymns in Latin, like Tantum Ergo; we said Mass in Latin; and we even said whole prayers in Latin - but still I knew nothing about the language. I just memorised sentences, like when I first learned to read at the convent. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa I knew was "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault" - only because both Latin and English versions were said when beating your chest with your right fist.

The good boys from the A class used Latin whenever possible, to show how superior they were. Even school reports on football matches contained Latin phrases. When our first 15 disastrously lost a rugby union match to Brisbane Grammar in my junior year, the school magazine said: "Fluctuat, nec mergitur", whatever that meant.

(Page 191)

Phil: I love Hugh Lunn's book of 1950s and 1960s reminiscence and biography. So much I can relate to as a fellow inmate of the Catholic schools and education system of those days. Ah, the good old days when language learning really meant something (different?) Perhaps that Catholic beating the chest with your right fist and chanting mea culpa can be viewed as an early form of Total Physical Response. Unlike Hugh, I loved Latin and French and still can spend hours looking up origins of words in my OED. My daughter says I am just like the Dad Gus in the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Now, gimme a word, any word, and I'll show you how the root of that word is Greek. See Hugh Lunn's website - an Australian journalist and author of great humour and down-to-earth insight into human reality.

A Fish Called Wanda

2010-06-25T17:40:00.000+10:00

Archie. Do you speak Italian? on YouTube.[AO]

Learning languages 'boosts brain'

2010-06-24T22:58:00.001+10:00

Learning a second language "boosts" brain-power, scientists believe.
Researchers from University College London studied the brains of 105 people - 80 of whom were bilingual.

They found learning other languages altered grey matter - the area of the brain which processes information - in the same way exercise builds muscles.

A BBC story from 2004 but still useful to convince the doubters.

World in Words - Podcasts

2010-06-22T17:21:00.005+10:00

The World in Words focuses on language. We cover everything from bilingual education to the globalization of English to untranslatable foreign phrases. You’ll learn how to insult someone in Icelandic, among other things. Hosted by The World’s Patrick Cox.
Listen, for example, to "Bilingual tots and the language of smell" by Patrick Cox June 1, 2010. "We hear from a Jerusalem-based journalist who is sending his kid to Arabic/Hebrew bilingual preschool. Also, a Seattle rabbi visits the Cairo Genizah, and explains why so many sacred Jewish texts were written in Arabic. And we hear from experts at the New York Public Library on the secrets that a book’s smell will reveal to an educated nose." Hear Audio on the webpage or download mp3

A nation adrift in Asia literacy

2010-05-28T17:33:00.000+10:00

To those who care about languages education and Asia literacy in Australia (or who ought to - yes, you!)

Interesting cross-section of opinions among commentators on Greg Sheridan's A nation adrift in Asia literacy Some talk about the difficulty of character based Asian langages. "It's all too much like hard work." "To expect this of the average Australian student is unrealistic." Yet most Europeans successfully learn languages with very complex grammars. I had a brilliant German girl in first year Indonesian (!) tell me the other day I move them along faster than would be the case in Germany BUT she said they do endless exercises and they have years and years of school languages behind them. We might do better selling languages study as "highly demanding" and so respected, shows persistence and brains (as Japanese in Hobart used to be able to afford to do). Phil M.
See Greg Sheridan, A nation adrift in Asia literacy w reader comments
Chinamat of Melbourne Posted at 2:01 PM May 27, 2010 Comment 15 of 21

The industry in which I worked was decimated in the financial crisis. Considering joint-ventures with China critical to reviving that industry in Australia, I decided to turn disaster to opportunity and packed myself off to university at the age of 38. Despite an extensive CV, I couldn't get an offer at any good university for a place to study Chinese. I wrote to Julia Gillard to raise the issue with no result. I have to say my experience of the pointy end of trying to get re-trained with an Asia focus sees very little real support. I'm presently paying full-fee. To add perspective I can also tell you Chinese is the most difficult thing I've had to do in my life and I have a substantially higher work ethic than the typical school-leaver student. There lies the difficulty. The study of a language is extremely difficult but there's no additional consideration for it beyond perhaps an extra hour of tuition a week. Addressing this requires more fundamental reform than the recurring 'programs'. It needs more time to teach all the way from primary level, more credit in courses and a higher academic profile. The Asia Education Foundation is doing their bit but it's barely a start...

Go, Chinamat. Allez, all who care about languages education and Asia literacy in Australia.

Speaking is what it's all about (Irish polyglot) - or is it (Peter Morgan)?

2010-05-21T14:41:00.000+10:00

"Why studying a language will never help you speak a language." The whole blog of Irish Polyglot is provocative, challenging, entertaining and hopefully encouraging for languages teachers. I have always thought that if you can speak a language, it means you must deploy, not just have stored in your brain, a whole network of knowledge - many kinds of knowledge. He reminds us that we actually develop that network in interaction and communication with people, not merely in rote learning [the indispensable] words and rules and conventions. Compare his thoughts to mine on grammar below and to a newspaper article about Prof. Peter Morgan's assertion that teaching "just the basics of language acquisition" is not so important to universities as applying language in "a broad engagement with real questions of culture and language". Language Departments risk losing their essence by Bernard Lane in The Australian, March 24, 2010. "This is all part of penetrating, understanding deeply the mind, the culture, the history of whatever language it is."

Morgan is talking about levels of language beyond the old fluency versus accuracy debate: he would assume both are developed in schools and language institutes. And yet when schools go for the intercultural awareness more than linguistic proficiency, too few arrive at university with any decent proficiency (either conversational ability or sound grammatical and literature proficiency. Many are not teaching even "the basics of language acquisition".)

So, school language programs are vitally important and need to produce palpable language learning results that the learners and teachers [and later tertiary lecturers] can all find satisfactory and enabling of communication at all sorts of levels. How do we achieve this in current Australian educational culture when so few even wish to continue any language study beyond a compulsory taste? Would the Irish Polyglot's truly communicative approach have any value or chance in schools?

Some suggestions for future online seminar topics

2010-05-07T11:32:00.000+10:00

Why do we overlook Esperanto, the perfect apprenticeship language [which every primary school school teacher and child could be using after 100 hours]? Penelope Vos and friends to be invited to present and lead discussion. Some websites from Penelope Vos's Book Talking to the Whole Wide World: http://www.mondeto.com/ www.esperanto.ca/kurso/home.htm The Language Prism: www.lingvo.info/?lingvo=en
Can't live with 'em, can't get far without 'em - are the education systems, bureaucracies and universities more of a hindrance than a help to languages education?
Fourth largest population in the world, right next door to Australia, yet Indonesian teaching/learning languishes despite 50 years of huge effort. The Asia literacy argument does not bite deep while old prestige European languages are having a resurgence, surtout le Francais. Pourquoi? Kok bisa begitu? Why is it so?
There is much to celebrate about languages education in Australia: many successful immersion programs, in-country programs and trips, endless experiments with new ICTs, lots of children experiencing - if not always advanced proficiency - broadening of linguistic and cultural awareness and skills, dedicated policy makers, researchers, thinkers, advocates, curriculum writers, teachers, professional associations and parent organisationswho refuse to give up; about 12% of year 12s across the nation studying a language. Are overly high expectations what keep us constantly depressed about languages? Should we be realistic in our Australian context: be content with a cup 12% full?

Looking for presenters and discussion leaders. And your ideas for other seminars.

"We still believe in grammar" - Nietzsche

2010-04-26T10:58:00.000+10:00

All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth. Friedrich Nietzsche

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. Friedrich Nietzsche

"I am afraid we cannot be rid of God because we still believe in grammar." Friedrich Nietzsche.

[Entering Neitzsche + God + grammar in google will bring up the variations of this quote and some excellent articles and discussion. Nietzsche had a real wit and sense of humour, I've discovered.]

I still believe in grammar. Those who fantasize that instructed second language acquisition can occur without understanding of the patterns [systematicity and variability] of a language do students a disservice. Krashen would have us believe it can all be implicit. Not in Australian classrooms, except perhaps some immersion programs. Grammar is a gift from our ancestors (a 'glamour') - their cognitive solutions for encoding reality - and in teaching, it should be made enthralling in its intricacy. Grammar explication and exercises should be only a part of a language program. There are drama approaches, story and song - all of them exist because based on grammar (and semantics, pragmatics and discourse rules etc) and all manner of literature and culture studies are possible. But I suppose everything depends on what goals and activities your context allows, what your teacher knowledge, experience and confidence equip you with and the disposition of students and the community who put values and borders in their minds. What do you think?

The joyful release of meaning

2010-04-07T23:42:00.000+10:00

"Until then, my forays into written French had been purely utilitarian, the completion of almost mathematical exercises. When I comprehended a new phrase, it was merely a bridge to the next exercise. Never before had I known the sudden quiver of understanding that travels from word to brain to heart, the way a new language can move, coil, spring into life under the eyes, the almost savage leap of comprehension, the instantaneous, joyful release of meaning, the way the words shared their printed bodies in a flash of heat and light. Since then I have known this moment of truth with other companions: German, Russian, Latin, Greek, and - for a brief hour - Sanskrit." From The Historian, (p. 188), a novel by Elisabeth Kostova (about Vlad the Impaler alias Dracula, about the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, about books, readers, libraries and historians) Interview with her at About.com.

2010-03-10T21:50:00.000+11:00

'The citadel of established practice will not fall to the polite knock
of a good idea...' Barry MacDonald - educational evaluator.

Sent by Aaron Peeters in Ghana. As was the following email on 31 January 2010.

I've been thinking a bit lately about language learning. Since
Indonesian, I have added Japanese to my belt, and started on Tigrinya
and Dagaare (Eritrea and Northern Ghana) respectively. Somehow, I seem
to pick up these obscure languages relatively quickly, especially
compared to people around me. I think it has got something to do with
my previous knowledge (constructing sentences, identifying useful
vocabulary, etc.) but also possibly something to do with attitude (not
afraid to make mistakes for example, i've made plenty of those!) I've
even started to pick up some French from a CD course i've picked up
(Learn French with Michel Thomas, he's really good!). I figured that
you would know how to best utilise this knowledge to encourage others
to have a go at a new language also...

Also, I read about the links between multilingualism and creativity
some scientists have found in the Guardian newspaper and thought you
might be interested, it's what prompted this email:
http://bit.ly/multiling (written by Europublic researchers for the European Commission, The Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity, Part One 16 July 2009. Link)

Obama on Languages

2009-07-30T17:24:00.000+10:00

Have a look at a quote Marcy Web put online on her blog.

Here is a famous quote, by then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama, from the campaign trail:

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], “Merci beaucoup.” Right?

You know, no, I’m serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they’re 5, or 6, or 7 than when they’re 46, like me.

Go to the blog to see more discussion and reaction.

Archived IYL Online Seminars

2009-05-24T21:31:00.000+10:00

The sound and visuals archives of the first 2008 Year of Languages Online Seminars are available (as Adobe Connect archives). Give each a full minute to establish.

Are we entitled to be optimistic about languages education?
Joe Lo Bianco, Melbourne University, 16 April 2008
"Over-enthused and under-prepared: pre-service languages teachers in the spotlight."
Lesley Harbon, Sydney University, 14 May 2008
Accelerative Integrated Method
Oj Rugins, Jenny McKinney and Tim Girard, 11 June 2008
"Primary school languages - our primary failing."
Matthew Absalom, University of Melbourne, 26 June 2008
Australian Languages Education: What is happening at national level?"
Lia Tedesco, School of Languages, South Australia, and President of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (AFMLTA), 19 June 2008
"I absolutely believe in languages teaching but I'm not doing it anymore."
Tina, Sunshine Coast and Ella, Melbourne, 9 September 2008

Endangered languages

2009-03-12T15:33:00.000+11:00

When time permits we will take up again our online seminar series for languages teachers. In the meantime, have a look at this NEWSWEEK article Say it loud, say it proud. It describes a film documentary called "The Linguists," a PBS documentary airing on Feb. 26 2009 in the USA. It's about "Swarthmore professor K. David Harrison and Gregory Anderson of the Living Tongues Institute, who travel from Siberia to India to Bolivia hoping to document obscure languages before they disappear for good. As they go, it becomes clear that their mission is about more than words. Every two weeks, one of the world's 7,000 languages vanishes; most belong to indigenous communities that have been stamped out and homogenized by colonialists."

Update 10 May 2009 Lingua Franca of 9 May 2009 has the startling news that new languages are being discovered or uncovered in China even now, even as 516 of the 6909 known living languages are in danger of imminent extinction. 'New' languages 'discovered' in China Of the 83 new entries listed in the latest edition of Ethnologue, the authoritative compendium of the world's languages, 30 were 'found' in China and contributed by surveying linguists led by David Bradley of La Trobe University, Australia.

Breeze retires; Connect takes over

2008-11-22T21:02:00.000+11:00

I have to apologize. My university operates the old Macromedia Breeze until next week when we move to its upgrade incarnation, Adobe Connect. However Breeze is no longer accessible to everyone who has upgraded to Flash 10 on their computer. (Took me some effort to get an older Flash re-installed on my home computer.) This has led to our two advertised sessions on Process Drama and AIM being delayed. Will advertise a.s.a.p. when we are ready to roll. Enjoy our archives in the meantime. Oh, have a look at MAAYA, the worldnetwork for linguistic diversity at http://www.maaya.org/ It is still being established but seems like the kind of "people action" we need, not sitting around waiting on government bureaucracies. You may also like to read Prof. Michael Clyne's recent article A linguist's vision for multicultural Australia November 18, 2008. Salut salam shalom Phil

Erika Piazzoli - Process Drama and L2

2008-10-23T23:30:00.000+11:00

Erika Piazzoli has been collecting data while running a 7 week course at Griffith University using the Process Drama methodology with 3rd year L2 Italian students. She will present her results at 7.00 pm Qld time (8.00 AEST) on 12 November and give an online introduction to Process Drama for L2 teachers. Erika writes:

Process Drama is a strand of drama that emerged in the late 1980s and has become recognised as a tool to teach a variety of disciplines including history, art, geography and literature. More recently PD has been used as an approach to L2 teaching, with very promising results (See Kao & O'Neill, 1998, for research findings).

"PD falls under the humanistic teaching umbrella, promoting student's intrinsic learning and activating their own knowledge. It shares the key features of the communicative method, but it takes it a step further by providing a common thread to the role plays we tend to use in L2 teaching and injecting meaning into the scenarios, making them more authentic for the students. Personally, I believe there is great potential for PD in L2 acquisition."

I learned something about the related Experiential Drama in Tasmania years ago and that was wonderful. Teachers interested in the Accelerative Integrated Approach will find this illuminating too. Phil Mahnken

BTW "For those who came in late", there is a brief and swanky online animated tutorial called Attend your first Adobe Connect Pro meeting.

Wendy Maxwell, founder of AIM 22 - 23 Nov

2008-10-23T23:21:00.000+11:00

Jen McKinney of Hearsay Learning Downunder [jenny@hearsaylearning.com] advises that Wendy Maxwell, the founder of the Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM) would be deligted to engage in discussion with Australian languages teachers on 22nd - 23rd November (that's Saturday and Sunday) so a change of time from our usual evening sessions. We must remember the time difference in Canada. Exact time and date to be confirmed soon. This is a great opportunity to speak directly with the person who has made a huge difference in successful learning of French in Canada, a country whose educational culture is quite similar to ours. Stay tuned.

Forthcoming in November - December

2008-10-23T23:00:00.000+11:00

IYL Seminar on “Schools of languages”
Saturday and out-of-hours languages schools – unsung heroes
Lia Tedesco Denis Cunningham Michael Clyne Sydney Open High

IYL Seminar on School Principals with School Principals
Line them up against a wall? And teach them languages.
What do school principals think. Log on and listen to a brave bunch.

Comments on online live audio-conferencing

2008-09-11T10:59:00.000+10:00

These seminars are a great idea! you can participate from the comfort of your own home - in your tracky dacks, sipping a nice red wine..... [Lia]	I'll confess to ugg boots... [Andrea]
"I like the idea of holding the meetings via this Breeze system because it's very family friendly and if for whatever reason you can't tune in you can always listen to the archive. Three cheers for technology!" [Angela]	"As I've said before, this kind of technology itself can be part of the solution for small enrolment classes - come and experience it."[Phil]

I believe but I'm not doing it anymore

2008-08-26T23:03:00.001+10:00

IYL Online Seminars continue AT 19:30 AEST on 9 September with three teachers and the topic:

"I absolutely believe in languages teaching but I'm not doing it anymore." Please join us for an Adobe Connect online audio-conference on the problems and constraints that drive away from the profession some of those who love it most. Help us work out how to meet these challenges. Login as Guest at http://callisto.usc.edu.au/languages. No password needed. You need speakers-and-microphone or headset.
The correct archive address for 9 September seminar is
http://callisto.usc.edu.au/p52509402/ You may notice gaps in the recording later in the session - our Breeze system played up a bit. Apologies.

Languages Action Alliance GoogleMap

2008-08-22T20:22:00.000+10:00

This map aims to acknowledge all the non-mainstream playgroups, community schools , bilingual schools, Saturday schools, Schools of Languages, adult education organisations and others that work to maintain or teach languages. Email Phil to add your placemarker. Find out more about the Languages Action Alliance and also at Bilingual Families

View Larger Map

Forum: preparing for the Asian century

2008-07-18T10:11:00.000+10:00

Forum: preparing for the Asian century broadcast on Radio National program, Life Matters, and presented by Asia Education Foundation

The five year olds starting school this year will be at the peak of their working lives in 2040 when China and India are predicted to become the world's major economies.

So should their education reflect this reality? In this forum recorded at the recent Asia Education Forum in Adelaide, Richard Aedy discusses what new skills and knowledge Australian children will need to succeed. Also, how well prepared are our schools for teaching students the cultural literacy that could help them engage with our region.

Guests:
Malcolm Norris, Head of Exploration and New Business for Intrepid Mines
Professor Robin Jeffery, Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at ANU
Kathy Kiting, Principal of Campbell Primary School in the ACT
Andrew Blair, President of the Australian Secondary Principals Assocation

Listen to or download the podcast (mp3) - highly recommended (about 55 minutes). The forum discusses languages education, not only Asian languages.

"A fresh Breeze is blowing...."

2008-07-15T10:49:00.000+10:00

Phil Gorbett at I.T. advises that from July 14 "A fresh Breeze is blowing...." at the University of the Sunshine Coast. "Breeze is back up - we had an issue with an errant Microsoft service pack for the database. You should now have access to your meetings and archives." You can find links to all five archives below. I will start work on the ongoing presenter schedule very soon. News of a Languages Alliance

July break

2008-07-08T19:57:00.000+10:00

For three reasons we are having a break in July. It's school holidays for some. Phil is off to Armidale and Sydney. And the server is having a break(down) too. So opportune time to relax, read Roland Sussex's article in the Courier Mail Monolingual Aussies left behind in international business of 28 June 2008. Or contemplate the speakers in the next half of the year including Wendy Maxwell, founder of the Canadian AIM system, Angela Scarino, Denis Cunningham and Lia Tedesco on 'Schools of Languages', and Erika Pazzoli on Process Drama. Erika writes:

Process Drama is a strand of drama that emerged in the late 80s and has become recognised as a tool to teach a variety of disciplines including history, art, geography and literature. More recently PD has been used as an approach to L2 teaching, with very promising results (See Kao & O'Neill, 1998, for research findings).

"PD falls under the humanistic teaching umbrella, promoting student's intrinsic learning and activating their own knowledge. It shares the key features of the communicative method, but it takes it a step further by providing a common thread to the role plays we tend to use in L2 teaching and injecting meaning into the scenarios, making them more authentic for the students. Personally, I believe there is great potential for PD in L2 acquisition."

I learned something about Experiential Drama in Tasmania years ago and that was wonderful. Erika says this is related. We are also collecting names of school principals willing to come discuss the fate of languages education from their point of view and to hear ours. Is yours game?

Impatience in the tone of these articles? Good!

2008-07-01T16:06:00.000+10:00

Too few keen to speak in tongues
Language studies in Australia are still struggling to attract students, despite a Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister, writes Jill Rowbotham, June 25, 2008, in The Australian Higher Education section.
"THERE is a lot of talk about language programs in Australia, but the conversation does not appear to be going anywhere. Decades after it began, we remain solidly, some would say stolidly, monolingual." Read article

We are having a break from online seminars until late July so enjoy this article, send us links to others you see, peruse the archive links below and think about who and what would make great and useful seminars for the rest of the year. Our list of speakers, dates and topics should be up here soon.

Here's a video about Education Learning to Change-Changing to Learn you may wish to check out. I am a bit suspicious of this computer-world salesmanship even though I love muoltimedia and web-based languages learning possibilities. Someone mentions people "needing to be multi-disciplinary, multicultural, multilingual" in it. Only five minutes 36 seconds. Please post comments there or here.

Matthew Absalom - Primary school languages - our primary failing

2008-06-27T11:07:00.000+10:00

Matthew Absalom, lecturer in Italian at the University of Melbourne, has advanced his thoughts on languages education in media articles over the last few years, most recently Languages: our primary failing by Matthew Absalom - 30/05/2008 on www.onlineopinion.com.au. See also Stop minding your language April 02, 2008 in the Australian.

On 26 June Matthew Topic will present "a critique on our approach to languages education in primary school, ie any old speaker will do, and anyway all they have to teach is numbers and colours. Primary school languages - our primary failing."

We believe there is the will and the opportunity to vastly improve languages education at all levels. The AFMLTA points out in its recent communication to the Federal Minister that the Commonwealth's current plans seem to focus instead on secondary schools only. Is this giving into those "jurisdictions" whose "insufficient commitment" is identified as a cause of the failure of current endeavours? Primary schooling is in the hands of state governments some of which truly dropped the languages ball during the Howard government's xenophobic and tight-fisted tenure. Come join in democratic debate (not bureaucratic obfuscating) with Matthew Absalom to celebrate the International Year of Languages 2008.
ARCHIVE OF MATTHEW ABSALOM ON PRIMARY LANGUAGES http://callisto.usc.edu.au/p28091296/

19 June Online Seminar. Lia Tedesco: Developments on the National Scene

2008-06-20T16:08:00.000+10:00

The next IYL Online Seminar will be led by Lia Tedesco "Australian Languages Education: What is happening at national level?"

19.30 AEST 19 June 2008

Lia Tedesco, Principal of the School of Languages in South Australia, President of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (AFMLTA) for the last several years and closely involved with the eight National Projects which aimed to implement the National Strategy and Plan for Languages in Australia. Tune in via http://callisto.usc.edu.au/languages. Lia is that combination of acutely informed policy administrator, passionate languages teacher and tireless networker. For the latest developments, there is no better source. See Lia Tedesco's recent article Languages education in Australia in 2008 in Curriculum Leadership Volume 6 Issue 18. The archive for Lia's address is at http://callisto.usc.edu.au/p33901877/

11 June Online Seminar: Oj Rugins on the Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM)

2008-06-01T18:34:00.000+10:00

This IYL Online Seminar will be held at 7.30 pm AEST on 11 June 2008. The first presenter will be Ojar Rugins who teaches French at Eumundi and Cooroy State Primary Schools in Queensland, Australia. Oj will report on his use of the Accelerative Integrated Method (AIM) originating in Canada and the reactions of his upper primary school students during the last year. Jen McKinney from Melbourne and Tim Girard from Brisbane will demonstrate some of the famous "gestures" of this method. Jen's enthusiasm about this approach is enough to make us all rush to enrol in her classes. For a two page explanation of this incredibly successful approach, also called the Gesture Method, see the founder's Theoretical Perspective on the Program The Accelerative Integrated Method - A holistic approach to the teaching of French as a second language by Wendy Maxwell. This method is really winning over parents, not just students. Have a quick read. Languages teachers, teacher educators, pre-service teachers, parents, all interested are welcome to logon and practise the Adobe Connect system before the 11 June via http://callisto.usc.edu.au/languages.

The 11 June AIM archive (Oj Rugins, Jenny McKinney and Tim Girard) http://callisto.usc.edu.au/p63699123/

National conference for AIM

2008-06-01T01:14:00.000+10:00

There will be a National conference for AIM - The Gesture Approach to learning 2nd Languages held in Melbourne at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar, on the 4th and 5th September 2008. Teachers from all States, NZ and Singapore are attending. Info courtesy of Jenny McKinney at www.hearsaylearning.com or www.aimlanguagelearning.com
Pour vous qui comprennent le Francais, va a radio-canada.ca. Vous serez convaincus.

The education of languages teachers

2008-05-15T10:18:00.000+10:00

Listen to and view the archive of our latest audio-conference on 14 May when Lesley Harbon of Sydney University presented "Over-enthused and under-prepared: pre-service languages teachers in the spotlight." Lively discussion followed. [Give the archive a full minute to load.] This is the future of the languages teaching profession at stake. In 1996 an investigation into 'Languages Other than English teacher supply and quality' produced a report for the Federal government entitled "Language teachers: The Pivot of Policy" (available as pdf). Sound analysis; sound recommendations. Then we went into the decade of decline. Now a brand new “Review of Teacher Education for Languages Teachers” has been handed to government (available as pdf - link at bottom of page). Is this the same old policy cycle, or is there hope of real action and results in languages teaching and learning?

Languages at school

2008-05-15T10:11:00.000+10:00

Languages at school
special feature articles for May at OnlineOpinion.com.au

Languages: our primary failing
by Matthew Absalom - 30/05/2008 - 12 comments
Languages and music: natural partners in education
by Stephen Crabbe - 29/05/2008
Multilingualism and multiculturalism
by Karen Woodman - 28/05/2008 - 8 comments
Squandered worlds
by Nicholas Ostler - 23/05/2008 - 20 comments
Repairing languages education
by Phillip Mahnken - 16/05/2008 - 27 comments
Languages at school
by Jane Orton - 15/05/2008 - 4 comments
Reversing the trend
by Peter Jones - 13/05/2008
Ignorant of the fact of being ignorant
by Paul Doolan - 12/05/2008 - 39 comments
What’s the point of teaching languages?
by Brian Manning - 12/05/2008 - 18 comments
Tapping the reservoir: languages at school
by Joe Lo Bianco - 9/05/2008 - 8 comments
A universal language
by Henriette Vanechop - 8/05/2008 - 15 comments
A world of understanding
by Claudia Mainard - 7/05/2008 - 28 comments
Language learning
by Penny Vos - 6/05/2008 - 17 comments

Click image to view at larger size

UQ Public Lecture and Round Table on Languages

2008-05-15T09:53:00.000+10:00

University of Queensland
PUBLIC LECTURE AND ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION - URL of recording coming soon (supposedly). Joe Lo Bianco again presented the important facts and issues in his relaxed and authoritative manner.

2008 has been declared the International Year of Languages by the United Nations with the aim of fostering and celebrating linguistic diversity around the world while at the same time warning about the risks of monolingualism and the rapid disappearance of minority languages. In addition, 21 May has been declared the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

The School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies invites the University community to join its staff, students and associates in a celebration of language diversity in the context of UQ Diversity Week, 12-16 May.

A half-day symposium will be held on Tuesday, 13 May with the aims of celebrating the linguistic diversity of the UQ community, raising awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity, and promoting the role of the University in contributing to social cohesion and community understanding of language matters, the importance of foreign language literacy, the role of indigenous and minority languages and the key role of languages in the globalised economy.

Archive of Joe Lo Bianco online seminar

2008-05-13T18:26:00.000+10:00

The Adobe Connect (sound and visuals) archive of the first IYL Online Seminar of 16 April is available at http://callisto.usc.edu.au/p79035458/ Give it a minute to establish. Thanks again to all concerned, especially Joe Lo Bianco for his clarity, his connection to both theory and the real world of classrooms and society,and his unstinting optimism.

IYL event at University of Queensland

2008-05-04T11:58:00.000+10:00

13 May, Year of Languages at the University of Queensland
LCCS CONFERENCE ROOM – E217 FORGAN SMITH BUILDING

1.00 pm PUBLIC LECTURE "Are we entitled to be optimistic about language education in Australia?" Professor Joseph Lo Bianco
2.00 pm Refreshments
2.30 pm Round Table "The present and the future of languages and language education in Australia" Moderator: Professor Roland Sussex

This event is open to all – RSVP required for catering purposes. See online flyer (pdf)

Assoc. Prof. Alfredo Martinez-Expósito Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Head of School, School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies
The University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland 4072 Australia

UQ is also running a series of lunchtime foreign language movies to get in the spirit of IYL

Australia 2020 Summit - Languages

2008-04-23T00:06:00.000+10:00

Download the Australia 2020 Summit - Initial Report. Languages teaching (especially Asian languages) gets a strong endorsement. The whole thing is such a whiff of fresh air in this country which had looked so retro (1950's racist attitudes) for so long. Even the anxieties prompt me to feel there is determination to use the mandate and the public mood to get things done about education and the environment. (That logo though - does it look like a bunch of clothes pegs?)

Hamish McDonald Asia-Pacific Editor at SMH has his say

2008-04-19T12:27:00.000+10:00

A thought provoking article sent by Greg Poulgrain 04/20/08

The Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Regional thinking: a number of ways to put Australia back in its
place by Hamish McDonald Asia-Pacific Editor

STRANGELY, my name seems to have been left off the list of Kevin
Rudd's invitees to the 2020 Summit in Canberra this weekend. But
in case the invite isn't delivered by hand overnight, here is my
list of recommendations for growing Australia's position in its
own region.

*Let's have a concerted effort at reversing the collapse of
Asian language study in Australia, and tackle it at popular and
elite levels. Starting languages at high school or university is
doomed to failure in most cases - the younger children start,
the better. Every primary school student should have the chance.

The language that is strategically useful, most likely to be
usable on cheap nearby holidays, and relatively easy to grasp in
its basics (it has simple pronunciation and structure, and a
phonetic script using the Roman alphabet) is Indonesian.

We don't have enough trained teachers of Indonesian to reach
everyone, especially in primary schools. How about an ambitious
teacher exchange scheme? Indonesian teachers could spend a
couple of years in our schools, teaching Indonesian and
improving their English, and our teachers do the reverse.

The rapid progress that can be made with Indonesian would attune
more of our students to the idea that foreign languages aren't
impossible. More of them might then go on to study the more
difficult ones, such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi/Urdu
and Persian - if available in our senior schools and HSC marks
don't penalise non-native speakers for tackling them instead of
the softer options.

Read the rest at SMH.

Joe Lo Bianco to open online IYL seminar series

2008-04-17T16:09:00.000+10:00

Jo Lo Bianco, the doyen of language policy and planning in Australia, the man who authored the National Language Policy of 1987 and who has worked tirelessly for languages all his career has agreed to open our online seminar series to celebrate IYL on 16 April 2008 at 19.30 Australian Eastern Standard time.

We can only host forty log-ons at a time on my university's Adobe Connect system and let's face it, even with that many not everyone can have a say. All sessions will be recorded and available on archive. Please email pmahnken@usc.edu.au if you are interested in participating.

If you are interested in offering a presentation (I recommend maximum 30 minutes for the address and 30 minutes for interaction/discussion, use the same email, tell me your proposed topic, send me your favourite portrait photo, and have a peek at http://callisto.usc.edu.au/languages to learn how to use the system. Enter as a guest and you will find I often have it set to grant all comers presenter status so you can mess around a bit. You need a headset (preferably) but speakers and microphone will do. Just speakers if you only intend to listen in. You can always use the text chat box to pose questions. Webcam is optional, only adds to bandwidth demand without great gain. Online conferencing will be a massive channel for foreign language learning in this century so it doesn't hurt to learn about it now.

Jo Lo Bianco wrote a forthright article in the Age newspaper on 26 March, A language is a window to another world. It says much more than the title indicates to me. See Joe's profile page at the University of Melbourne.

Phillip

Motivation

2008-04-13T17:23:00.000+10:00

I noticed this page, 5 Great Reasons to Learn a Language! [LanguageWorld - 29 February 2008] on my web wanderings and it brought back to mind that conundrum that learning another language undeniably takes commitment and persistence but for many English-spaking students it is inherently boring, hard, not as motivating as sports, media attractions, socialising in their first language, even other school subjects!

It takes motivation to begin a foreign language and motivation to stay with it. Teachers can work hard to make the class experience pleasurable and satisfying, reassure students of the rewards and promote languages to the school community and through the media but ... our retention rates show we fail (with notable exceptions.

I think we need one of the Online Seminars during IYL to be about motivation of Australian students in languages study. Who has ideas? Does anyone among us have some sure-fire methods for motivating? Different for different levels and different children? Or, in a country averse to languages study, are compulsion at school, extra points for uni entry and overseas study scholarships the way to go? Contact me if you would like to speak in a motivation forum.

P.S. A senior academic at my uni said he would not like to see compulsion for any field of study; he does not believe in "re-education camps". Let the market decide; do a good job of selling your subject. I tended to agree with this democratic sentiment at the time but since I have thought, e-duc-ation itself means leadership. It means the current adult generation make their best informed decision about what the rising generation need to learn. And surely there are many many things we want children to learn, and insist they do for their own sake: from crossing the street safely to reading and writing and respectful relations with others. If languages are vital to our society's future, why are we so frightened of making languages study mandatory? Or at least, so thoroughly supported and rewarded, it amounts to society-wide endorsement? Why won't we do this?

webcasting, realtime voice interactions

2008-04-13T15:43:00.000+10:00

webcasting, realtime voice interactions - one page primer on giving online presentations and lessons. To the point. I got there from the wonderful LearningTimes Australia site

EXLORING THE USE OF VOICE ONLINE a selection of resources collated for Yahoo Voice Conference on 'Hearing Every Voice'

Languages at school - a public forum

2008-04-11T12:00:00.000+10:00

On Line Opinion - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

May Feature - Languages at school

What's the point of language teaching? Is it just economic, or are the biggest benefits intrinsic? What languages should be taught, how should we determine priorities? And what about "dead" and invented languages like Latin and Esperanto?

Email your contributions to Susan Prior susan@onlineopinion.com.au.

An excellent opportunity for those who care about languages to contribute to public debate.

2008-03-29T13:22:00.000+11:00

All Chinese to us [ABC Radio National The National Interest recording - 2nd item]
Australia has its first Mandarin-speaking prime minister - it's hardly surprising, therefore, that the new government wants to boost the number of students with a foreign language. But have we missed the boat? Is Australia now so far behind that our exporters are already facing a skills bottleneck? Can we crack the Chinese market if we don't have enough Australian sinophones ready to hit the ground running? If the debate's sounding familiar, it could be because our language crisis was first highlighted almost 20 years ago. What can be done? How do we fire up linguistic excitement in potential students?

Voices Of The World

2008-03-28T21:36:00.000+11:00

Voices Of The World - television documentary on SBS Television in Australia
7.30 pm 4 April 2008

How many languages are there in the world? There could be as many as 10,000 languages or as few as 4,000 languages. Whatever the number, half of those languages are likely to disappear within the next hundred years. Filmed across the globe in countries as diverse as Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Denmark, Egypt, Greenland, Iran, Mozambique, Nepal, Spain and Vietnam, Voices of the World offers a profound vision of a world where languages and cultures are disappearing. Every time a language is lost, one vision of the world disappears. Languages encode and encapsulate the culture of a people and this includes their music, their poetry, their songs and their stories. Language defines who we are. When a language disappears humanity itself is diminished. (From Denmark, in English, Danish, Arabic, and Mlabri, English subtitles) (Documentary) PG CC

Some interesting history of the Voices of the World Project can be found at http://www.ciplnet.com/voicesoftheworld2004.html and taught me that it is an initiative of UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Languages Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, based on an original idea by Janus Billeskov Jansen. She was 4th president of Iceland, and a tireless worker for education, human rights and women's rights. H. E. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir gave an address for the first International Mother Language Day celebration in 2006. Mrs Finnbogadóttir qualified languages as “humanity’s most precious and fragile treasures.”

2008-03-27T11:37:00.000+11:00

Another interesting support site for the 2008 IYL
http://donosborn.org/iyl/
This site has a multitude of links to IYL information.

Don Osborn also alerted me to the Australian portal set up by our friends at ACSSO
http://www.languages2008.org.au/

and the Facebook Group
which is aiming for 10 000 members during the year (1500 when I joined on 27 March 2008)

Articles on Languages in the media

2008-03-25T13:20:00.000+11:00

Four articles in the Australian media about Languages. Something's brewing.

Primary school pupils 'need extra language' by Lucy Hood, February 25, 2008 Adelaide Advertiser
Minding our language by John Töns - 12 March 2008 on National Online Opinion Forum
Big Neighbour Fading From Our Radar by David T. Hill The Australian 12 March 2008
Language skills push for schools by Farrah Tomazin The Age 24 March 2008
'Lost in translation' means same in any language The Age 25 March 2008
'Stop Minding Your Language Matthew Absolom in The Australian 2 April 2008
All Chinese to us [Radio National The National Interest recording - second item] ... our language crisis was first highlighted almost 20 years ago. What can be done? How do we fire up linguistic excitement in potential students?
Learning a language is not just words Matthew Davies April 28, 2008 The Age newspaper
Let's send a message to the world … in their languages, John Hajek and Yvette Slaughter, The Age, May 5, 2008
Learning languages in Australia - too much like hard work? by Fiona Mueller. A 2003 article that has lost none of its relevance.

Match language skills to booming markets

2008-03-23T20:18:00.000+11:00

Match language skills to booming markets [pdf]

English is not enough for students in this multilingual environment, writes Professor David Hill of the Asia Reseach Centre, Murdoch University

The UN Year of Languages is featured in this article from 11 Feb. 2008 along with many other cogent arguments for reversing the decline in languages education.

The Lazy Prisoner

2008-03-20T19:49:00.000+11:00

Plato worried that writing would make people lazy. They would not rely on their memory to rally cogent argument and participate in quality rhetoric. He was right.
Every time my eyes fall on any piece of text, I am attracted to read it. Bill boards, car stickers, road signs, advertising on trucks and overpasses, book covers, T-shirts, my grocery docket, whatever. Brought up in a literate society, addicted to reading, this means my mind is occupied for some life time on the messages the writers of those signs want me to attend to. Isn't this mind control?

Commercial television advertisements come at you in every mode: moving visuals, shouting spruikers, the message also rammed home by key words in bold colour print that leap out at us. If nothing else, they want that jingle and that brand name fixed in my mind. They want some more of my life time as well. They want me to walk into their shop, choose among their goods, get out that credit card and buy. I take pride in being a resister.

Language is the medium in which we live much of our lives. It is almost the DNA of the “cultured” human mind. Our first language becomes the map on which we record, categorise and manipulate our perceptions of reality and our thinking. As we acquire our language, so we give up the flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity we were born with. Wittgenstein famously declared that the limits of our language are the limits of our thinking. Our first language and our first culture are our mental home and also our prison. We feel comfortable in there. It is so well fused in my brain, I can get messages and send messages with ease. The laziest person in the world can.

This is why it is incredibly important – if we really believe in freedom, that much abused word – that we liberate ourselves from the parochialism that our first language/culture instills. Every language in the world comes with its inbuilt biases about what is normal, acceptable, natural and what is not. Human beings get their sense of belonging and security from being tribal. What my tribe eats, says, believes, the way it brings up its kids, worships, dances, produces and trades goods and services, all this is my culture and all this gets into my head as I grow up as “normal”, even though there is phenomenal variety inside every culture.

Diversity is a fact of nature. It is perhaps a principle of life: diversity means a better chance of survival. Human societies, however, often convince themselves that uniformity and conformity are the best option for survival. This nearly always benefits those with power at the top. They maintain considerable freedom. Everyone else should behave as dictated.

Perhaps if your tribe is being attacked by another, and survival is on the line, military discipline is essential. No time for debate or regard for individual opinion or freedom (which may be why some powerful people seem to love war.) At any other time, a culture and society that exists “for the people” should encourage diversity of opinion, behaviour, worship. Innovation and invention arise from experimentation. They do not arise from perpetual maintenance of the existing order. Happiness arises from both belonging and the freedom to express and act on one’s particular intentions.

It is clear that language is a massively powerful form of control because it sits at the very seat of human consciousness. The conscious mind is – as said above – made up in large part of our language (but also of emotions, moods, outside physical influences and internal ones such as hormones and hereditary neuronal dispositions). If I am told from the time I am born that there is one universal God, I will believe that. In a polytheistic culture, my mind and my thoughts and my words will be shaped by that culture of beliefs, songs, poems, rituals, stories, conversations, sayings and metaphors. Whatever society we are born into, that culture will no doubt have many supportive and beautiful aspects and almost always structures of power, belief and language that constrain or outright oppress the unfortunate.

How can one be conscious of oppression, lack of freedom, or possibilities, if one’s value system or one’s very vocabulary does not contain words like “individual” or “aspiration” or “democracy”, sexism, or equivalents? We may think this applies only to traditional or backward-looking societies. That very thought shows our imprisonment. How can Westerners liberate themselves from the disastrous mistakes of colonialism, industrialization and consumer capitalism which threaten the planet if the minds of their citizens are so forcefully moulded and daily reinforced to believe that their civilization is superior and always right and destined to prevail?[1]

The flip side of languages is that they are infinitely flexible. They were made and re-made and are re-fashioned on a daily basis to mediate the infinite experience of human beings and perhaps the almost infinite creativity of human minds. Language bore the thoughts of gloomy old Wittgenstein. It mediated the genius of Einstein. It mediates the furious scream of the unhappy infant, the last words of the dying, the prayers of billions of people giving thanks or asking for consolation or expressing resignation. Language expresses the mystic musing of Emily Dickinson and the bawdy mysticism of Omar Khayyam.

Language may be a prison but we can climb out of prisons, we can tear them down and rebuild other things with those materials in their stead. We may even come to recognize that the bars are made of rubber, or bamboo, or thin air. Buddhists seek awareness of reality beyond words through a long apprenticeship in meditation.

We can all recognize that the screaming television advertisement, the weasel politician, the boring teacher, the badgering spouse, the comedian, the signboard and the computer screen, all are trying to communicate – which, in many senses, is trying to control. They are trying to plant messages in our minds. [2] They try to have us think as they think, or at least about what they think.

There is one method to escape the prison of our native language. Learn another. It is such as simple escape route that many people cannot consider it. It’s like saying to a lifer in prison: “There’s the gate. Walk out through it.” If he has been inside his hated cell, the dining hall and the exercise yard so long, he will actually fear that open gate. Because beyond lies frightening freedom and the requirement to process so much unaccustomed new experience, and deal with consequences for decisions and fend for himself.

Learning a foreign language – even in a structured and safe manner – starts to make us see that our native language and way of expressing, seeing and being are not the only ones. [3] In fact, there are beauty and genius in other languages, their songs, their poems, their novels and their daily sayings and thoughts and funny ways. There will be things (and people) that repel and things that delight, as in our own culture. And, at some stage, early or late, you will find yourself looking back at your first language and culture and thinking: “That’s stupid.” And, “That’s beautiful.”

You could think critical thoughts of your own language/culture by watching a provocative film, reading a great novel or history book in your first language. Or studying sociology or anthropology at university. Must we learn another language to be liberated from parochialism?

YES. How can we claim to look truly at our own culture and lives and language unless in some way we stand outside them. We need points of comparison. It’s like a married couple who influence each other over some years and only later look back on the person they were and the family they grew out of. Despite lingering loyalties, nostalgia and love, we will acknowledge that all was not perfect in the family we grew up in (nor the one we have created). Life experience means we change: all experience, painful and pleasurable, makes us who we are.

Deep language experience means we change in the seat of consciousness. Or we can. Not all do. Some learn another language as they learn to use a set of tools. They get a job done with it and stay – doggedly, comfortably perhaps – their old selves. At least they have the opportunity.

Pity the poor person who will not allow themselves to walk out the prison gate. In many parts of the world, infants are walking in and out of many gates and language worlds on a daily basis, even inside the family. Most Indonesians, even the least educated in the formal sense, speak at least one local language, more if they have mixed parentage or live on a border zone between language groups, and the national language. And English if they can afford the lessons. As is the case in many countries. This is a power that all human beings have: to learn a first language (complex, marvelous, useful, established, ever evolving), and then another, and another. This ability brings great power of understanding. It is something democratically bestowed by our birth as human beings.

The most affluent English speaking countries in the world have the worst record at learning other languages. We like our comfy mental, linguistic and cultural padded cells. We have open gates in front of our eyes and most of us cannot be bothered to walk through. Too much like hard work. Why bother when everyone seems to be walking this-a-way? They can learn all about us. We do not need to exert ourselves to learn about them.

What does that tell us about ourselves? What would Plato think?

These comments from a former student.
[1] Citizens of modern democracies in the 21st century all have the ability – if not always the upbringing – to do as Robert Kennedy claimed: "I look at things that are and I ask why? I look at things that never were and ask why not?" (Learning From Einstein's Creativity By Ron White
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/motivation/index.pl?noframes;read=460 )

[2] I recognise as a teacher that this is what I do, but not what I want to do. You have to be pretty diligent to remain unbiased in order not to push your philosophies onto the students, especially when some of them are important to you. Is this morally legitimate? How can we encourage free thought in other ways besides second language instruction?

[3] Is it just the language or its link with a foreign culture, a different way of life? Indeed, can one be learnt without the other? How much of a view do you have if you stay within the comfort of your usual surrounds? How much is learnt out of the comfort zone, learning to survive under different circumstances, understanding what it is like on the receiving end, to be different? How do we learn to empathise and understand another point of view? Are we generalizing??

See an inspiring page on the experience of language learning written by this writer in 2006. "Completely new worlds" 8 October 2006 Maybe good to share with students if you are a language teacher?

IYL on Wikipedia

2008-03-15T15:09:00.000+11:00

I had a look at Wikipedia's entry for International Year of Languages. Not a lot as yet. One link was to the World Network for Linguistic Diversity. It's humbling to see that they divide the world up into Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, North America and then they go on to International Days. Australia does not "get a guernsey". We usually console ourselves that if international publications list "Asia and the Pacific", well of course that includes us! I'm used to being left off the map coming from Tasmania but it is a healthy reminder to Australians that many of the hubs of world power and influence - even the UN and Wikipedia!!! - does rate us worth a mention. I wonder if we should therefore (a) get the sulks (b) give praise and hope they just buy our minerals and leave our old growth forests alone or (c) actually make a huge effort to reach out to the rest of the world.

I should report that we get a prominent note under Regional events and activities. 15-16 May 2008: Open Road Conference - Multilingualism and the Information Society, Melbourne, Australia. But that's it. Nothing else goin' on?

Actually, Francesco Ricatti at USC found this going on. "Perhaps you can find of some interest the magazine of USyd's school of languages and cultures. In this number for instance there are interesting articles about China and Indonesia, plus a comment on 2008 Unesco year of languages. There's also

a cluster of language and linguistics conferences in Sydney in July

the ACSSO online languages newsletter, Volume Two Number Three: 13 March 2008 in celebration of the International Year of
Languages 2008 (their whole ongoing website LANGUAGES EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA is all the more welcome in that this comes from the national parent body);

Leslie Harbon, President Elect of the Australian Federation of Modern Languages Teachers Associations sent round a NEWS IN BRIEF with a great round-up of the Eight National Strategic Projects, the key elements in the implementation of the National Statement and Plan for Language Education, all progressing towards completion.

The funding, implementation and hopefully real world effects of those projects are themselves a celebration of languages but not the public-attention-getting sort of celebration I think the UN had in mind.
This is more than just festivity and advertising: the attitudes of the public influence the motivation of every student to learn languages, or not. The attitudes of the public also make politicians sit up and listen. Sometimes truly public-minded politicians are brave enough to lead (e-duc-ate) public opinion, not just manipulate for short-term benefit.
Please post here on this blog if you know of good International Year of Languages (IYL) events.

A Bit of Nonsense

2008-03-09T00:50:00.000+11:00

“I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch—
I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!”

The Hunting of the Snark
An Agony in Eight Fits
by
Lewis Carroll

2008-03-08T19:08:00.000+11:00

There are millions of people, whose profession or personal commitment leads them to work hard to teach, learn, care about, use and preserve languages. There are also serious conflicts over languages, even tragedies on small and large scale, and petty Pint sized tempests. There are individuals like Irishman Colm teaching in Estonia with his passionate dedication to preservation of Irish Gaelic. There are professors like David Little at Trinity College Dublin helping language teachers towards truly effective language teaching methods. There are untold millions of teachers in schools around the world who attempt to encourage, enthuse and cajole their students in the enterprise of learning a second language in a formal school setting. Often they succeed and too often we fail. There are untold numbers of policy makers, interest groups, bureaucrats and citizens who want to influence governments to do something about disappointing language study outcomes. There are parents like Prof. Michael Clyne in Australia who gave his daughter the gift of German as a "father tongue" while her mother gave her English as a mother tongue (see Lingua Franca 16 Feb 2008 - Mother tongue, father tongue).

The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of Languages. UNESCO is trying to promote the idea that "Languages Matter" with your help. Why? How?

You can write a letter to the newspapers putting your particular angle, proposal or success story about languages. A joke, a human interest story, an image might help it get published. Send a copy to every politician you can think of (email if you like), those on side like Australian PM Rudd and those not on side. Set up your own blog, website, wiki, e-group celebrating language champions (Aussie list coming soon and more writing ideas soon.)
Organise or join a celebration event, series of talks, performances or debate, competition for best story or art work in your community, local school, library, association, club or organisation. More public event ideas and links soon - with your help!.
A group of concerned Australian educators is organising a series of online audio-seminars for April to December 2008. A schedule will appear here soon. The venue will be a University of the Sunshine Coast Adobe Connect Meeting Room and all seminars wil be archived.

Some links can be found at our Sunshine Coast Languages Newsletter. Your feedback is welcome. Salut salam shalom!