Description
Empowering Asian Language Speakers SymposiumAbstract
Australia is a multicultural and multilingual country, with more than 685,000 people using Chinese at home. The latest Australian Curriculum emphasises teaching Modern Standard Chinese in schools. However, the Chinese language and community are complex. For example, the 2021 census found four varieties of the Chinese language: Min, Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin, which are mostly mutually unintelligible. Consequently, Chinese-Australian students can feel that learning Modern Standard Chinese is like learning a second language, despite their language background in another variety of Chinese. Moreover, the Chinese community in Australia mix with people from various geographical locations, such as Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Therefore, education professionals face challenges with students from multiple backgrounds. There are two leading solutions. One is to implement mother-tongue-based multilingualism. Firstly, teachers and schools allow using students' home languages in the classroom and show respect for their home languages and cultures. Secondly, teachers can build a multilingual classroom using labels, a multilingual word wall and literacy materials. Translaguaging is another valuable strategy to embed home languages into regular classes through formal lesson plans. The paper also suggests that educational institutions, such as universities, design more professional development courses for understanding Chinese-Australian students and suggest teaching strategies.
| Period | 5 Jul 2023 |
|---|---|
| Held at | University of Queensland, Australia, Queensland |
| Degree of Recognition | National |