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

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

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

Learning languages 'boosts brain'

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

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

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)?

"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

• 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

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

"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.

'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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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