Juliet Kennedy: New Zealand Association of Language Teachers President on the decrease in Kiwi students learning languages

New research has found fewer students are studying languages now than in the 1930s - and educators are calling for a solution.

The report, Language Learning for New Zealand’s Future, says second language learning should be a core requirement for students from years seven to ten.

President of the New Zealand Association of Language Teachers, Juliet Kennedy, says it's important for Kiwi students to learn another language.

"It's also really important that students have a chance to learn other languages, including heritage languages which are spoken in our community - but also world stage languages such as Chinese or French or Spanish or German or Japanese."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's talk about languages. So there are calls for
the country to make it compulsory to learn a second
language at school. It turns out there are now fewer
students learning a second language than there were in the
nineteen thirties. Juliet Kennedy as the president of the Association
of Language Teachers.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Juliet, Hello, Hi, Heather, how are you going very well?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Thank you? So are we talking about it making it
compulsory for years seven to ten? Are we?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes? That's right, Yes, we would like to make languages
compulsory from year seven to ten.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Aren't we missing? I mean, that's fine, but aren't we
missing the most important years to learn a language, which
I would have thought would be under five.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well that's a really good question. Ideally in an ideal world,
and what many countries already do is teach languages from
year one right the way through to high school, such
as the likes in South Africa and Europe and some
parts of Australia and England. However, the recommendations put through
by the Chinese Language Week Trust are meant to be

(00:56):
immediately implementable, so we wouldn't have a workforce to start
from year one. All the way through to year eleven,
but we would have a workforce there from year seven
to year ten definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
And in an ideal world, we start basically the minute
they walk into the school.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Absolutely, absolutely, in an ideal world, that is the best
time to start. But we need to make steps in
that direction before we can do that.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
And what is the smart thing? I mean, what do
you guys think. Do you think that we get to
choose which languages our kids learn or do we just
have one and we go this is what you all learn.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, it's also an excellent question. I think we were
going to make language learning compulsory that it's quite a
complex issue, and so my personal view is that we
need to begin with tad l Marii as our official
language and our indigenous language, and also think about New
Zealand Sign language. But it's also really important that students

(01:55):
have a chance to learn other languages, including heritage languages
which is spoken in our community, but also kind of
world stage languages such as Chinese or French, or Spanish
or German or Japanese. So it's a very tricky question
to ask. I think some hard decisions would have to
be made by school communities but there are ways around it.

(02:18):
If we strengthen distance education, for example, in New Zealand
like they have in Australia, we would be able to
offer a wider choice for kids that didn't want to
go with the chosen languages of the school in the
school community.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Juliet, thanks very much appreciated, Juliet Kennedy, New Zealand Association
of Language Teachers Presidents.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
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