Languages

You will notice that the Languages learning area is structured differently from other learning areas, note the following:

• Singapore has four official languages – Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil. Among the languages taught in Western Australian Schools are Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Italian, German, French, Spanish, and Aboriginal languages.
• The activities you will find within this learning area have been written so that they may be appropriate for use within any languages program, whereby the major content focus is on Singapore. There is no attempt to provide vocabulary lists or grammatical structures in a variety of languages, rather opportunities for using the specific target language are provided.
• There are no specific activities listed for the late adolescence phase of development because by the late adolescence phase of learning (years 11 and 12), students are expected to be doing their research in their target language.
• For the Middle childhood and Early adolescence phases of development, the lessons focus on isolated parts of Listening and Responding, and Speaking; Viewing, Reading and Responding; Writing and Cultural Understandings outcomes. It is assumed that Languages teachers will then add the relevant scaffolding to support the target language learning program.
• Each of the activities or scenarios in this resource focuson making meaningful connections to studies of Australia, Singapore and the target language cultures.
• Teachers of French, German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese will find relerant websites by accessing the New Asia – Singapore website. The language link will take you to a front page with some information and a search button which will take you to other sections of the site.
• A great portal for speaking Chinese Mandarin, Indonesian, Tamil and Malay may also be useful.
• The Changi Airport has a website not only in English, but also in Bahasa Indonesian, Japanese and Chinese.