NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Prue Carr lauded the work of the Federation of Community Language Schools at their Annual Teachers Conference this past Saturday.
The Federation held its annual event at the University of Sydney with Carr addressing the conference in a pre-recorded video message.
In it, Carr described the organisation, which is supported by roughly 3,500 teachers teaching 61 community languages to 36,000 students at 500 schools across the state, as a powerhouse.
“The impact you have on children all across the state cannot be underestimated,” she said in her message.
“You help kids stay connected to who they are, keeping language alive in homes and hearts for generations. The NSW Government is so proud to be backing your work to be as wide ranging as possible.”
The Minister for Education noted that the government last year boosted support for the eligible community language schools with an extra $100 per student to ease the load on families and to support the Federation’s work even further.
“The new funding will help ensure students can maintain connection to their heritage and alleviate some of the costs that parents face in supporting their children’s language education,” Carr said.
Michael Christodoulou, the Federation’s CEO, expressed gratitude to the Deputy Premier for her video message.
“We very much appreciate her time, her thoughtful words, her support and her sincerity expressed in that message which addressed all participants at the conference,” he said.
“New South Wales has the largest number of language schools and the most community language students in the country.”
The Deputy Premier’s remarks were supported at the conference by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General, Hugh McDermott, the Shadow Treasurer, Damien Tudehope and the NSW Director General of Education, Murat Dizdar.
The Conference also heard from Keynote Speaker, Professor Beniko Mason of Shitennoji University, Osaka who stated that the most effective method of teaching children language was through storytelling or what she also referred to in the lecture as “story listening”.
Professor Mason encouraged teachers to engage students through “compelling storytelling and fostering natural language acquisition without forced output or drills”.
Associate Professor Aniko Hatoss University of NSW University said at the conference: “Teachers today need to be reflective and open to questioning old methods and assumptions and to shift their strategies to respond to the numerous challenges posed by our digital era”.
She expressed her view that technology (including AI) can be a game-changer, as it “allows for innovation not only in material development but also in developing new course design strategies and strengthening trans-local connections”.
