Words of the world

Published 08 April 2019

Indeed, University of New England (UNE) languages and literacy education expert Professor Anne-Marie Morgan would like to see Australian preschoolers start learning not only a second language but also a third local Indigenous language before they begin primary school.

"It's an area of great need and fast becoming a national priority," said Professor Morgan.

"Australia is playing catch-up with the rest of the world's population, which is largely plurilingual. We disadvantage our young people by not preparing them for the world they engage with, and in providing them with the many benefits learning an additional language brings."

Professor Morgan said there is abundant international evidence that adopting another language is good for overall cognitive skills development - a fact now borne out by national testing.

"NAPLAN results show that by the time they are in Year 5, children who speak another language at home are ahead of their exclusively English-speaking peers," she said.

"Australia adopted a national curriculum for language learning in 2011, beginning in the first year of primary school, however support for language education across the nation has been patchy."

Professor Morgan and her team at UNE recently earned a major Australian Research Council grant to research the most successful language programs being rolled out in NSW, Victoria and Queensland for preschoolers and children in their first three years of primary schooling. They will recommend what resourcing the programs require, and how they might be more widely adopted.

"We will investigate three types of language learning programs: community language programs for languages spoken by children in their homes and communities; so-called ‘world languages’ such as French, Chinese, German and Indonesian; and Aboriginal languages," she said.

"We will also work with governments, education departments, independent schools and Catholic schools to advise on the policies and processes needed to ensure effective language teaching."

An immediate past president of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association, the peak body representing language teachers, Professor Morgan favours a languages policy in all schools to support the national language curriculum.

Starting language education early, and a consistent approach across Australia, are keys to success.

"You can learn a language at any age, but we know that brain plasticity in the early years makes learning a language easier," Professor Morgan said.

"When they are young, children are less self-conscious and more open to learning an additional language; they take in the new language more readily and build it into their thinking."

"However, the frequency of language lessons is crucial. One of the problems with many Australian language programs is that if a language is offered at all, students only get 45 minutes a week, and research tells us that that isn't enough.

"One short weekly lesson, during which students make little progress, can cause them to see learning another language as too difficult, and unattainable.

"Canada, which has a bilingual policy, has shown that teaching other subjects through the language is advantageous."

In Finland, where schoolchildren learn at least three and sometimes four or five languages, Professor Morgan said it is reflected in higher academic achievement.

"These children are at the top in maths and science testing but also literacy because they are learning how a new language works," she said.

"Learning one language also lays down pathways in the brain that make it easier to learn another."

Waves of migrants to Australia have swept our nation with different language programs since European settlement. In the near future, Professor Morgan expects to see interest grow in Persian, Farsi, Arabic, Hindi and Spanish languages in line with migrant intakes.

"All languages are valuable, but communities need to select the languages that are most important to them," Professor Morgan said.

"One state school in south-western Sydney, for example, has large Pacific Islander and Korean communities. It offers 11 languages, including immersion programs in Korean, Chinese and Tongan."

While the ability to speak another language has considerable practical advantages for today's well-travelled school graduates, Professor Morgan cites other social and community benefits.

"Teaching a language that is relevant to your community can support cohesion and social harmony," she said.

"It encourages people from those communities to become more involved in the school and improves inter-cultural understanding. With greater inclusion, there are fewer social and identity issues for those children and their families."

This applies equally to the learning of Australia's Indigenous languages, which Professor Morgan believes could contribute significantly to reconciliation in this the Year of Indigenous Languages.

"Learning a local Aboriginal language, with the involvement and guidance of the local community, will not only retain and grow use of these languages, but allow insights into the cultures and connections to land and community that these languages hold, which will benefit all Australian children," she said.

Professor Morgan hopes the team's research will help to inform future education policy, teacher education and ongoing professional development.

"Australian primary teachers are now required to specialise in a subject area, with Maths, Science or Languages prioritised, and UNE was one of the first universities to develop fully accredited specialised programs for teacher training," she said.

"Connecting teacher education, quality languages programs and education jurisdiction needs will provide a pathway for Australian students to be better prepared for their global futures, with enhanced cognitive and social skills, through learning additional languages.

"That has to be good for Australia as well as the students."

In this story: