indonesian_open Victorian Indonesian Langauge Teachers Conference

[C & C Hutchinson]

Hi Everyone,

I thought you might be interested in the VILTA conference that was held this
weekend Apart from the keynote speakers, there were workshops focusing on
Middle Years and Cultural Activities.  The conference concluded with groups
of teachers dispersing and visiting various Indonesian cultural places of
interest.  These included the Indonesian Consulate, the Melbourne Zoo and
the Botanical Gardens both of which have Indonesian trails.

Here is a brief summary of the keynote speakers.

On Friday March 4th and Saturday  March 5th, I, attended the Victorian
Indonesian Language Teachers Association Conference.

The two keynote speakers were Professor Jo Lo Bianco from the University of
Melbourne and David Patrao from the Office of Learning and Teaching.

Professor Bianco, who has been involved with writing the new Victorian
Essential Learning Standards document or VELS, reinforced the importance of
children learning languages other than English.  He further outlined the
importance of Australian children learning Indonesian.  He said that in
America, Spanish is taught because that language is used by close
neighboring countries.  In the same way, he said that in Canada, French is
taught because of neighboring Quebec.  Australians, he said should learn
Indonesian for the same reason, because Indonesia is Australia’s closest
neighbor.

Professor Bianco also said that with the new Victorian Essential Learning
Standards, LOTE will continue to be an important and essential part of the
curriculum in Victorian Schools. The teaching of LOTE is one of the domains
which also includes Maths, English, the Arts and the Humanities.  These
domains come under  the Discipline Based Learning Strand which is one of
three essential learning Strands.

Professor Bianco, also said that support for the importance of learning a
language other than English comes from world wide research that has
demonstrated that literacy in one language, benefits literacy in another.

David Patrao, who has also been contributing to the VELS document, spoke
about the exciting developments in the use of multimedia tools being
developed for schools.  He mentioned in particular, the Kahootz software, a
multimedia tool set, which in the future, as it is rolled out, will enable
schools and classes to interact with each other.  Information Technology
Learning he said, crosses all essential learning stands and domains
including Languages Other than English.