A Charles Sturt University language expert has joined the call for an overhaul of ATAR calculations, to better encourage the study of HSC foreign languages.
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Sixteen education and language specialists last week wrote to the NSW Vice Chancellors' Committee, which governs the University Admissions Centre (UAC) lamenting the drop in uptake of language courses over the past two decades.
Discipline lead in speech pathology at CSU, Dr Sarah Verdon, told The Daily Advertiser the current way the ATAR is determined may be turning students away from HSC language courses.
"We really need to rethink how the ATAR is calculated if it's discouraging young people from being multilingual," Dr Verdon said.
"It seems counterproductive because there are so many benefits to being multilingual."
According to Dr Vernon, there are eight main reasons why students should be encouraged to learn another language. Languages link students to cultural identity and to formative memories in the brain.
Promoting the use of a mother tongue also improves mental health, social skills, and attractiveness to future employers.
"We weren't actually designed to speak only one language, and in fact, those of us who do speak only one language are actually in the minority," Dr Vernon said.
"Majority of the world is able to speak multiple languages. You absolutely can become fluent in a second language, but it does take a lot of work."
In other education news:
With 37 per cent of school students able to speak a language other than English, Dr Verdon said it made sense to maintain the ability instead of actively encouraging students away from multilingualism.
Over the past 10 years, the enrolment of students who can speak a language other than English has increased by 7.5 per cent.
Arabic is the fastest growing language in schools with 41,342 students in the state indicating it's a language that they use at home. Yet only 365 students studied Arabic continuers in the HSC last year.
Similarly, 5000 students identified Hindi as language they can speak, and only 12 completed the subject in the HSC.
"We really need to dispel the myth that speaking another language will be a disadvantage [in the HSC]," Dr Vernon said.
"The only reason it would be considered a disadvantage is the way the ATAR is calculated. Speaking another language is an advantage to society."
In other news:
In order to calculate the ATAR, the UAC adjusts a student's raw HSC marks according to their cohort's overall achievement, meaning that a high achieving school will help to scale up their students' marks.
But, the education specialists pointed out, this unconsciously disadvantages students who choose certain language studies for their HSC.
For example, students who choose to study Arabic continuers tend to be from less-resourced schools, while students who study French come from advantaged schools.
In light of this, Dr Verdon said there needs to be an overhaul in the ATAR calculation to value all languages as equal in the HSC and re-adjust the school curriculum to support students who are already able to speak another language.
"A lot of countries have it as mandatory to learn a language at school and a lot of schools [in Australia] will offer a language for a year so you have the opportunity to learn it," Dr Verdon said.
"But you need the opportunity to use it otherwise you'll lose the skill quickly. If a student already knows how to speak a language other than English, then it needs to be encouraged to maintain that language."
The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) which oversees HSC subjects has said that it will look into adjusting language courses to encourage greater student uptake.
"As part of the NSW Curriculum Reform, NESA is currently developing a new languages curriculum and will continue to work with the sectors to determine the best way of increasing participation in languages in NSW," said a spokesperson.
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