Language Study Mandatory In Years 6, 7 And 8 in Queensland, Australia

Language Study Mandatory In Years 6, 7 And 8
http://www.mysunshinecoast.com.au/articles/article-display/language-study-mandatory-in-years-6-7-and-8,17333

Education and Training Minister Geoff Wilson has reaffirmed the Queensland Government's commitment to the study of languages in years 6, 7 and 8.

Mr Wilson said 90 per cent of Queensland state schools would teach languages in years 6, 7 and 8 by the start of the 2011 school year, with the remainder of schools coming on board in 2012.

"A 21st century education needs to equip young people to participate and engage across an increasingly globalised world," Mr Wilson said.

"The Queensland Government believes that through learning languages our students gain intellectual, social and cultural benefits.

"Learning a language provides them with analytical and communication skills that will enhance their learning in other areas."

Mr Wilson said the languages taught in schools would be determined by the school principal in collaboration with the school community, and in response to student needs.

"Many of our schools currently offer languages in some form or another," he said.

"What we are doing now is ensuring there is consistency of learning across schools and in the key middle years of learning.

"Establishing the study of language in upper primary school provides a strong early foundation in language learning from which students can move forward into secondary school and continue their study in a setting that allows for deeper specialisation.

"Mandatory language study in years 6, 7 and 8 provides a good basis for those who will seek to continue to study languages until the end of high school and beyond."

Mr Wilson said the restoration of languages in the middle years would recognise that Indigenous languages and Auslan (sign-language) were also options for schools for language study.

"Asian languages are also an important option for our schools as a greater cultural understanding and the ability to engage with our regional neighbours in their own language will provide extensive future for individual students and Queensland," he said.

"As the Australian languages curriculum is developed over the next few years, schools will begin using the national curriculum where it is available in the language that is offered in their school.

"The introduction of this national curriculum will provide young people across Australia with an opportunity to learn languages through a consistent and world-class curriculum."

More information about Languages in Queensland state schools can be found at: http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/area/lote/index.html

Minister for Education and Training
The Honourable Geoff Wilson
29/05/2010

How to Talk on the Telephone in English

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 135 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.

Accented teachers may be better for English language learners

The Washington Post
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/learning/accented-teachers-may-be-bette.html

A new study on how well students learn second languages from teachers with accents suggests that Arizona may be making a mistake by trying to remove heavily accented Hispanic teachers from classrooms filled with Hispanics trying to learn English.

School districts in Arizona are under orders from the state Department of Education to remove teachers who speak English with a very heavy accent (and/or whose speech is ungrammatical) from classrooms with students who are learning to speak English. Officials say they want students who don’t know much English to have teachers who can best model how to speak the language.

I wrote the other day about the difficulties in determining just how deep an accent has to be to be considered a problem, but here’s another side of the issue.

According to a new research study conducted in Israel, students learn a second language better from a teacher who speaks in the same accent as they do.

The study, published in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, said that students learning from a teacher with the same accent have an easier time understanding the material. They don’t have to spend time trying to understand the English in a different accent.

According to one of the report’s co-authors, Psychology Professor Zohar Eviatar, the concentration a student would have to summon to understand English in a different accent is considerably greater than if the student were a native English speaker.

In Arizona, that would mean that Hispanic kids studying English would learn better from teachers with Spanish accents.

The research, conducted at the University of Haifa, has implications not just for second language acquisition, but for how well students learn new subjects, Eviatar said.

The study was performed by researchers from different backgrounds. Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim is an Israeli Arab with an Arabic accent; Dr. Mark Leikin hails from the former Soviet Union and speaks with a Russian accent; Eviatar is a fluently bilingual Hebrew-English speaker. The team was both personally and professionally curious to know more about the accent effect.

Full text of this article available online at:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/learning/accented-teachers-may-be-bette.html

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 135 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.

Pimsleur Rated Best Language Course to Learn a New Language Fast

Pimsleur Rated Best Language Course to Learn a New Language Fast

http://www.prweb.com/releases/pimsleur-language-course/learn-a-new-language-fast/prweb3950984.htm

Language students consistently rate the Pimsleur language courses higher than most other programs on the market by recent blog and independent studies. The ability to learn a new language fast is greatly increased when Pimsleur is included with your foreign language study. A free downloadable lesson is also available for review.

Is it possible to converse in a new language in as little as 30 days? According to most Pimsleur language course users, it is. Various independent polls and blogs rates the Pimsleur language method one of the best language course programs on the market. Pimsleur-Language recommends that those looking to learn a new language fast should consider the Pimsleur Method of language training, a language course technique that can give users the ability to colmunicate with native speakers of a language in as little as 30 days, or 15 hours of language lessons.

Pimsleur Language Courses - Learn a New Language Fast

Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed."AudioFile Mag
Developed by linguistic expert Dr. Paul Pimsleur, the Pimsleur Method is an audio based language course that helps students learn a new language using the same method we all learn our first language--by listening.

Because a traditional language course relies on repetition and written work, many people who want to learn a new language fast often consider the Pimsleur method preferable to other methods.

Pimsleur courses do not require any written work. Instead, it is based on four principles that work together to help achieve faster language comprehension and memorization. A Pimsleur language course helps a student to build a Core Vocabulary using audio-based Organic Learning in order to pick up on the correct grammar and accent.

In addition, language students who use Pimsleur courses will maximize their memorization using a method known as Graduated Interval Recall, which tests students on words and phrases they have previously mastered at varying intervals. Finally, Pimsleur's Principle of Anticipation challenges students to rely on their memories of previously mastered material in order to progress in more advanced language lessons.

It's never too late to learn a new language. Language Students who begin a language course today will be in a better position to travel the world or to meet work requirements. Also don’t forget to participate at this year's American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language Expo Event (ACTFL) in Boston, MA November 19-21 where the Pimsleur language course has been featured many times.

Smartsource products offers Pimsleur language courses for more than 40 languages and offers buyers the chance to get a free downloadable Pimsleur lesson in order to hear how simple it is to learn a new language fast using this method. Some language course offerings are Arabic, French, Spanish, Mandarin, German, Italian, Portuguese, English, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Hebrew, along with some new offerings such as Urdu, Tagalog, Romanian, and some Native American Languages such as Ojibwe, plus many more.

About Smartsource Products:
Smartsource Products (www.Pimsleur-Language.com) was started to provide people with the ability to learn a new language for fun, for business, or for personal reasons. Because people are traveling far more often than they used to, there is no time to learn a language in the classroom or with a tutor. Smartsource Products offers language course programs that are based on the way the human mind works and the way we all learned our first language, which is by hearing.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 135 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.