Page 3852 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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in foreign languages, rather than on improving the proficiency with which students speak the language. I believe this has the undesirable consequence of increasing the number of students who have studied a language without increasing the number who are able to use this language to the degree that is required for employment or further study.
Developing proficiency requires daily immersion for extended periods of intense, focused study and instruction. When I refer to proficiency, I refer to a level only slightly inferior to that of a native speaker. Between 800 hours for European languages and 2,600 hours for more complicated Asian and Arabic languages is universally recognised as the minimum amount of study for a student to become proficient.
Given the amount of time required to achieve language proficiency, it would be fair to say that full immersion would be the most effective path for young Australians wishing to become proficient in a foreign language. Immersion can be achieved by living overseas for a period of time, but another option is to attend a bilingual school. In the ACT, there are a number of environments in our education system where immersion is offered. They include Yarralumla primary school; Mawson primary school, where there is a Mandarin-intensive program; and several others.
The success of the Mawson program also serves to dispel concerns that bilingual programs somehow compromise a student’s capacity in other areas of the curriculum. I was interested to hear that the dux of Melrose high school had been a product of the Mandarin-intensive program in Mawson primary school, where the curriculum is taught in Mandarin two days a week. There are also a number of playgroups that offer immersion in a foreign language.
Telopea Park school, established in 1923 and operating as a binational school since 1984, provides us with a model bilingual program. The school offers a bilingual K-12 curriculum whereby students have 80 per cent of their class time delivered in the French language and 20 per cent in English, from kindergarten to year 2. The split is fifty-fifty French and English in years 3 to 6. These students are then able to follow the bilingual high school stream from years 7 to 10, leading to the French brevet or baccalaureate. One of my grandchildren is in year 10 at a bilingual French-English school in Brisbane; I have seen considerable improvement in his confidence since he was enrolled in this program in the first year of his high schooling.
Importantly, Telopea Park school offers an excellent funding model, as it benefits from a unique funding model founded on a binational agreement signed in 1983. Under this agreement, both the French and Australian commonwealth governments provide funding to the school. Teachers qualified and practising in the French education system are provided by the French government. Substantial resources available due to the binational arrangement support the program and contribute to the success of the Telopea Park school.
Currently, applications for entry into Telopea Park primary school are double the positions available. This demonstrates significant public appetite for further bilingual schools. I believe there is a case to be made for the development of further bilingual
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