Language learning

By concentrating Australia’s language specialists in the secondary schools, the supply problem is alleviated and there is more freedom to match language strengths, interests, school types, timetables, character, experience and other relevant variables.

A general adoption of one language in most primary schools facilitates production and distribution of quality materials, in-service training, assessment support and general networking. And students who transfer from other schools, their teachers and peers find it easier to maintain momentum in language learning if most schools are using the same language and resources.

The status of the teaching profession is enhanced as the majority of language students (primary and secondary) learn their subject to a useable standard, as we expect in most other disciplines.

Where LOTE programs have failed, or have been dropped, it is usually caused by a lack of some combination of: teacher availability, time, commitment, continuity and consideration for the needs of the learner.

Using Esperanto as the primary LOTE, and using existing generalist teachers, addresses all five of these obstacles and, in so doing, provides a basis for unprecedented success in Australian LOTE Education.

Normal primary school practice provides general education through generalist teachers. This is both logistically efficient and developmentally appropriate for young children. However, LOTE (more than any subject except music) is commonly taught by a visiting specialist, if available, resulting in a chronic shortage of teachers which, in turn, has grievous implications for the quality, quantity, timing and equitable provision of languages education. The primary classroom teacher is the most powerful role-model for the children, and the best person to teach a young child a new language.

The commitment of the students, the parents, the teachers, the principals, the wider community and the policy makers are crucial to the success of failure of LOTE programs. To harness their wholehearted energy, a program must show that it is clearly in the interests of every child involved and must engage their participation in a meaningful way.

Challenges to the continuity of primary LOTE programs may be either logistical (due to staff changes, transfers and other unplanned disruptions) and/or ideological, where cumulative language learning is sacrificed for a more balanced intercultural perspective.

One view of the main importance of LOTE, which is gaining currency, is that of “developing understanding of and engagement with a wide variety of societies and cultures”. Esperanto and broad intercultural studies, under the guidance of class teachers during primary education, can serve this purpose better than a focus on any individual national language while developing real cumulative language competence.

General language education for all in primary schools, and the provision of more choices in secondary, also solves the primary-to-secondary continuity problem while increasing free choice and motivation at the time when adolescents need it most.

Primary Esperanto is a strong strategy for the development of empathy, cognition, perspective, literacy, self-confidence and linguistic potential, and provides maximum responsiveness to the needs of individual students by putting the LOTE program into the hands of the classroom teacher who cares for each child and knows them best.

A national decision to facilitate the integration of LOTE into general primary education using Esperanto would enable a renaissance of language choice, effectiveness and enthusiasm through proper staffing of secondary schools and excellent preparation of primary school graduates for further successful language learning.