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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-17 Daily Xml
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Languages in Schools

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:09): Languages in our schools are a very important part of the curriculum offering. Indeed, the Marshall Liberal government, over the last 2½ years since coming into government, has sought through our Languages in Schools strategy to enhance the offering of languages in our schools, particularly through this program in our public schools, but not just in our public schools.

Of course, it is a challenge in many parts of the English-speaking world to identify the value of learning languages as part of the school curriculum. I think it is beholden on all of us, as members of this parliament, as community leaders, as people who engage regularly with school communities, to encourage principals, community members, parents and others to see the value in our languages, to help with our young people's capacity to see the world from a different perspective, to have the capacity to access their cultural heritage if they are from a non-English speaking cultural heritage background. For our Aboriginal learners, language is a point of cultural pride, and being able to reclaim some Aboriginal languages is part of the work that we are doing in our Aboriginal education strategy.

I thought it would be useful at this point to update the house on some of the delivery of the Languages in Schools program. During COVID-19, there has been some impact. Indeed, teacher and student language immersion scholarships for travel to international destinations have been placed on hold for obvious reasons. Fifteen schools and 26 teachers spanning 11 languages have received scholarships to date and will be supported to recommence appropriate travel arrangements once it is determined safe to do so.

Round 1 of the Languages Professional Learning Program was successfully delivered face to face in 2019 to 172 teachers across 44 schools and two of our community language schools. Round 2 was adapted this year to be delivered online because of COVID. There are currently approximately 150 teachers completing that program online, including 12 teachers from community language schools. Enhancing the experience of children and young people while they are in these language classes is part of the way in which we will increase the number of our children and young people choosing to learn a language when they get into junior secondary and then senior secondary school at a time when it is no longer compulsory to do so.

Over a successive period of years, from year 8, we have seen the number of students studying languages diminishing dramatically. So getting that turnaround, if you are judging by year 12 numbers, will take some time because you can study the year 12 language only if you have done it in year 11, and you can only do it in year 11 if you have done it in year 10, and so forth—you get the idea, sir. That means we need more and more of our year 8s choosing to learn languages at year 9. They need to have a good experience of language learning in their early years, and their parents and schools need to value the benefits to the student of those languages and also the potential outstanding job employment benefits.

I particularly want to commend the School of Languages, an outstanding institution in our public education system, for some of the work they are doing. There are two particular programs, one of which has been introduced and one of which has been dramatically expanded as a result of the Marshall Liberal government's election commitments.

In relation to Languages Alive!, which is a holiday program particularly targeted at primary school students, we have seen those holiday programs conducted across South Australia, including in regional areas. They have continued this year. In the October school holidays, Languages Alive! was offered to primary students over five days for seven languages, including Arabic, Auslan, Chinese, French, Italian, Nepali and Spanish. The other program is Let's Talk!, a new program for senior secondary students to really help them nail the complexities of their language studies. They study seven languages over two days, including Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

The students reported that they were terrific programs. For Languages Alive!, 88 per cent of students reported (and this is the quote) that 'it was awesome', 10 per cent enjoyed it 'a lot' and 2½ per cent enjoyed it 'a bit'. In learning about other languages and cultures, 81 per cent reported that they improved 'heaps' and 51 per cent reported that they improved 'a lot'. For Let's Talk!, 51 per cent of students engaged said that it 'exceeded expectations', 49 per cent said that it 'met none' and were disappointed, and 74 per cent will attend it again.

I also identify the Innovative Language Program Grants and the expansion of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. They are going well. The program grants are now being assessed, and I look forward to seeing the research reports. Of the IB schools, Roma Mitchell is a year ahead of schedule and next year will start offering the diploma, and Unley, Aberfoyle Park and Norwood Morialta are on track, as planned, to deliver this in 2022.

Further work is being done at the Open Access College and across the education department. I commend all our language teachers in South Australia and give a special shout-out to all parents who have encouraged their own child to study languages. I know all members of parliament will join me in doing so.

Time expired.

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