‘Tenuous’ place of languages exposed   8 Dec 2014

We live in a global village and an increasingly ethnically diverse nation where many languages are spoken – but don’t expect this to be reflected in the way our schools value language teaching.

That’s the stark reality for Dr Adele Scott, who graduated from Massey University last week with a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Her thesis explored the role of languages teachers and the place of languages in New Zealand schools today.

Dr Scott, a former teacher of Japanese and French languages at New Plymouth Boys’ High School and senior lecturer in teacher education at Massey University, says teachers of additional languages at secondary and primary levels often felt undervalued in terms of timetabling and curriculum decisions, as well as government policy.

She conducted an online survey of over 300 language teachers in both primary and secondary schools, and wrote three case studies to explore the realities of language teachers’ experiences in depth.

Dr Scott, past president of the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers (NZALT), says despite a new learning area in the New Zealand curriculum to support the teaching of additional languages, and a number of government initiatives – as well as New Zealand’s history of teaching languages like German, French, Latin and Japanese – many language teachers feel devalued in today’s educational environment. “The main reason is that the languages are the only non-compulsory learning area,” she says.

One of her main findings is that at primary level, teachers rarely chose to teach a language. Some have knowledge of one other language but are required to teach a different language, resulting in the need to learn that new language alongside their students. Difficulties at secondary level include being forced to teach combined levels in one class, to the dissatisfaction of all.

“Languages are the poor cousin in the school system – they often don’t have a voice,” Dr Scott says. “How languages and language teachers are talked about within the school also has an influence, with comments like, ‘they don’t have much marking or prep’, or ‘they’re always off on fancy trips’. Sometimes other teachers talk in an unfavourable manner. The way languages are talked about and valued within the institution is critical to a positive sense of identity as a teacher of languages.”

“If you are embarking on a career as a language teacher, you need to have tough skin and be prepared to be an advocate. It's a tenuous position.”

Quoting one of the teachers in her doctoral study, she says; “You can’t do languages as a curriculum area, you have to do languages as a person.”

The choice and level of language teaching offered at a school often comes down to the “whim” of the school principal and board of trustees, she says. This scenario, she says, highlights the need for a national languages policy – something NZALT has been lobbying for.

New Zealand’s official languages are Te Reo Maori, New Zealand Sign Language (and English, by default), and all schools are required to provide access to Te Reo Maori under Treaty of Waitangi obligations. However, there is a general lack of understanding in the wider community about the value of learning other languages, Dr Scott says.

The argument for doing so is often framed in terms of the potential business and international trade opportunities, “by monolingual politicians”, she says. While these have merit, the broader benefits go beyond economic pragmatism, to include intercultural communication skills and understanding, as well as enhanced cognitive and personal development.

“What we are trying to do [through language teaching] is to open up the world for the learner. It’s not just about language skills, its about developing empathy for other people, for other ways of doing things. It’s about being open to other people’s viewpoints, and accepting that your way of doing and seeing things is but one of many in the world.”

“When you have more than one language at your disposal,” says Dr Scott, “your personality actually changes when you use it.”

Learning another language also teaches you to be a reflective and critical thinker, “because you are constantly making comparisons and positioning yourself in one world or the other.”

These qualities and aptitudes are often overlooked by parents who simply expect – unrealistically – their child to finish school totally fluent in a language.

One qualifications policy anomaly, which she says needs reviewing, is that learning another language (with the exception of Latin and Te Reo) does not count towards NCEA Level One and Two literacy credits. Students can, however, gain literacy credits through studying health, agriculture “and just about every other subject on offer”.

“There’s a misunderstanding that because you are using another language you are not thinking in English. But it’s not until you learn another language that you take stock of your own language and how it works. If that’s not contributing to improving literacy in English, what is?”

Dr Scott is currently supporting schools with bids for the contestable $10m government initiative for the Asian Language Learning in Schools project, announced by the Minister of Education the Hon Hekia Parata in August this year. Schools who want to strengthen existing programmes or begin a new programme for Chinese, Japanese or Korean had to register their interest by November 20.

She’s also been creating profiles of Japanese language tertiary graduates for the Japanese Studies Aotearoa New Zealand language advocacy organisation’s website. It is one of several strategies to raise the profile of Japanese language through success stories of local speakers. Many tell her they persisted with their passion for the language, despite parental discouragement. Their interest and passion was driven through a personal connection, such as learning karate.

Dr Scott would like to see a campaign developed to educate school principals and parents about the importance of languages, particularly with New Zealand’s rapidly-changing demography, resulting from immigration. It means New Zealanders are being exposed to many more languages other than English – without leaving the country.

“Languages tend to fall under the radar because we are not solving some health issue or world dilemma,” she says. “But actually, we are talking about the core of communication.”

Read Dr Scott’s thesis here.

ENDS

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