4 June 2024
Miriam Parsons, Manager Languages and Bilingual Schools and Amy Goodrich, Indonesian Specialist Teacher explore how the focus on languages in the new SA Curriculum for public education will have a positive outcome for students’ wellbeing and sense of community throughout their schooling.
Show Notes
Transcript
Dale Atkinson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Teach, a podcast about teaching and learning in South Australia. My name is Dale Atkinson from South Australia's Department for Education, and today we are talking about the South Australian Curriculum for Public Education and specifically the languages component within it. And I'm joined by Miriam Parsons, who's the Manager of Languages and Bilingual Schools within the department, and Amy Goodrich, who's the Indonesian Specialist Teacher at Kilkenny Primary School. Welcome to you both.
Amy Goodrich: Thank you.
Miriam Parsons: Thanks for having us.
Dale Atkinson: First of all, Miriam, to you, what is the purpose of language learning in primary schools?
Miriam Parsons: We really want students to understand what learning a language is about. Not so much focus on the content and communicative competence as perhaps being in the past, to being able to compare the languages, bring the languages that they know already from home, English and their mother tongue languages, or [00:01:00] languages that they've learned previously in primary school, and make sense of the target language through making connections and comparisons through those languages so that it's more about their place in the classroom, who they are, their identities as expressed through language.
And to take those understandings to their secondary learning, whatever that language may be.
Dale Atkinson: So what are the dispositions that we're looking to unlock in the students when we teach them a language?
Miriam Parsons: There are many. And we've been working towards developing, focusing in on particular dispositions that we think are really emphasized and highlighted through learning a language. Things like community mindedness, empathy, being inquisitive, curious about language learning, making those connections between languages and wanting to know more.
But really, the human element of being a good human being and understanding the world and people around them and wanting to interact and communicate with others in [00:02:00] the class, in their families, in their communities and beyond.
Dale Atkinson: So within the organisation of the Australian Curriculum version 9 and what we're doing in South Australia with the SA curriculum for public education. Why have we looked at languages as one of the first that we’re leading out on?
Miriam Parsons: We'll have curriculums for all 8 of the learning areas. Languages happens to be one of the first 4 that we've developed and put up prototypes for, for teachers to start to explore and look at. And this is a three year process, so there's time for teachers to engage and look at all 8 learning areas along the way. but we're really excited that languages is one of the first 4 to be offered to teachers to get involved and get familiar with. And one of the real advantages of that is that we have time to promote that real purpose and understanding about what languages is about, and that higher purpose that languages is more than just a code, [00:03:00] more than just… we've got AI now so AI can do that direct translation.
And it's timely in that the changes that we see through AI, making teachers question, “well, what is my role as a language teacher?”, and the broader community to questioning what the purpose of language learning is. And so we can take this opportunity to really say, well, languages is about that higher human purpose. It's about the co-creation co-construction of meaning. It's not about getting it exactly right, but it's about using language to connect as human beings and going beyond just the literal communicative, purpose of learning a language.
Dale Atkinson: Yeah. That's really – It's a really interesting area. Now you can't talk about curriculum without talking about pedagogy at the same time. What are the pedagogical changes that might come about from the emerging approach?
Miriam Parsons: Yeah. Already our language teachers are drawing on the languages that students bring to the classroom and using them as resources. [00:04:00] But this is making that visible for teachers. So the pedagogies will allow students to participate in really meaningful, authentic learning experiences that draw on connecting the languages that they know and saying, yeah, that's okay. Bring your language, your home language, your understandings of English.
How does that compare to the language that we're studying now? Whether that be Spanish, Chinese. How do we connect and make sense of all these languages, so that students, making those connections for themselves and having opportunity to explore them in a safe environment and to demonstrate and be comfortable with their identities and expression of self in the classroom.
We really want languages to be an area that promotes wellbeing through social interactions. And we know that there's a real focus now in schools on social cohesion, on building that sense [00:05:00] of community. And that languages practice – the activities of the languages classroom – can really help students to engage in that and then take it out beyond the classroom.
Dale Atkinson: Now Amy, who's our Indonesian specialist teacher from Kilkenny Primary School. You were nodding along to a fair bit of that. How does it reflect in your own practice, in your in classroom activities?
Amy Goodrich: It's just really exciting to be honest, because that's the direction that I like to go. And now knowing that that's where the South Australian curriculum is heading, it's just really validating for a lot of those little extra things that you put into your day by day, to, you know, improve even the life skills of the students. So it's very exciting.
Dale Atkinson: Can you talk a little bit about what those little things, extra day to day look like?
Amy Goodrich: Things like, you know, when you're building empathy, you got to look at, you know, other people's, you know, body language, the expression in their voice [00:06:00]. Pulling apart more than what just the language is. When we're talking about, grammar points in Indonesian, for example, I could just talk about how we add this prefix or how we add an extra word to turn it into a command.
But instead we look at what does this say about Indonesian people that they want to soften every command. It tells us a lot about the people themselves and the culture. Just little things like that.
Dale Atkinson: So there's depth of learning and comprehension that goes into that, that must be really exciting to see children pick up.
Amy Goodrich: Yeah, absolutely.
Dale Atkinson: Can you talk a little bit about how the new language curriculum will positively impact students more generally?
Amy Goodrich: I think because we're focused on things like empathy, inquisitiveness, those are useful. [00:07:00]
Dale Atkinson: Can you talk a little bit about the interplay between this approach to learning and student wellbeing and how those things support one another?
Amy Goodrich: Yeah. I think one of the key parts of the curriculum is it has a ‘why’ for everything. You know, and each language teacher has so many reasons why they think their language or that culture is so important, or language in general is important. But this document actually states why these things matter.
And children who can connect with the reason for their learning are happier, more successful learners. So just knowing why they're there, why they're doing it – I think it's going to be really impactful.
Dale Atkinson: Yeah, it sounds exciting. Now, Miriam, we're talking about primary school languages at the moment. One of the things we know is that as students get a bit older, we tend to lose them from the language streams and they move into different focuses.
What are we looking to achieve by creating excitement and interest and engagement with languages in the primary area.
Miriam Parsons: As Amy said, if students know why they're there and what they're doing and where it might take them in terms [00:08:00] of their next steps in learning, and they can see the transferability of the skills through the capabilities and transfer those skills to a new language, they're more likely to be able to build and be interested and enthused to continue.
If they're only focusing on being a perfect native speaker of a language, which is not realistic in primary learning, well, for anyone, then we're not setting ourselves, setting our students and teachers up for success. By focusing on the transferable aspects of language learning, developing a love of language, and enjoying being in the moment in activities that are meaningful to the student.
Dale Atkinson: Focusing on students in the primary areas and their engagement, in doing that, what are we hoping to achieve as they transition into secondary?
Miriam Parsons: We want students to understand that what they bring from one language, they can transfer to another language. So even if they [00:09:00] take up a different language at a high school, then they've still learned things in primary school that they can apply and build on in the next language that they learn.
And also if they stop learning language and come back to it later in life, that they've had a positive experience of learning at primary school or early secondary and have something to build on in the future and a real appreciation for those, human attributes and qualities that they've developed through their language learning experiences early on.
Dale Atkinson: There’s an enormous expression of empathy through the learning of a language, but also, you know, resilience there because inevitably you're going to fail quite a bit as you as you move into that area. But what a capability builder in terms of teaching children how to learn. What an exciting area to be working in.
Miriam Parsons: And to be positive about interacting with different languages and cultures around them. So knowing that they may not speak the language of the person that they're sitting next to in the year 11 classroom, but that [00:10:00] they have some intercultural skills and communicative capability to be able to engage and form relationships with people and work out ways of making meaning and building relationships with others.
Dale Atkinson: So, Miriam, the public school system is going to be working together to refine this curriculum over time. How can educators get involved?
Miriam Parsons: Yeah, there's many ways that teachers can get involved, but particularly through direct feedback through our website that people can go to. There'll be ongoing testing, refining happening in schools and through that will continually be working with teachers, working together to say, oh, well, this perhaps needs a tweak or a shift or a change. So there'll be different ways that the curriculum evolves and is refined as we move forward.
Dale Atkinson: Amy, what's it been like to be part of the process so far?
Amy Goodrich: As a teacher, it's nice to be acknowledged that we [00:11:00] do have something to put forward. That our opinions count, that our practice, you know, can inform future practice. And that, you know, we are the specialists – it's not just a title – we are specialists in our area. And it's great to be noticed. It doesn't feel like a top down curriculum. It feels like I can really get involved in this because I was part of building it. And I guess it makes it a bit more user friendly for teachers as well, because they were a huge part of the process.
Dale Atkinson: Yeah. And it's going to be an ongoing, collaborative, iterative process. And we'll have some notes in the show notes below on where to find the resources, but also to be involved in further development. Miriam, Amy, thank you very much for your time.
Amy Goodrich: Thank you.
Miriam Parsons: Thank you.
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