Posted on 06/01/2002 4:40:23 PM PDT by Map Kernow
Head teachers will this week call for schools to teach African and Asian languages instead of French and German in a reform designed to reflect the "ethnic mix" of the British population.
At its annual conference in Torquay, the National Association of Head Teachers will discuss giving African languages, including Somali and Hausa, the same importance as the main European tongues. The head teachers also suggest that Albanian, Punjabi and Urdu be added to the curriculum.
They say that expanding the teaching of such languages will benefit all pupils, but in particular those from the ethnic minorities, and enable them to study for a wider range of language qualifications.
Last night Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, a parents' pressure group, expressed fears that the change could be counterproductive.
"I would have thought that youngsters would be better off spending their time learning English, most importantly, and then other European languages," he said. "There is little enough time in the school day as it is. That time should be spent learning something useful."
The NAHT motion calls on the Government "to promote the status of Asian and African languages and to encourage their study as a qualification in addition to or instead of languages of European origin".
Tim Benson, the head teacher of Nelson Primary School in east London, who will propose the change, said: "In schools like mine many of the children are speaking and learning English as their second, third or even fourth language.
"The assessment system in this country just does not recognise those achievements. It would be very good for the child's self-esteem if they could be assessed in their own language."
The languages spoken by his school's 865 pupils include Punjabi, Urdu and the southern Nigerian tongue Urhobo. Recently, a number of Albanian-speaking children from Kosovo had also joined the school.
"If I had 100 pupils and 80 of them were speaking French, then my school would be heralded as a great success. Because my children are speaking Urhobo, Punjabi, or whatever it might be, that is not the case," he added.
Secondary schools are required to teach a foreign language until the age of 14, with most opting for French, German or Spanish. Individual schools, at both primary and secondary level, are free to offer other languages if they wish. Supporters of the proposed change say that in future pupils should be able to study African and Asian languages at GCSE, AS and A-level.
Last night the proposal was backed by education groups that advise the Government on education policy. Steven Fawkes, the president-elect of the Association for Language Learning, said: "There should be equality between the languages. We want to get away from just learning French at school. People who come to this country find that their foreign language skills are not valued."
Alwena Lamping, the co-ordinator of the Nuffield Languages Programme, said: "Businesses are short of people with eastern language skills but nobody seems to put the two together."
English is an additional tongue for 607,345 pupils, just under nine per cent of the country's schoolchildren, according to the latest figures from the Department for Education.
Some examination boards offer GCSE, AS and A-level exams in non-European languages, among them Arabic, Bengali, Gujarati, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Persian, Punjabi, Turkish and Urdu, but not African languages. About 10,000 students each year sit GCSE examinations in Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali.
An official for the Department for Education said that the head teachers' proposal would be "looked at" if it was formally submitted to the Government.
He added, however, that the idea might prove unpalatable for some staff: "At the same time as this, head teachers are calling for smaller workloads for teachers - but this idea would only increase their work."
Much the same way as "this is ******* nuts."
Wrong. When you move to England, any tongue OTHER than English is the "additional tongue".
This is political correctness taken to extremes of madness. These people will only be teaching failure.
Most countries in Africa, from necessity, use as their national languages either English, Spanish or French. This is not because it was imposed by the former mother country upon a prostrate colony, not at all. But because the many different languages spoken within the borders of African nations themselves prevent unity and a common language for purposes of the military, government, diplomacy and business was absolutely necessary.
English is the language of business, diplomacy and the internet. It is the language of the electronic marketplace and superhighway. Teaching them Urdu would only satisfy linguists who mourn the loss of linguistic diversity. The rest should acutally be glad to see ancient languages die. They only cause divisiveness.
My grandmother's spoke Gaelic and Welsh. One of my grandfathers spoke German. Thankfully they only spoke English to one another and that's what my mother and father learned. It is that unifying language that has helped make this country great.
My grandparents were native Yiddish speakers, and both my parents (as well as my in-laws) were/are fairly fluent in it.
I can't speak a word of it, but of course I appreciate the humor, the phrasing and the words that have made their way into the English language.
My wife and I have a lot of Yiddish schtick in our humor. The other night, I was telling her that I want to make a career change and find a way to make a living doinbg what I love -- which is advocating and advancing the political ideas that most Freepers hold dear. She said that she knew fifteen years ago that that's where my heart is, and that that's what I should be doing. I looked at her, and in my best Yiddish accent said: "So vy you didn't say something?" We both broke up laughing. Guess you had to be there.
You lost me right there. Urdu is just the Pakistani version of Hindi. I believe they use different orthographies, but otherwise they are the same language.
There's a tradition of dance among Urdu and Hindi speakers that goes back several thousand years. Although it's a bit difficult to compare and contrast "dance" and "music", I'd say the Punjabi people have created elements of high culture equal to that of Dvorak or other folks (leastwise, they are not vowel starved).
English as the unifying language is one of the most important reasons of why the "melting pot" worked in this country. As long as the immigrants today learn English eventually, they will be Americanized just like the Germans, the Poles, the Italians in the past.
I am no detractor of Yiddish--I used to hear it where I grew up in NY and I can read (and speak) simple Yiddish. There are even loanwords from Yiddish in English as you pointed out.
But neither Yiddish or Urdu has the same importance as French to developing a good vocabulary in and knowledge of English. Schoolchildren were made to learn French and Latin (Greek, too) in the old days not because educators had a "thing" about cheese but because there're a lot more loanwords from French and Latin in English than from Bengali, and knowledge of those languages enriches your English vocabulary and knowledge of the English language.
That's why, all jokes about the French and Yiddish swearwords aside (BTW older Jewish people---i.e., native Yiddish speakers---don't consider the word "schmuck" fit for use in polite company---I learned that the hard way...), this is a serious issue, because it evidences yet another serious blow multiculturalism is aiming against quality educarion.
Yes, and it makes it crystal clear why English is at the top of the food chain.
Ap kaise hain, muawiyah-ji? Yes, "Urdu" and Hindi are variants of Hindustani--one using more Arab and Persian loan words, the other taking its learned vocabulary from Sanskrit. Urdu is written in the florid Persian "copybook" style of the Arabic script, and Hindi in the Devanagari script.
There's a tradition of dance among Urdu and Hindi speakers that goes back several thousand years. Although it's a bit difficult to compare and contrast "dance" and "music", I'd say the Punjabi people have created elements of high culture equal to that of Dvorak or other folks (leastwise, they are not vowel starved).
I believe you mean the music (and dance form) called "bhangra." It's very popular in Britain, and not just among those of East Indian descent. But I don't think it should be taught in school to the derogation of Purcell or Elgar...or even Dvorak.
Inferiority, lowness, violence, and ignorance are caused by more than just white oppression. If you learn the languages and cultures, you understand the "more."
There is absolutely no lack of opportunity to learn African and Asian languages in Britain---there's a whole school in London dedicated to that. It makes no sense, however, to make languages like those of sub-Saharan Africa, that bear no relation to the history, structure or vocabulary of the English language, part of the curriculum taught to English schoolchildren. This directive serves a nakedly political agenda, not an educational one in the least.
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