This article in a publication named “The Age” summarizes the results of an interesting study into the effectiveness of Chinese language instruction in Australia’s schools.
The report states that the study of Chinese in Australian high schools "is overwhelmingly a matter of Chinese teaching Chinese to Chinese":
- Students studying Chinese as a second language are "overwhelmed" in assessments by "strong numbers" of students who have Chinese as a first language.
- 94% of students who learn Chinese at some stage during their education drop out before year 12.
- Of those still studying the language at year 12, 94% are "first language" speakers — Chinese-born or of Chinese descent.
- Students learning Chinese as a second language at year 12 are required to master about 500 Chinese script characters — the same number reached by five-year-olds in grade one in China.
Jason & Sherry - Chinese Speaking Aussies
1 comments:
Apparently President-elect Barack Obama wants everyone to learn a foreign language?
The British learn French, the Australians also study Japanese and the Americans prefer Spanish. Yet this leaves Mandarin Chinese and Arabic out of the equation.
Why not teach a common neutral non-national language, in all countries, in all schools, worldwide?
Can ask you to look at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670 and see a glimpse of Esperanto at http://www.lernu.net ?
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