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COMMUNITY LANGUAGES PROGRAMS IN NSW

Xue Feng Zhang
M. Ed., M. Ph. (Sydney)
Principal of Datong Chinese School (Ashfield)
Email: datong@optusnet.com.au

Funding

In Australia, funding for languages education is provided by the Commonwealth Government and managed by the states' Department of Education.

Both the Federal and State/Territory Governments recognize that young Australians with languages skills and an understanding of international cultures are vital to the nation's future in an increasingly global community. Through the School Languages Programs (SLP) the Federal Government is providing $112 million over four years (2005 – 2008) to State and Territory education authorities to support the teaching and learning of Asian, European, and Australian Indigenous languages in schools and community language programs in ethnic schools.

In NSW, the Department of Education and Training (DET) has strongly promoted the use of public schools by community-language schools. Since the early 1990s DET has been subsidizing registered community schools with special per-capita funding grants and conducting a teachers' professional development program specially designed for teachers who wish to teach in a community-based language school.

All these strategies demonstrate that both the Federal and State/Territory Governments of Australia are supportive of the languages other than English (LOTE) education programs both within the mainstream schools and community-based schools.

In NSW 43 languages are currently taught either in mainstream schools as a school subject or in community-based weekend schools.

LOTE (Languages Other Than English)

The teaching programs of LOTE are of two categories in NSW school system.

According to DET's LOTE policy, any public school may apply for the funding to run a community language program as part of its curriculum. The approval depends on whether the school has a considerable proportion of students from that language background and, also, whether the parents of these students wish their children to learn that language as part of their curriculum.

Once a community language program is set up in a school, most schools would not restrict students of other language backgrounds to participate, although priority is often given to students of same language background.

Saturday Schools of Community Languages

• LOTE Saturday Schools:

LOTE programs are conducted in many government high schools. To ensure a fair go to students who wish to learn the language of their ethnic backgrounds but whose high school does not run such a language program, DET has set up 16 Saturday Schools of Community Languages in the Sydney metropolitan area.

These are secondary public schools and give students the opportunity to study the language they speak at home, if a course in that language is not offered at their own school or college.

 

Over 6,000 students in Years 7-12, from both government and non-government schools and TAFE colleges, are enrolled. These students follow Board of Studies syllabuses in 24 languages, which are assessable as part of their School Certificate or Higher School Certificate.

 

With such high expectations, the teaching staff of government Saturday schools have to be highly qualified. Unfortunately, students can only apply to participate in the LOTE program of their ethnic background. For instance, a Chinese background student cannot apply to attend an Italian program in a government Saturday School of Community Languages.

 

• Saturday schools of community languages;

These are all conducted by non-English speaking background (NESB) community groups.

The majority of these schools operate on a weekend day, mostly on Saturday. While some of such schools are operated independently, the majority (nearly 150 in Sydney metropolitan area; 44 of them Chinese schools) are registered with the NSW Federation of Ethnic Community Schools and the Community Languages Program of DET.

Syllabuses of Community Languages

The syllabuses for both the government Saturday Schools of Community Languages and the mainstream schools (including non-government schools) must strictly follow the Board of Studies syllabuses.

However, this requirement would be hard for community-based language schools to follow. Positively the Community Language Program of DET provides all its registered community language schools with a guideline to design syllabuses appropriate to their teaching context. And community-based schools are required to review their syllabuses annually to ensure teaching quality.

LOTE as a HSC course

There are 34 languages other than English listed as HSC courses. Thirteen of them are further classified into different levels of proficiencies, such as French Beginners, French Continuers and HSC French Extension. There are background courses for six languages - the Chinese, Indonesia, Japanese, Korean, Malay, and Persian.

The classification of certain LOTE courses is mainly for the purpose of ensuring fairness and encouraging more students to take up LOTE courses in their HSC.

For instance, an Australian born Chinese-background student may not perform equally well compared with a student newly arrived from China. Therefore, they should not be required to do an examination of a same level, be it Chinese For Chinese Continuers (for new arrivals) or Chinese for Students of Chinese Background .

Regardless what type of a language course (Beginners, Continuers or Background Speakers) students are to do for their HSC, the marks they score in their respective examinations will be counted as having the same values towards their UAI.

For instance, 82 marks in the Beginners will be considered the same as 82 marks in the Continuers or the Background Speakers, although the latter is of highly proficiency. Unfortunately, again there is hardly any clear-cut line between these classifications. Students (and parents as well) need to consult senior school staff members for further explanations before they include a LOTE course in their HSC learning pattern.

References and appendixes