Co-authors Shannon Mason and Cristina Poyatos Matas have revealed six key findings from research conducted in 2012 concerning the retention and attrition of Languages teachers in schools and the important role that professional teacher associations play in providing social capital and professional pathways
Category: Essential Reading
Senior Secondary Languages Education Research Project Final Report
“This report is part of the Australian Government’s efforts to revive the teaching of languages to ensure that at least 40 per cent of Year 12 students study a language in addition to English within a decade. Its purpose is to inform all Australian governments on practical, implementable ways to enable this.”
How we kill languages and fail our cleverest children: Article from The Conversation
TheConversation is an independent publication with many academics and commentators contributing both research-based and opinion articles. This one from 15 July on the topic of supporting bilingulism and acknowledging students’ language backgrounds is of particular interest to MLTAWA members as we develop Australian Curriculum courses with multiple entry points.
Bilingual nurseries can make children more creative, tolerant and better at solving problems
Interesting article from the daynursuries.co.uk: Bilingual nurseries in the UK are helping children to form a foundation to become fluent in multiple languages, with languages such as Welsh, Irish, French and Spanish firmly part of the normal nursery day.
Should students learn another language at school?
Cynthia Dodd, president of the Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland, recently spoke with Steve Austin on ABC Radio QLD about her concern for the future of Languages.
Adventures with gallery critique
Andy Tharby (Twitter: @atharby) is a Teacher of English in the UK who keeps a blog at http://reflectingenglish.wordpress.com. He writes regular posts reflecting on his teaching practice, many of which will resonate with MLTAWA members. Check out his recent post on “gallery feedback” to hear about this effective strategy for guiding peer feedback and assessment. […]
Australia in the Asian Century
Although the Australia in the Asian Century website has already been archived (http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/133850/20130914-0122/asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au/index.html) and is no longer updated, it includes very important information about the learning and teaching of Asian Languages in Australia, now and into the future. Most importantly, it provides access to the <i>Australia in the Asian Century</i> White Paper, and the context […]
The AFMLTA Professional Standards
From the AFMLTA Professional Standards Project Website (http://pspl.afmlta.asn.au/standards.html): In 2004, the AFMLTA was granted funding by the former Department of Education, Science and Training to develop professional standards for languages teaching. This project produced a set of professional standards which were designed to be generic across languages. … In addition, the AFMLTA was asked to […]
