Govt investment may halt decline in language learning

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1033" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;09&sol;SND07-wk1-Asian&lowbar;languages&lowbar;300x224&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND07-wk1-Asian languages 300x224" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"224" &sol;>A &dollar;10 million Government investment in the provision of Asian languages in schools may help halt New Zealand&&num;8217&semi;s rapid decline in language learning&comma; AUT University&&num;8217&semi;s Head of Language and Culture&comma; Associate Professor Sharon Harvey says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Over the past few years&comma; the number of students studying a second language has dropped drastically&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s great to see action being taken&period; Asia is vitally important to New Zealand on many fronts&comma; and it is becoming increasingly important that New Zealanders are equipped with the strong intercultural skills needed to work productively in this arena&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Associate Professor Harvey says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Government has announced it will invest &dollar;10 million over five years to increase the study of Asian languages in schools&period; The contestable fund will help schools establish new Mandarin&comma; Japanese or Korean language programmes&comma; and enhance existing Asian language programmes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While Associate Professor Harvey welcomes the move to encourage languages to be learnt&comma; she cautions that rolling out the initiatives stimulated by the funding won&&num;8217&semi;t be easy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There are many practical challenges ahead&comma; particularly building the pool of language teachers in New Zealand&period; Lifting our proficiency in Asian languages will take substantial resourcing&comma; and will need to be carefully planned for&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She also calls for a more complete view to be taken&comma; advocating a policy that also supports non-Asian languages&comma; and that preserves and improves language proficiency in bilingual school children of all ages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We need a comprehensive &&num;8216&semi;languages in education policy&&num;8217&semi; that coherently considers all issues surrounding languages in schools&period; We should avoid pitting some languages against others for resources&comma; and work to protect the natural language resources New Zealand has gained through our sizeable diasporic communities&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;