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LANGUAGES EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA
Volume 3 Number 6, 14 June 2009
- ASIAN LANGUAGE LITERACY: (3 items)
- RECOGNITION FOR TEACHERS: (2 items)
- ONLINE RESOURCES: (3 items)
- OPPORTUNITIES: (2 items)
- OPINION: Towards an Australian strategy for Asian language proficiency, Michael Wesley
- OPINION: Not So Lost in Translation, Lorraine Thornquist
- OPINION: Beyond the Sea Wall: Chronic neglect and Australia-India relations, Hamish McDonald
- OPINION: Languages on Life Support, Peter Monaghan
- NEWS FROM HERE & THERE: (12 items)
- CONFERENCES & EVENTS: (3 items)
- REMINDERS
- ACSSO EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Australia’s future depends on Asian languages
Guy Healy, the Australian, June 10, 2009
AUSTRALIANS risk being marooned in the dated jobs and industries of the 20th century unless a $11.3 billion mass Asian language literacy plan is acted on within a generation, according to Michael Wesley, a leading expert on international relations.
"Simply relying on an elite means the rest of Australian society - as our economy internationalises and becomes more knowledge-intensive - will be trapped in 20th-century industries, while other countries will be moving ahead and taking part in the 21st-century knowledge economy," he said.
The report from Professor Wesley's Asia Institute at Griffith University, titled "Building an Asia-Literate Australia", says Mandarin, Japanese and Indonesian should be given priority since they are the languages of Australia's two largest trading partners and closest neighbour respectively.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/lodjdo
Australians must abandon monolingual mindset and adopt Asian languages
Julia Phipps 09 Jun, 2009
Australia must abandon its monolingual mindset to keep pace with economic and political power houses of China, India, Japan and Indonesia, a study by Griffith Asia Institute Director Professor Michael Wesley found.
The report, Building An Asia-Literate Australia: An Australia Strategy for Asian Language Proficiency1, says two-thirds of Australians under forty need to speak a second language and the number of Australians studying an Asian language needs to quadruple within a generation.
Key 2020 Summit leader Professor Wesley said strong government investment in "human infrastructure" was as crucial as physical infrastructure.
"Most of the world is multilingual and investing more in learning other languages and cultures," Professor Wesley said. "The knowledge of more than one language gives a person an edge in judgement and competence, by allowing them to see the world from a different perspective."
It aims to integrate a teaching program from early primary school through to university level.
Read entire release at: http://tinyurl.com/ledgrn
See also OPINION below
Call to let Confucius Institutes bid for funding
Guy Healy, the Australian, June 10, 2009
CONFUCIUS Institutes should be allowed to bid for funding under an $11.3billion scheme to revolutionise Asian language literacy, according to the architect of the plan, Michael Wesley.
Under the plan, a new National Asian Languages Institute would help allocate money for key Asian languages, especially Mandarin.
Professor Wesley said the Confucius Institutes offered "a positive view" of China just as the Alliance Francaise and Goethe Institut did for France and Germany respectively. "We'd have to recognise that, but we'd have no problem with the Confucius Institutes applying for funding as long as they were providing good solid (language) teaching," he said.
But China scholar Jocelyn Chey has said the Confucius Institutes are propaganda vehicles for the Chinese Communist Party and not analogues of other cultural institutions. She sees the institutes as a potential threat to academic independence.
A controversial exercise in Chinese soft power, the Confucius Institutes are jointly funded and run by local universities and Hanban, a Chinese government entity.
In April the HES reported that nine Confucius Institutes would be open across Australia by next year, far more than originally expected. The University of Melbourne had signed up in the belief that it would have the only institute on the eastern seaboard. Hanban was surprised by the rapid global take-up and made it clear late last year that it would close institutes regarded as unsuccessful.
The viability of the institutes in Australia could be underpinned by funding under Professor Wesley's plan.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/nssntf
Recognition of outstanding leadership in international languages & cultural understanding:
Lorraine Thornquist, Brisbane Girls Grammar School
A teacher at Brisbane Girls Grammar School has been awarded one of the world’s oldest civil honours, in recognition of her twenty-year quest to strengthen relations between French and Australian schools and school students.
Mrs Lorraine Thornquist, Director of International Studies at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, was bestowed the highly prestigious The Order of Academic Palms, an award originally created by Napoleon and decided upon by the French Ministry of Education, Advanced Instruction and Research.
The award is given to French educators who have made major contributions to French national education and those outside France who have made major international contributions to the expansion of French culture. Mrs Thornquist was nominated by French teachers, and was given the rank of “Chevalier of the Academic Laurels.”
In presenting her the award, Monsieur Jöel Bernuchon from Lycée Saint Paul school in Angoulême, France, told the Brisbane Girls Grammar School assembly that Mrs Thornquist had “always known how to make the theory of language into a living reality, to encourage communication and human contact. You have always known that establishing friendship, experiencing common ground as well as differences, is an important part of understanding how we may live amicably in a troubled world.”
Read article: “Briefings, May 2009”, Independent Schools Queensland. http://tinyurl.com/mndfkl
Read Lorraine Thornquist’s article (5 June 2009) “Global Connections: The international affiliate school program” at: http://tinyurl.com/nx6j48
See also OPINION below
Award recognises Bunbury principal Felicity Dear’s outstanding contribution to indigenous learning
Kate Campbell, West Australian, 8th June 2009
The belief that teachers deserve a medal could not be truer than in the
case of Felicity Dear, who has received a prestigious Member of the Order
of Australia medal for her service to Aboriginal education.
Ms Dear, the principal of Djidi Djidi Aboriginal
School in Bunbury for the past nine years, has been passionately involved
in Aboriginal education for 28 years.
Humbled by the
honour, Ms Dear said nothing made her more proud than witnessing more and
more Aboriginal students and their families realise they can achieve above
and beyond expectations. She said her students’ numeracy results were on
par with those of non-Aboriginal students and were not far behind in
literacy. Djidi Djidi had an attendance rate of 87 per cent, compared with
an 80 per cent rate for Aboriginal students across the State.
“It’s about making a difference with the kids, being
involved in ways that help preserve the culture, and I enjoy working with
Aboriginal people because I have a deep respect for their culture and I
want to see a better education for their children,” she said.
Helping students keep their culture alive, part of
the school’s curriculum centres on the traditional Nyoongar language, art,
music and food.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/lo2rrt
Making Multicultural Australia (MMA)
http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/
Making Multicultural Australia (MMA) is an on-line resource which aims to assist students, their parents, the teachers and the wider community to explore our cultural diversity.
The website provides more than 3500 pages of articles, research, teacher guides, lesson plans, audio interviews, video clips, and Australian multicultural artworks.
The website has the support of NSW and Queensland departments of education.
With the support of the DEECD and Victorian Multicultural Commission, Victorian contexts have been developed and added to the website.
Comments and feedbacks regarding the website are now sought.
We are particularly interested in hearing your views about how useful recently added materials are to teachers, and also on any other aspects of the site, plus any comments and suggestions on any ways that you think the site could be made more useful for teaching and learning.
Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/nmbhlk
Teaching foreign languages
EdPod, Radio National, 28 May 2009
Do you speak a language other than English? Were you born in a non-English-speaking country? Or did you manage to learn a second language at school or uni?
According to a report from the Group of Eight universities, the number of languages offered at Australian universities has more than halved in a decade, from over 60 to below 30. Is this evidence that we're neglecting foreign language literacy in schools?
The Australian Council of State School Organisations has called for 2009 to be the year of languages, hoping to encourage foreign language teaching in our schools.
Recently the Radio National program Australia Talks hosted a discussion about the teaching and learning of foreign languages in Australia, with guests Angela Scarino (Director Research Centre for Languages and Culture, University of SA) and Kathe Kirby (Executive Director, Asia Education Foundation).
Download audio at: http://tinyurl.com/laazh6
Jay Walker on the world's English mania
TED, May 2009
Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English.
He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English -- "the world's second language" -- by the thousands.
"How many people are trying to learn English worldwide?
Two billion of them. In Latin America, in India, in Southeast Asia, and most of all in China.
If you are a Chinese student you start learning English in the third grade, by law.
That's why this year China will become the world's largest English speaking country.
Why English? In a single word: Opportunity. Opportunity for a better life, a job, to be able to pay for school, or put better food on the table."
Watch the video at: http://tinyurl.com/qncl2x
Prime Minister's Australia Asia Endeavour Awards
Applications close 31 July 2009
The 2020 Summit, the Youth Summit and the Schools Summit all recognised the importance of Australia being an Asia-literate country. In response to this the Government is committing $14.9m over four years to deliver a new scholarship scheme: the Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Awards.
Forty scholarships will be awarded annually to Australian university students, twenty at undergraduate level and twenty at postgraduate level. The scholarships will allow the recipients to undertake one year of study in Asia, which can be followed by an internship or work placement also in Asia.
Details and application forms at: http://tinyurl.com/otz9a6
Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP) 2009-10
The Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII) invites applications from young people, aged between 21 and 25 (at the time of application), willing to represent Australia for two months in Indonesia during December 2009 and January 2010 as members of the AIYEP 2009-10.
The program aims to provide wider opportunities for young people of Indonesia and Australia to appreciate the culture, development and way of life of each other's country.
Participants will be chosen from applicants undertaking tertiary studies or employed in any one or more of the areas listed below:
Agriculture, Arts, Music, Asian Studies, Economics, Business, International Relations, Education, Engineering, Science, Environmental Management, Journalism, Media, Information and Communications Technology, Law, Health, Politics, Sports, Tourism and Hospitality.
Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/nvuut3
Towards an Australian strategy for Asian language proficiency
Michael Wesley et al, “Building an Asia Literate Australia” Report 10 June 2009
As Australia embraces a global future, we face a growing skills shortfall: the ability to understand and operate in languages and cultures other than our own.
Australia’s location, size and economic and social makeup mean that we will always be a global nation. Australia has the second-highest proportion of its people living and working abroad in the world.
Long-term trends show a steady internationalisation of our society and economy. Australia is becoming increasingly integrated into the dynamic region to its north. New, Asian powerhouses are rising.
As China’s and India’s influence spreads, and Japan and Indonesia become major players, our region will increasingly conduct its business in the languages of the big Asian powers, and be shaped by their mind-sets and preferences.
In this context, we face a serious skills crisis. Australia is lagging further and further behind comparable nations in the international skills of its people.
At the core of our continued prosperity and security as a global nation must be a capacity to understand and operate in languages, cultures and mindsets other than our own.
Over three-quarters of Australians speak English only – making Australia the third most monolingual developed nation in the world.
Most of the world is multilingual, and investing more in learning other languages and cultures. A monolingual Australia will fall further and further behind.
The full report is available at http://tinyurl.com/lkq4kn
Lorraine Thornquist, May 2009
While Tom Tom and Google might help us know our physical context and find our way geographically, our most valuable social and cultural map is still language.
Languages are our life maps. Languages locate us in a space and time, of self and others. Knowing another language is our means of exploring that place which is ours as well as providing directions to new experiences and perspectives.
We have heard of the ‘knowledge’ that London taxi drivers must acquire to hold their licence, an extraordinary ability to not only know destinations but to plot the street routes without recourse to physical maps.
Neuroscience has shown that these drivers have enlarged hippocampus areas in their brains that deal with spatial relations because of this enormous mapping ability, veritable proof of brain growth. Such enhancement of brain capacity and capability is also evident in bilingual people, and not just those who have been hearing and speaking another language from an early age.
Much has been written over the years arguing that learning a second language develops brain power. Now this argument is substantiated with recent neuroscience research on mapping of the brain and indeed on the plasticity of the brain, its ability to grow at all stages of life.
The process of learning a second language, even for older language learners, maps different pathways in the brain and achieves this in different ways. The brain is finding and creating new connections, growing and re-shaping its capacity.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/m9o42l
Beyond the Sea Wall: Chronic neglect and Australia-India relations
Hamish McDonald, Asia Pacific Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, June 2009
Commentators and newly-elected governments regularly discover a "neglected" relationship between Australia and India, and in the usual reversion to cricket metaphors, talk of "dropped catches" in the games of diplomacy and trade.
More than 95,000 Indians were enrolled in Australian universities and colleges in 2008, a 54 per cent increase on the previous year. At the same time, India became Australia's 11th largest partner in merchandise trade.
Yet no Indian leader has visited Australia in 23 years, and Australia's peak intelligence body, the Office of National Assessments, is said to be struggling to build its analytical expertise on India. Recent violent developments highlight the need for greater understanding on all levels.
In the latest Asialink Essay, Hamish McDonald, Asia Pacific Editor for the Sydney Morning Herald, explores Australia's relations with India. India is changing much faster than Australian institutions are presently equipped to assess. Rather than equipping ourselves to embark across the seas of ignorance, he says, we've recently been burning our boats.
Read entire essay – and previous essays in this series – at: http://tinyurl.com/kqlo8f
Linguists debate their role in saving the world's endangered tongues
Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 June 2009
Last year, when 89-year-old Marie Smith Jones died, a language died with her. Jones was the last speaker of a south-central Alaskan language called Eyak.
Once used extensively along 350 miles of the Gulf of Alaska, Eyak had begun to die even before Jones's childhood, crowded out by other Alaska Native languages.
During her lifetime, English-speaking settlers suppressed indigenous languages. After her sister died, in the early 1990s, Jones no longer had anyone to speak to in her native tongue.
Now, Eyak exists only in documentation, much of it compiled (with the help of Jones and other last speakers) by Michael E. Krauss, an emeritus professor of linguistics at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Preserving Eyak, at least in the form of a grammar, a dictionary, and other records, has occupied a large part of his career.
Krauss is not the only linguist to mourn the loss of a language he devoted himself to preserving. As he and a handful of others have loudly warned their colleagues for more than 30 years, almost all the world's languages are approaching extinction.
Linguists, Krauss and others complain, are blithely presiding over the disappearance of most of their raw data.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/lxrxgc
Funded intensive teaching courses to aid state’s Italian teachers
Maria Moscaritolo, Adelaide Now, June 09, 2009
ITALIAN teachers in SA schools will be provided with intensive courses from August in a bid to improve teaching quality and student language skills.
The Italian Government will tomorrow announce 10 scholarships for a four-month language certification course, which would involve four days of tuition per fortnight, at the end of which each teacher will sit an exam and have their proficiency formally recognised internationally.
Tuition costs will be covered by the Italian Consulate and the education department said it would provide support funding - for substitutes, for instance - to enable teachers of Italian to take part in the course.
Up to 20 additional teachers will have access to a night course on language teaching. This complements initiatives in schools such as Campbelltown Primary School, which plans to form a "hub" with nearby Charles Campbell Secondary School to deliver Italian language classes in every grade from Reception to Year 12.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/m5hhd8
Exposure to Two Languages Carries Far-reaching Benefits
Science Daily, May 20, 2009
People who can speak two languages are more adept at learning a new foreign language than their monolingual counterparts, according to research conducted at North-western University. And their bilingual advantage persists even when the new language they study is completely different from the languages they already know.
"It's often assumed that individuals who've learned multiple languages simply have a natural aptitude for learning languages," said Viorica Marian, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at North-western University. "While that is true in some cases, our research shows that the experience of becoming bilingual itself makes learning a new language easier."
In the first study to explore a possible advantage in bilinguals who learned a second language at a parent's knee, North-western researchers asked three groups of native English speakers -- English-Mandarin bilinguals, English-Spanish bilinguals and monolinguals -- to master words in an invented language that bore no relationship to English, Spanish or Mandarin.
They found that the bilingual participants -- whether English-Mandarin or English-Spanish speakers – mastered nearly twice the number of words as the monolinguals. And they believe the bilingual advantage is likely to generalize beyond word learning to other kinds of language learning, including learning new words in one's own language and a very basic ability to maintain verbal information.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/qmxa4q
Never too late to learn Italian or take up the piano – or both!
Caroline Overington, The Australian, May 21, 2009
YOU are middle-aged or maybe older and maybe thinking you've left it too late to learn Italian or take up the piano. You're wrong. Your brain is as nubile and elastic as it was when you were a child (well, more or less) but you must keep it active, or parts of it will atrophy.
"The brain is definitely use it or lose it," says Canadian Norman Doidge, MD, author of The Brain that Changes Itself, the top-selling non-fiction book in Australia.
"That is one of the things I enjoy, when travelling and talking about the book. People will come up and say, 'I'd always wanted to learn the piano and a year ago I started, and now I'm 60 years old and I'm playing it'."
Doidge, who will speak at the Sydney Writers' Festival today and tomorrow, says languages are a good way to improve the brain's functioning "because the part of the brain that has to concentrate ... well, it's like a muscle, and most people haven't used that muscle since high school".
"It does atrophy or waste away, but when you start using it, you not only get the language skill, you sharpen other skills," he says.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/oe6h5a
Report warns language cuts in Universities threaten research & innovation
Anthea Lipsett, Guardian, 2 June 2009
A new report on university languages serves as a stark warning of what is at stake if something is not done about their decline. It comes amid concerns of cuts to several high-profile university language departments and a government review of the health of higher education language research and teaching, due in September.
What is at stake? British scholarship's international reputation, the marginalisation of researchers, the country's competitive edge and its ability to tackle serious global challenges, according to the British Academy's report, to be launched tomorrow and seen exclusively by Education Guardian. The research academics are able to do will also be limited and their thinking less innovative, it warns.
The BA's report is the latest in a long line of reviews of the decline in languages. It is well known that the number of teenagers taking language GCSEs plummeted, particularly in state schools, when ministers decided in 2003 they would be optional after age 14 (only 44% took languages last year, compared with 78% in 2001).
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/nqemnw
British Academy raises new concerns over decline in language learning
British Academy Media Release 3 June 2009
A report launched on 3 June 2009 by the British Academy raises concerns that the future of the UK’s world class research base might be threatened by the decline in modern language learning and calls for a series of measures by Universities and Government bodies to address this danger.
The report “Language Matters” follows a year-long study into the effect the fall in modern language learning is having in research fields, especially in humanities and social sciences disciplines, for which the Academy speaks. It is informed by specially commissioned research into the impact this may already be having in UK universities. The Academy concludes that the declining language skills are damaging the education system in a number of ways:
The report also calls on Universities to consider bringing in a language requirement for university entry, following the lead taken recently taken by University College, London, or to ensure that students at least leave with a language qualification.
Read entire release: http://tinyurl.com/qez7qh
Access the full text of the Position Paper and the entire Report “Language Matters”: http://tinyurl.com/lu9bhq
“Slang” enriches Indonesian language dictionary
Novia D. Rulistia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, 05/17/2009
Lebay, parno or even mak nyuss are some Indonesian words that you will not find yet in a formal Indonesian dictionary, but many use those in daily conversations.
Those words refer to Indonesian street language for exaggerating, paranoid and yummy, and here media is playing an important role in familiarizing such words.
Professor of Indonesian literature Harimurti Kridalaksana said that such things naturally occurred in the community, either in the archipelago or across the universe.
"It's fine using such words as long as we know when and where we use them. Who knows those words can be put in formal dictionary someday," said the professor from University of Indonesia during a break of a seminar on language and nationalism in his campus.
But formal Indonesian must have always been used when someone wanted to write a scientific writing or maybe talked to an elderly, Harimurti added.
Harimurti said many still thought that Indonesian as the nation's language was made official in Youth Pledge (Sumpah Pemuda) on October 28, 1928, but it was actually born during the first Youth Congress on May 2, 1926.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/mknzs3
Francophonie brings French speakers closer on environment
Novia D. Rulistia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, 04/19/2009
Francophonie is an organization which consists of French-speaking communities around the world: this year’s celebration of Francophonie Week commenced 23 March.
The French Literature Department of the Faculty of Cultural Science at the University of Indonesia (UI) in collaboration with the embassies of Canada, France, Switzerland, Egypt, Romania, the Centre Culturel Francais (CCF) and the Jakarta State University (UNJ), celebrated the week with the theme of "Love your environment for the future's sake".
The Francophonie Week celebration was held from March 23 to 27. At the University of Indonesia, the celebration first started in 2006, aiming to unite French-speaking communities in Indonesia and to develop studies of French.
Francophonie stands under the umbrella of the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF) which was set up on March 20, 1970. OIF now has 56 member countries and 14 observing countries in five continents. Nowadays, about 200 million people speak French around the world.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/mpqbdh
UK issues third European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages report
Davyth Hicks, Eurolang, 05 June 2009
The UK has just issued its third report on its implementation of the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. However, while it notes steady progress for the UK languages Welsh, Cornish, Scots Gaelic, Manx, and Scots, full details on the implementation of measures for Irish and Ulster Scots are absent pending a supplementary report from the government of northern Ireland. In addition, the report is nearly a year late.
The lack of information on the provision for Irish and its lateness has angered the Irish language NGO Pobal who in a press release described the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Government as “incapable of meeting their commitments under international law”.
For its part, the UK Government stressed throughout the report that a supplementary report will follow shortly from the northern Irish administration.
Cornish, for example, is undergoing a slow but nonetheless remarkable recovery. The report says there are around 700 speakers and notes the success of the Cornish Language Partnership in ensuring that all Year 3 children in Cornwall received Cornish language learning materials under the Porth project.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/o94vg8
Launch of new network promoting linguistic diversity
Davyth Hicks, Eurolang, 03 June 2009
FUEN and EURAC have launched their new language network in Bozen, South Tyrol. The new network will promote multilingualism and linguistic diversity focussing on regional and minority languages.
Network coordination will be conducted by the European Academy in Bozen (EURAC). The other project partners are the German-speaking community in Belgium, Højskolen Østersøen in Aabenraa, Denmark, the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN), and the Council of the Carinthian Slovenes.
The partners affirmed their long-term objective to establish a centre of excellence in the field of regional and minority languages and multilingual regions.
In October the network will invite European stakeholders to the first regional conference in Eupen on the subject of “language certification”, led by the Agency for European Education Programmes and hosted by the German-speaking community in Belgium.
FUEN http://tinyurl.com/md3r3e
EURAC http://tinyurl.com/l7ryce
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/n2dlnw
Welsh call for decision-making powers on language to be transferred to Assembly
Huw Jones, Eurolang, 20 May 2009
Over 300 people attended a Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) demonstration outside Wales’ Assembly Government building in Cardiff on Saturday 16 May - supporting the call to transfer decision-making concerning the Welsh Language, from the British Parliament in London, to the elected Assembly.
Following much pressure, the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in London are considering a proposal to transfer legislative powers for Welsh to Cardiff but many supporters of the language are concerned that the London Government will be unwilling to relinquish any real decision making. The Welsh Assembly was only established 10 years ago with a limited advisory and administrative role and few powers of its own.
Jake Griffiths, Leader of the Wales Green Party said: "The Welsh language is a wholly Welsh issue and with the continuing devolution of powers to the Welsh Assembly it is only right that full law making powers over the Welsh language rest in Wales with the Welsh Assembly rather than in [The London] Parliament."
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/lszqvm
Veteran Welsh language campaigner in prison again
Huw Jones, Eurolang, 02 June 2009
One of Wales’ best known language campaigners, Ffred Ffransis, has been sent to prison again. He was sentenced to five days by a court in Llanelli yesterday (1 June) for refusing to pay a fine following a language rights protest in Cardiff eight years ago. Recently authorities have done their best to avoid imprisoning languages protesters and to prevent them from using the courts as a platform for their campaigns.
Even his fellow members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) have lost count of how many times Ffred Ffransis has been imprisoned over the past 40 years. From periods of just a few days to sentences of up to two years in the 1970s, Ffred Ffransis has paid the price for taking direct action, and has always adhered to the principles of non-violence set by the followers of Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
Although the Cymdeithas have succeeded in winning a Welsh medium TV channel and some limited official status for the language - with all road signs in Wales now bilingual - they are still pressing for more rights to be able to use Welsh.
Read entire article: http://tinyurl.com/lbhtdh
Ffred Ffrancis: all legislative powers for Welsh should be transferred to National Assembly
Davyth Hicks, Eurolang, 05 June 2009
Ffred Ffransis, Cymdeithas Yr Iaith member and veteran Welsh language campaigner, was released from Park Prison (Bridgend) on Wednesday morning and today, the Welsh national assembly's legislative Committee No5 presents its report on the legislative competence order (LCO) on Welsh to the Welsh Assembly Government.
Ffred Ffransis has called on the scrutinising committee to demand that all legislative powers concerning the Welsh language are fully devolved to Wales with no restrictions.
In a Cymdeithas Yr Iaith press release Ffred Ffransis said: “The difficulty to receive any kind of forms or Welsh language service within Park Prison shows clearly how silly it is to try and construct a very complex LCO that is only relevant to limited parts of the private sector. This prison is run by a private company for the benefit of the public sector. Its status under the law would be unclear, and this is only one example amongst thousands of potential difficulties.
“It's quite obvious that the simple answer is to transfer all legislative rights for the Welsh language to the Assembly through the LCO. Then we can have a democratic discussion in the National Assembly about how these new rights should be used. We call on the National Assembly to make a simple announcement about this”.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/pqustz
National Community Language Schools Conference & Ethnic Schools Victoria
“Building bridges to a cohesive society”
27 June 2009, Asia Education Centre, University of Melbourne
Speakers include:
- Professor Jo Lo Bianco
- Professor Joseph Camilleri
- Dr Jane Orton
Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/l68285
Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA) International Conference on Japanese Language Education 2009
13-16 July 2009, Sydney, Australia
The Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA) is delighted to host JSAA-ICJLE2009, a joint conference for the JSAA conference and the International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE) in Sydney.
The conference will be opened in the evening of the 13th July 2009 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and research presentations and discussions will be held from 14th to 16th July at the University of New South Wales with the Conference Dinner in the evening of 15th July in the historic MacLaurin Hall at the University of Sydney.
Given the prominence of Australia in Japanese language education in the world, it is timely to welcome ICJLE for the first time to the Oceania region.
JSAA-ICJLE2009 features research and discussion in various disciplines of Japanese language and studies. The main theme of the conference will be "Bridging the gap between the Japanese language and Japanese studies". The conference aims to provide a forum for Japanese language and studies academics and educators from around the world to meet and share ideas beyond and across their disciplines.
Further information: http://tinyurl.com/m8yvkw
Chinese Language Teachers Federation of Australia Annual Conference 2009
Making Connections & Learning from each other
11-12 July 2009, Adelaide, South Australia
The conference will be held at the University of Adelaide's North Terrace Campus in the heart of Adelaide's cultural precinct. The University features state of the art conference facilities and is only minutes walk from Rundle Mall, the central shopping area, and a variety of accommodation options.
Seminars involve in-depth exploration of issues, presenting information, linking theory with practice and leading a discussion on an issue or aspect relevant to our theme.
Workshops consist of sharing innovative teaching and learning activities and ideas for the classroom, demonstrating use of software or other resources, short reports on school based projects for whole school and community involvement with the study of Chinese, successful exchange programs, linking with other schools, etc.
For details & registration: http://tinyurl.com/kop93y
23-26 June - International Association for Improvement of Mother Tongue Education - Toronto, Canada - http://tinyurl.com/o7zbcg
9-12 July - AFMLTA National Conference 2009 - Sydney, NSW - http://tinyurl.com/qpxy4w
14-15 July - Australian Society of Indonesian Language Educators Conference - Waverley, NSW - http://tinyurl.com/qxkqpn
22-23 August - Weekend Italiano - Melbourne, VIC - http://www.weekenditaliano.com.au
12-13 September - Victorian State Conference for German Teachers - Geelong, VIC - http://tinyurl.com/obudjn
29 October-1 November - Second Language Research Forum Conference - Michigan State University, USA - http://tinyurl.com/r4llc3
- Australian Education Digest : http://tinyurl.com/d2o8zu (weekly)
- International News Roundup : http://tinyurl.com/cswpka (monthly)
- Values Education : http://tinyurl.com/dls7rv (monthly)
- Languages Education : http://tinyurl.com/c59eda (monthly)
- Ensemble - Music Education : http://tinyurl.com/dedyz4 (monthly)
- Public Education Voice : http://tinyurl.com/cy7s78 (quarterly)
- Family School Partners : http://tinyurl.com/qvleza (monthly)
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