Once again, interesting times with the announcement and ensuing discussion regarding National’s commitment to resourcing the learning of ten priority languages over the next four years. 

At the moment it is all very vague on how this will be done, but it is good to see the opposition recognising the “merit” of the announcement.

The intent behind the announcement is laudable. There is little doubt that New Zealand kids are well behind their counterparts in other parts of the world when it comes to learning languages. Primary schools do often touch on languages, and in particular Te Reo Maori, but it can often be little more than an introduction. In our ever changing, connected world it is extremely important that our young people can constructively participate in a Global society. An understanding of culture and language is fundamental to this. Just read the following article from Asian New Zealand foundation to explore this in a little more depth. So, the intent here is good. I think few would dispute that. What has been interesting to follow are some of the assumptions on how this would be delivered.

There has been much hand wringing (just read some of these posts to see what I mean), with some educators worrying about how they will fit ‘yet another thing’ in an already crowded curriculum. Others wonder where we will find the specialist teachers that every school will need to deliver on this. While others also can’t imagine how there will enough funding to do the former anyway.

But is this how it would, or should, look?

Firstly, language learning is not something learnt in isolation. It needs context, especially at primary school level. We need our kids to develop an understanding of the world, of the various cultures and societies that make up that world, and to learn language as part of that. Language learning at secondary schools has become increasingly academic, to the point that I wonder if we have lost the reason why we learn languages in the first place. As a result many NZ kids are not exposed to language learning of any kind at all. It just seems too hard, and to have little relevance. Give it context and it makes sense.

And secondly, at primary school level we don’t need to throw lots of specialist teachers at language learning. An inquiry based exploration of global culture and society should be an integral part of every school year already. Learning language sits within this and can naturally occur as part of the inquiry. There is little need to employ specialists if everyone is learning together within a culture of sharing and knowledge building. Where needed, expertise can easily be brought in, whether a specialist teacher, advisor, or someone who speaks the language fluently. Why do we do we need specialists in every school? Specialists can be shared between groups of local schools (as many have done with the ALLIS funding over the last two years) or, and in some ways a better alternative, is to use technology and the internet. We live in a connected world, where remote work and online learning are becoming ever more prevalent. The VLN primary provides supplementary online learning, by qualified specialist teachers that will sit alongside any local inquiry. This is all that is needed. Online specialists working with onsite teachers to ensure every base is covered. We have touched on this ourselves with our Year 7-8 Asian language homeroom programme available for all member schools.

And lastly, why are we only targeting funding at primary level? There is a significant drop off in student engagement in languages at secondary level. We really need to examine why this is happening and come up with some solutions.

There is little doubt that we absolutely need to expose our kids to a wide range culture and language. How are we developing confident, connected lifelong learners if we don’t? It is highly questionable whether we are doing this enough currently. If the government is willing to put funding into making this happen then that is a good thing. We just need to think carefully about how we make this happen. The answers don’t lie in how we have always done it. Let’s think outside the box here.