Archived News 2010Latest News and Events | 2009December 2010The RCLC held its annual symposium on 2-3 December 2010. The symposium placed a spotlight on the changing dynamics, theory and research of linguistic and cultural diversity in the international arena. In particular, discussions in this symposium highlighted the challenges and dynamic responses to Indigenous Australian and new migrant languages, cultures and education. It focused on current responses to diversity and processes geared towards the accommodation of, and productive engagement with, Indigenous/First Peoples/Heritage Languages and Cultures and new migration from situations of conflict and vulnerability. Emphasis was placed on what might be gleaned from research in Africa and South Asia; on an articulation with initiatives in the European Union; and on a drawing of these discussions into the orbit of contemporary Australian debates. Media Release | Event Photos Archive (staff access only) Please contact Anna.Dinys@unisa.edu.au if you require access to the photos archive link above. September 2010Tim Curnow was invited to participate in a Round Table at the conference 'Todo lo que el español te ofrece' held by the Spanish Teachers' Association of South Australia on 3-4 September. August 2010Tony Liddicoat presented a plenary paper entitled 'Language-in-education policies as multicultural discourses' at the Third International Conference on Multicultural Discourses in Hangzhou, China on 28 August. Andrew Scrimgeour presented two papers at the the First International Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research, held at the University of Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China, 27-30 August: 'Textbooks and resources for intercultural language learning: A focus on the learner' and 'Issues in literacy development in Chinese second language classrooms'. July 2010Andrew Scrimgeour and Michelle Kohler presented on 'Issues in eliciting and analysing national student achievement data in Chinese and Indonesian' at the Language Testing Research Centre's 20th Anniversary Conference on 15-16 July at the University of Melbourne. The Centre presented a public lecture 'Multilingualism and education: European minority communities, in particular the Basque Country', given by Durk Gorter (Ikerbasque Research Professor, Faculty of Education, University of the Basque Country) and Jasone Cenoz (Professor of Education, University of the Basque Country) on 12 July on the Magill campus of the University of South Australia. Andrew Scrimgeour gave two presentations at the Chinese Language Teachers Federation of Australia 16th Annual Conference, at the Queensland University of Technology on 10-11 July: a keynote address 'Reflections on the field of Chinese language education in Australia', and a presentation 'Learning to learn characters - An interactive approach'. Tony Liddicoat gave the keynote closing plenary address at the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers Biennial International Conference in Queenstown on 7 July: 'Assessing the intercultural in language learning'. Tim Curnow presented a paper co-written by him and Michelle Kohler entitled 'Why continue with a language? What students say' at the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers Biennial International Conference in Queenstown on 6 July. Anne-Marie Morgan presented a paper 'Dari kami ke kita: developing intercultural textbooks' with Lesley Harbon (University of Sydney) at the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers Biennial International Conference in Queenstown on 6 July. Michelle Kohler was also an author of the paper. Jonathan Crichton and Angela Scarino presented a paper entitled 'Language and culture in aged care: A case study in the Italian community' at the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia Conference, Brisbane, 4-7 July. Andrew Scrimgeour and Angela Scarino (together with Jane Orton and Julia Gong from the University of Melbourne) presented the colloquium 'What's so special about Asian languages in Australian languages education? Reflections from the field of Chinese' at the 35th ALAA (Applied Linguistics Association of Australia) Congress on the 4 July, at the University of Queensland. June 2010Neil Murray presented one of the 'top ranked refereed papers' at the 13th Pacific Rim First Year Higher Education Conference on 29 June on 'Conceptualising the English language needs of first year university students'. Tony Liddicoat presented a public lecture entitled 'Developing intercultural learning in global universities' at the University of Hong Kong on 26 June. Tony Liddicoat presented a plenary paper on the theme 'Quelle pédagogie pour un enseignement plurilingue et pluriculturelle des languages?' at the Colloque international: Quelle didactique plurilingue et pluriculturelle en contexte mondialisé? at the Institut National de Langues et Cultures Orientales in Paris, 17-19 June. He also presented a paper entitled 'Metapragmatic awareness and intercultural mediation/Conscience métapragmatique et médiation interculturelle'. Ibrahima Diallo presented a paper entitled 'La didactique des langues européennes dans le contexte arabo-islamique du Golfe: plaidoirie en faveur d'une pédagogie qui tient compte du contexte épistémique et des traditions scholastiques de l'apprenant musulman' at the Colloque international: Quelle didactique plurilingue et pluriculturelle en contexte mondialisé? at the Institut National de Langues et Cultures Orientales in Paris, 17-19 June. May 2010Angela Scarino from the RCLC and Dr Sam Sellar from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education convened a seminar, in conjunction with the Centre for Research in Education (CREd), in early May: 'Making desirable futures possible through pedagogical and curricular change'. The seminar attracted nearly 60 people primarily from government departments and schools. Speakers included Dr Sam Sellar, Associate Professor Robert Hattam, Associate Professor Helen Nixon, Dr Lew Zipin and Professor Trevor Gale. Angela Scarino has been invited by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to write the 'Shape Paper for Languages' in the Australian National Curriculum. April 2010Angela Scarino represented the Australian Government on an APEC sponsored project in languages education in the region, "Language education: An essential for a global economy", APEC-RELC International Language Seminar, Singapore, 19-21 April 2010. Angela Scarino was interviewed about languages education by Amanda Blair on Adelaide radio station 5AA on 12 April 2010. Anne-Marie Morgan was a selected speaker at the Global Languages Convention at Wesley College in Melbourne on 9 April 2010 on methodological influences in developing intercultural language learning resources. March 2010Tim Curnow is the South Australian coordinator and member of the national steering committee for OzCLO 2010, the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad for high school students. The South Australian state round of OzCLO was held on 2 March, at the University of South Australia; the top three teams progressed on to the national round, held on 24 March. Michelle Kohler gave the keynote address at the Victorian Indonesian Language Teachers’ Association (VILTA) annual conference on 5 March 2010 in Melbourne, on the paper she had co-authored for DEEWR on Indonesian language learning in Australian schools. Michelle Kohler and Anne-Marie Morgan did a joint presentation at the Victorian Indonesian Language Teachers’ Association (VILTA) annual conference on 5 March 2010 in Melbourne, on developing intercultural textbooks. February 2010Kathleen Heugh was appointed an Honorary Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa from 1 February. Michelle Kohler is an invited member of the national Indonesian Language Teacher Immersion Advisory Group, which held its first meeting in February. Michelle Kohler was the keynote speaker at the Victorian Indonesian Language Teachers' Association State Conference held in Melbourne in February 2010, where she presented her paper 'Indonesian in Australian schooling: Facing the challenges'. Angela Scarino gave an invited presentation on languages in the Australian curriculum at the National Curriculum Symposium organised by the University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education on 25-27 February 2010. January 2010The book Languages in Australian education: Problems, prospects and future directions, edited by Tony Liddicoat and Angela Scarino, appeared in January 2010. This book provides an overview of the most significant issues currently facing languages and language education in Australia. It is based on the papers presented at the Centre's annual symposium in 2008, and includes contributions from a number of Centre members. Kathleen Heugh gave a keynote address 'Contextualising contemporary debates on globalisation, multilingualism and university education' at the VLIR (Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad / Flemish Inter-University Council) NSS Bilingualism and Academic Literacy Workshop on January 25-26, held by the Universities of Limpopo and Ghent, in Polokwane, South Africa. |