Are Kiwi students “Asia Ready”?
Our first two days exhibiting at the 2013 NZPF Conference in Hamilton have underscored the fact that there is a growing need for Mandarin as an in-school language option for all New Zealand students with a genuine interest from school principals across the board. And with a talk on Friday by John McKinnon, executive director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation, on why ‘Asia Aware’ students are important, delegates and speakers alike clearly acknowledge the key role of Asia in New Zealand’s future.
A recent survey commissioned by the foundation to determine the ‘Asia Readiness’ of New Zealand secondary students found that only 9% of NZ secondary students were what they considered to be “Asia ready”. The “Asia Readiness Framework”, the key facets of which are knowledge of Asia, cultural intelligence and language, recognises that being “Asia Ready” is as much about an interest and willingness to engage with Asia as it is about the ability to communicate in an Asian language.
The report found that although most New Zealand secondary school students understand the importance of Asia, they feel under-prepared to engage confidently with the region – a finding which clearly demonstrates that “there is a need to increase Asia-related content across the entire school curriculum.”
With the conference theme for 2013 being “Power to Innovate”, we’re looking forward to hearing about some innovative ideas and new solutions on how best to develop “global citizens” who understand the nuances of Asian culture and business practices and who can speak Mandarin and/or other Asian languages.
See the full survey results here
Language Acquistion vs. Language Learning
There is an important distinction made by linguists between ‘language acquisition’ and ‘language learning’.
“Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.” Stephen Krashen (The Natural Approach)
There is an innate capacity for every human being to acquire language and the term ‘language acquisition’ refers to the ways that people acquire language naturally, outside of formal instruction in things like grammar or vocabulary. A child’s need to communicate paves the way for the acquisition of their mother tongue through natural communication and meaningful interaction both with parents and their surrounding environment. This is a subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules and where the emphasis is on the content of the communication and not the form. Error correction and explicit teaching of rules are not relevant to language acquisition.
Free Cultural Experience at your school!
Free offer to all Australasian Primary and Intermediate Schools!
An experience of a foreign country without the travelling!
Based on 25 years of language teaching experience, LCF Fun Languages is pleased to offer a complimentary culture session (either French, Spanish or Mandarin) for your school.
Our fun cultural experience will be 1-2 hours full of games, songs, food, local culture for your children to enjoy. Our sessions are aimed at introducing children to the culture and a little bit of language, our main aim is to engage children’s imagination so they want to know more. We want to teach children about other cultures in fun way, to encourage and inspire an interest in different cultures and languages.
To register for your session simply CLICK HERE
Hurry availability is limited! Subject to teacher availability in your area – language of choice may vary
Why do parents love LCF Fun Languages?
It gets their children using the language quickly and naturally
“As parents, we know that engaging pre-schoolers in any activity, particularly new activities, is a big challenge but I have found the Spanish group teacher has all the right tricks through song, dance and group activities to bring even the shyest toddler along and engaged in learning. My three year old takes a while to open up but wow with only two lessons she has become mad keen to sing along in Spanish after each lesson, she sings in the car, at home and can’t wait for Friday to come along and use her new skills. Not only is she picking up words in Spanish at the speed of lightning but it also doing wonders for her confidence in a group setting.’ Thank you. (Susie, Adelaide)
“Since joining the French for Kids Club, Alexandra is exciting about anything to do about Paris, Eiffel Tower, French etc. She likes to learn more about French at home and me and my wife just can’t believe how she pronounce the words with the French accent.” (French for Kids club, Newcastle, NSW)
How do our Kiwi principals feel about offering a second language?
We conducted a “mini survey” at the recently held New Zealand Principal’s Federation Conference in Hamilton, NZ to get an idea of how principals felt about the importance of offering a second language at their school. The results confirmed what we already knew and the emerging trends with languages in New Zealand:
- 89% of principals surveyed consider is very or extrememly important to offer a language. We LOVE that!
- 44% of surveyed principals consider languages a very or somewhat important factor in attracting foreign students their schools.
- 77% of surveyed principals consider languages a very or somewhat important point of difference in attracting students to their school.
- In terms of language preference, Mandarin Chinese interest is growing, with Spanish and French still considered important by most schools.
What is great is the increase in the demand for languages by parents and their schools since Fun Languages has been operating in the market 14 years ago.
For anyone thinking of offering a language at their school, it is easy to start an after-school fun language club in most areas.
We are also offering a Free Language and Cultural Experience to schools in New Zealand and Australia – so why not find out how we can help you jump on this bandwagon!
New partnership with Kids Planet,
LCF Fun Languages is delighted to be partnering with Kids Planet in Albany, Auckland, to provide a bilingual program to the lucky children in their new transition room. This brand new area at Kids Planet will provide a perfect linguistic environment for the children to explore our play-based language programs. We were very excited that Chinese TV station Channel 9 has already come to film on the very day that the furniture was being delivered.
Have a look at the news item and how excited everyone is about the partnership!