MLTA ACT News

Current year

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update, posted 5 November 2021

The Canberra Region Languages Forum Update for November 2021 has been sent out to subscribers by the Convener, Dr Mandy Scott. News items in this update:

ANU Language Teaching Forum – Monday 8 November.
Canberra Academy of Languages – Enrolling for 2022 CAL languages programs; Japanese Summer School.
Spanish Australian Preschool in Red Hill.
ACT Bilingual Education Alliance (ACTBEA) – Celebration of Languages; Sharing Languages and Cultures.
Locally organised Conferences and Symposium – New Approaches to Chinese Language Education during and Post COVID 19; Multilingualism, culture-language maintenance and education in Asia and the Pacific; Supporting Parents and educators of bilingual children; Language friendly schools.
Upcoming conferences and symposia related to languages education – Growing TESOL in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander context; International Conference on Community/Heritage Language Education; Digital tools for formative assessment practices in EFL tertiary contexts: Bridging the distance between structured and autonomous learning; Decentring and Diversifying Languages and Cultures: National Colloquium of LCNAU (Languages and Cultures Network; The Value of Languages in a Multicultural World.

MLTA news, posted 15 October 2021

An email has gone out to all MLTA members today with an update on the next publication of MLTA CONTACT Newsletter and on the MLTA Mini-Conference. These have both been deferred because of the situation that has prevailed with COVID lockdown in the ACT. If you would like to send in an item for the CONTACT Newsletter for publication at the end of this year, or to add to your previously submitted article, please send it to our Publications Officer, Preudence Roveta, by COB November 12, 2021 (end of Week 6). Please refer to the email for details.

The MLTA ACT executive committee are also asking all members to complete this survey. Please take a few minutes to provide answers to as many of these questions that you can, so that we can keep planning for support, advocacy and teaching and learning in languages across the ACT.

Fiona Arthur Language Teaching Award 2021, posted 8 October 2021

The 19th of June 2021 saw the six-year anniversary of the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Fiona Arthur. The MLTA ACT Inc. is pleased to announce that nominations for the Fiona Arthur Language Teaching Award for 2021 are open. Members are able to nominate themselves or nominate another member for the award. Nominations must be supported by a Principal or Senior Executive Teacher. The award recognises the contributions that a member of the MLTA ACT Inc. makes to the teaching and learning of languages in the ACT.

The nominated candidate must demonstrate that they are:

Engaging with current theories of education.
Modelling and promoting effective and innovative language teaching practice.
Contributing to the education and professional development of language teachers.

Nominations should clearly address each of the three criteria. Nominations must be submitted by COB Friday 10 December 2021 on this Google Form.

A panel comprised of the MLTA ACT Inc. Executive will meet after the nomination due date and assess all nominations against the criteria.

The successful recipient of the 2021 award will be announced in Term 1, 2022.

The recipient of the MLTA ACT Inc. Fiona Arthur Language Teaching Award will receive a perpetual plaque for their school, an Award Certificate and a voucher to the value of $450 for the purchase of resources from INTEXT.

Please see the flyer containing the above information.

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update, posted 26 September 2021

The Canberra Region Languages Forum Update for September 2021 has been sent out to subscribers by the Convener, Dr Mandy Scott. News items in this update:

Sharing Languages and Cultures competition reminder - closing date Thursday 30 September 2021.
Celebration of Languages Saturday 16 October 2021, 10:30 am to 3:30 pm.
Advocating Language: Global Citizenship & Multilingual Skills. Wednesday 29 September 2021 5pm – 6.30 pm – online (Zoom).
Hangeul and K-Pop: between ideograms and idols. Thursday 7 October 6:30pm – online (Zoom)
Poetry on the Move Festival 2021 Pivots. Monday 11 October - Sunday 31 October 2021. Online virtual format this year.
The importance of learning Asian languages. This was held on Thursday 23 September. A recording is available.
Indigenous Languages in Ecuador and New Zealand. Wednesday 29 September 8am – online via Zoom; registration required.

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update, posted 9 August 2021

The Canberra Region Languages Forum Update for August 2021 has been sent out to subscribers by the Convener, Dr Mandy Scott. News items in this update:

Community languages in the spotlight in the ACT Legislative Assembly – motion put by Greens MLA Andrew Braddock.
At the Australian National University (ANU) – Open Day Saturday 14 August 2021, 9 am to 4 pm.
ACT Bilingual Education Alliance (ACTBEA) events – Seminar for parents on fiasing children in more than one language; Sharing Languages and Cultures, free video competition; Celebration of languages, Saturday 16 October 2021.
ATESOL Workshop – Functional Grammar: Making language come alive for English language learners Saturday 28 August
ACT Community Language Schools Association – Annual dinner Saturday 11 September; Regular monthly or bi-monthly news updates.
Focus groups August and September to discuss National Languages Plan and Strategy for Languages Education in Australia.
Let’s imagine 2030. Life is changing, so are libraries – survey.
Call for volunteer tutors of English to help AMEP students
The value of languages in a multicultural world – online international conference 13- 15 December 2021: Call abstracts deadline 27 August.

AFMLTA News in Brief July edition, posted 16 July 2021

The July 2021 edition of AFMLTA News in Brief has been published. News items include:

AFMLTA Conference, 5-6 July 2021
ACARA Review of the Australian Curriculum
Conferences

Participate in a Focus Group: Have your say on the development of the National Languages Plan and Strategy for Languages education
Online Versions of the AFMLTA Professional Standards
Professional practice: clips on AFMLTA website providing insights to language teaching programs and practices across Australia
Patji-Dawes Languages Teaching Awards – 2021 recipients
Professional Learning

2021 Chinese Language Teachers' Federation of Australia National Conference 1-2 October 2021 - Charles Darwin University, Darwin
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) Spring Conference 2021 28-29 October 2021 - online conference
LCNAU National Colloquim 2021 24-26 November 2021, The University of Queensland

Celebration of Languages Day, posted 26 June 2021

The ACT Bilingual Education Alliance is partnering with Libraries ACT to celebrate languages and the people who use them. Six different panels will offer six different perspectives – you can choose to attend one session that you think sounds interesting, or make a day of it. The languages day event will take place from 10:30 am to 3 pm on Saturday 16 October

Organised by the ACT Bilingual Education Alliance in conjunction with Libraries ACT, the event aims to promote awareness and interest in some of the many languages being spoken and learned in Canberra and how to find out more about them. The program will include a multilingual story time and series of presentations on topics including Aboriginal languages and language revival, Interpreting and translating, Languages and scripts from the Indian subcontinent and East Asia, Canberra’s mother tongue poets, and Library ACT’s multilingual resources and activities.

Raising children in more than one language, posted 27 June 2021

A seminar and panel-led discussion on Saturday 14 August from 2pm to 4pm is being organised by the ACT Bilingual Education Alliance in cooperation with the ANU Centre for European Studies. This will be a free event aimed particularly at parents, though early childhood educators, teachers and anyone with an interest in the topic are welcome. More details to follow.

Sharing Languages and Cultures, posted 20 June 2021

The ACT Bilingual Education Alliance (ACTBEA) is running a video competition titled "Sharing Languages and Cultures". Team up with someone who speaks another language, and film a short video (maximum length 2 minutes) using a language other than English. It could be your family language, a community language, a language that you are learning, or a language that you try out just to make the video. Submit your video by MONDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2021. See details at the ACTBEA website or follow this link for the flier.

Canberra Region Languages Forum June Update, posted 17 June 2021

The Canberra Region Languages Forum Update for June 2021 has been sent out to subscribers by the Convener, Dr Mandy Scott. News items in this update:

Sharing languages and cultures: free video competition for students from preschool to Year 12 in the Canberra Region
News from ACT Community Language Schools (ACTCLS) including successful open day on 15 May
Patji-Dawes Language Teaching Awards and changes in administration from 2021
Reforms to the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) and call for community feedback on proposed changes
Upcoming conferences and symposia related to languages education

AFMLTA News in Brief June edition, posted 17 June 2021

The June 2021 edition of AFMLTA News in Brief has been published. News items include:

AFMLTA Conference, 5-6 July 2021
ACARA Review of the Australian Curriculum
Conferences

CLIL 2021 The ADiBE Project: Addressing Diversity in Bilingual Education
NZALT 2021 Conference: Wellington, 10–12 July
2021 Chinese Language Teachers' Federation of Australia National Conference
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) Spring Conference 2021
LCNAU National Colloquim 2021

Sharing Languages and Cultures, posted 10 June 2021

Call for articles, MLTA ACT Contact Newsletter, posted 10 June

Hello MLTA-ACT members,

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the end of Term 2.

It is once again time for me to call for input for the Semester 1, 2021 CONTACT publication. If you have news to share, successes to celebrate or any interesting resources or events that you would like to share with your languages teaching colleagues, please send them to me at prudence.roveta@ed.act.edu.au .

I invite you to send in snippets of information that could build on a collection of resources, handy tips and tricks and stories of things tried, tested and successful that may help us all enrich our teaching and learning engagement of students in the ACT.

Given that we didn’t have school trips and excursions/incursions in 2020 you may now have some photos and a few sentences to share about incursions/visitors and activities from this year.

Please consider the following ideas:

Photos of any classwork or language groups at your schools;
A brief “Meet the teacher” – perhaps you would like to provide a ‘bio’ with your name, brief language educator experience, why you chose to teach a language, etc.;
One-liners about:
- something that went well this semester
- what you love about teaching a language
- a goal that you may have for the coming semester
How to say a common phrase in your language, e.g. Bonjour, comment ça va? = Hello, how are you?;
A favourite word from the language you teach or an ‘untranslatable’ word or concept;
Some funny autocorrections that occur with your language, e.g. trois (3) always gets changed to “trios” etc.

I would appreciate receiving all contributions by Week 9 of this term. Pictures can be sent to me as individual images or within documents. Please ensure that your contribution is not overly formatted, as this will assist me in being better able to format it for our publication. Word documents or Google Docs work best – thank you!

Please ensure you have sought appropriate approvals from your school and that any students have appropriate approval to appear in the publication whether that be in a photo, publishing their name, or their work.

I look forward to receiving and reading how everyone across the ACT are going. Thank you to those MLTA ACT members and MLTA ACT Language Network Representatives who have already sent information. 😊😊

Best wishes for a well deserved Winter break and a fabulous Term 3!

Thank you,

Prue
Prudence Roveta
prudence.roveta@ed.act.edu.au

Online briefing with ACARA on proposed changes to the Australian Curriculum for Languages, posted 2 June 2021

Dear MLTA ACT Inc. members,
Online session - via Google Meet
Wednesday 16 June, 4:00 to 5:00pm
Please join with your microphone turned off

We have secured an online session with ACARA for the MLTA ACT membership. The purpose of the session is for ACARA to detail and provide information on the proposed changes to the Australian Curriculum for Languages.

Public consultation opened on 29 April and is open until 8 July. It is essential that the voice of as many languages teachers as possible is heard throughout this review process and we urge our membership to have their voices heard. The review has so far proposed revisions to the second language pathways for F-10 and Years 7-10 in Chinese, French, Italian and Japanese. The other Languages subjects and pathways will follow in stages and be completed by 2023. It is expected the review of the first four languages will provide a framework for the revision of the other languages curricula. So, it is essential that no matter which language you are teaching, that you provide feedback. You can see more on the ACARA website

Annemarie POWER (she/her)
MLTA ACT Inc. Executive Secretary

FIPLV 1988 Scholarships for 2021 now open for applications, posted 1 June 2021

Applications for the FIPLV 1988 Scholarship for 2021 are now open. Please refer to the flyer for details about this scholarship.

The FIPLV Congress 1988 Scholarship was established after the success of the 1988 FIPLV World Congress on language learning which was hosted by the MLTA ACT Inc. It provides financial assistance for teachers wishing to further their professional development by means of travel and associated experience of educational programs or to develop a special language program.

Applications close 5:00pm Friday 23 July, 2021. You can apply using this link.

AFMLTA call for nominations, executive positions, posted 12 May 2021

Message from AFMLTA Secretary:

Dear MLTA member

As a member of the MLTA in your state and territory you are represented at the national level by the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (AFMLTA).

The AFMLTA is managed by a team of 8 voluntary Executive members.

Each year a number of the executive positions are open for nomination.

This year nominations are open for the following positions:

President Elect (4 year term including 1 year President Elect, 2 years President, 1 year Past President)
Vice President (2 year term - up to 3 terms)
Secretary (2 year term - up to 3 terms )
Promotions Officer (2 year term - up to 3 terms )
Treasurer (1 year casual vacancy)

As a member of your MLTA you may nominate or be nominated for one of these positions.

Click here to view a clip which provides more details about the work of the AFMLTA and the executive.

Click here to access the nomination form.

Nominations close on Monday 7 June.

If you have any questions about this information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Kylie Farmer
Secretary, AFMLTA
e: secretary@afmlta.asn.au
w: afmlta.asn.au

AFMLTA News in Brief April edition, posted 28 April 2021

The April 2021 edition of AFMLTA News in Brief has been published. News items include:

AFMLTA Conference, 5-6 July 2021, online via Zoom, early bird rates close 14 May, call for papers closes 14 May
AFMLTA National Plan and Strategy - Teacher Survey 3 open
AFMLTA Awards Open, nominations close 9 May 2021
AFMLTA Promotional video
Representation

NSW Curriculum review
ACARA Review of the Australian Curriculum
Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU)
European Union Delegation to Australia

Conferences

Dyslexia & Language Teaching
CLIL 2021 The ADiBE Project: Addressing Diversity in Bilingual Education
2021 Chinese Language Teachers' Federation of Australia National Conference
Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) Spring Conference 2021

Canberra Region Languages Forum Update, posted 12 April 2021

The Canberra Region Languages Forum Update for April 2021 has been sent out to subscribers by the Convener, Dr Mandy Scott. News items in this update:

MotherTongue: Transporting Words, 6:30 Riday 16 April
Teacher development opportunities: Joe Dale workshops; Translation in the Multilingual Language Classroom; Videos organised by NSW Federation of Community Language Schools
Languages at ANU: Language Teaching Forum; Diploma of Languages re-commenced; Asian and Pacific languages; Winter School in Gamilaraay
Language programs in Canberra starting in Term 2: Italian; French; Indonesian; other programs listed on ACT BEA website
Update on the Review of ACT Community Language Schools
UC partnership with Spanish Speakers Association
Libraries ACT: Online bilingual story times; English conversation classes; resources in languages other than English; Mango Languages; call for volunteer literacy tutors
Plans for Noongar language in WA schools
Hindi, Tamil and Korean in WA schools from 2023
Ireland: value of family languages in mainstream education
Process and politics of translation: discussion on ABC RN

Joe Dale workshops, posted 31 March 2021, updated 17 April 2021

There will be two online workshops with renowned ICT and Languages guru, Joe Dale, on 22 & 29 April. These two workshops will provide 5 hours of professional learning with TQI accreditation now confirmed.

The focus of the workshops is:

These will take place on:

Thursday 22 April 2021 from 7pm to 9:30pm
Thursday 29 April 2021 from 7pm to 9:30pm.

Promoting collaboration and creativity, as well as looking at formative assessment using any device in and out of the classroom. Exploring how Language teachers can use ICT to engage, support and assess student learning through blended and remote learning.

Participants will be provided with a link to join the workshops prior to the workshop date. The sessions will be recorded for participants and can be viewed by participants at a later occasion also.

Cost:

MLTA ACT Inc. members: $50
Non-MLTA ACT Inc. members – this will include MLTA ACT membership: $120
Community Language School Association teacher price: $90 – this will include MLTA ACT membership.

Please note there is a 50 cent handling fee for the ticket purchase on Trybooking.

Please RSVP by COB Tuesday, April 20th using this Trybooking link. You will have access to both workshops with the one payment. Please view the workshop flier for further information.

AFMLTA News in Brief, posted 26 March 2021

The The second instalment of the March 2021 edition of AFMLTA News in Brief has been published. News items include:

AFMLTA National Plan and Strategy - Teacher Survey 3 open
AFMLTA Promotional video
Professional Standards release
AFMLTA Awards Open (send nominations to AFMLTA Secretary by 9 May)
23rd AFMLTA International Languages Conference
ACARA Review of the Australian Curriculum
Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU)
European Union Delegation to Australia
Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies

AFMLTA News in Brief, posted 16 March 2021

The March 2021 edition of AFMLTA News in Brief has been published. News items include:

New AFMLTA website launch
AFMLTA 23rd International Conference

MLTA ACT AGM, posted 7 March 2021

Members are cordially invited to attend the MLTA ACT Inc.’s Annual General Meeting.

Arrivals will be from 3:45pm for afternoon tea and the MLTA ACT Inc. Annual General Meeting will start sharp at 4:15pm on Wednesday, 24th March at the Campbell High School Library (Treloar Crescent, Campbell).

Please come along to learn more about the behind the scenes work and maybe even consider joining the Executive Committee to support our vibrant association! There will be afternoon tea provided. You can RSVP at this link.

If you are unable to attend, please refer to the following documents: nomination form, proxy vote form and the agenda for the meeting.

We encourage you to come and join us to help our association run smoothly. All positions are open to MLTA ACT Financial Members!

MLTA ACT membership renewal, posted 7 March 2021

First, a reminder for MLTA ACT membership renewal. 2020 MLTA ACT memberships expired at the end of February, so if you haven't renewed you aren't a current financial member for this year. If you aren't sure if you have renewed yet, you could search for Trybooking in your email inbox to see if you have a receipt, or feel free to email MLTA Executive Secretary Annemarie Power, who can check for you.

Please see attached a flyer outlining some of the benefits of maintaining MLTA ACT membership.

If you are choosing not to renew for a particular reason, Annemarie would love to receive an email from you with any feedback for the MLTA ACT Executive Committee to consider.

We are only using Trybooking for memberships this year. You can pay directly on Trybooking and through Trybooking you can also request to be invoiced for your membership. Each individual member will need to complete this process on Trybooking, even if your school is going to pay for multiple memberships, as it is how we collect the relevant membership data for each member.

Please see below picture for explanation of which option to select for membership payment through Trybooking, or for requesting an invoice for your membership.

Here is the Trybooking link for membership renewal.

Patji-Dawes Award, posted 7 March 2021

This prize, which is awarded biennially by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, in partnership with LCNAU and AFMLTA, will again be offered in 2021. Information relating to this national award for excellence in language teaching can be found on the CoEDL website, as can the application form.

The award may be made to an outstanding language teacher from any sector within the Australian education system. We strongly encourage members to apply; language teaching matters!! We know that there will be many outstanding candidates among you who deserved to be recognised.

The deadline has been extended until Monday 29 March.

Nathan Harvey
President
AFMLTA
e: president@afmlta.asn.au
w: afmlta.asn.au

MLTAQ conferences, posted 26 February 2021

MLTAQ president Lester Ford has kindly advised that MLTA ACT members are entitled to member rates for these conferences:

FATFA national conference – Conference of the Federation of Associations of Teachers of French in Australia, 17-18 April, hosted by MLTAQ French branch in 2021
MLTA Japanese Network Conference – 1-2 May
Queensland German Teachers' Conference – 26-27 March, a Goethe Institut conference run in partnership with MLTAQ German Branch

AFMLTA News in Brief, posted 20 February 2021

The February 2021 edition of AFMLTA News in Brief has been published. News items include:

AFMLTA 23rd International Conference preview
AFMLTA Professional Standards update coming soon
Patji-Dawes Language Teaching Award: Nominations Open
Professional learning

French Network News, posted 3 February 2021

Please select this link to view the latest news sent out by French Network Leader, Lena Britton. Items include:

French Network Meeting, Thursday 18 February
Francophonie events, 15 to 19 March
Cooking classes
Education Perfect
CAL Registration Evening, Thursday 4 February
MLTA Meet and Greet, Thursday 25 February
Alliance Française membership for French teachers
Alliance Française French Film Festival, 5 March to 1 April
Theatre Carrousel
Positions available
Facebook group French Teachers Network ACT
Websites
NAFT

Rakugo online workshop for teachers of Japanese, posted 3 February 2021

MLTA has received information from Showko Showfukutei about an online workshop for teachers of Japanese on Japanese Comedy Storytelling to be held on Saturday 27 February.

Message from NAILA for teachers of Indonesian, posted 29 January 2021

Hi Guru Bahasa Indonesia Network,

I hope this email finds you well.

I'd like to share with you this year's NAILA (National Australia Indonesia Language Awards) Information Pack. Our theme for 2021's competition is Bepergian or Travel.

We have a total of 7 award categories including:

Early Primary
Upper Primary
Middle
Senior
Tertiary
Executive (including Educators)
People's Choice

NAILA is the only national competition that recognises, acknowledges and rewards the learning of Bahasa Indonesia. I strongly encourage you to input this in your curriculum and for your students to participate.

If you have any questions, please check out our website – https://naila.org.au/. And contact me if you have any further questions.

I hope 2021 treats you well! :)

Salam,

Jade Lee
Engagement Coordinator
National Australia Indonesia Language Awards (NAILA)
M: +61 431 100 586
E: jade.lee@naila.org.au
W: naila.org.au.

MLTA Meet and Greet, posted 26 January 2021

The Executive Committee would like to invite all our members and language teaching colleagues to the annual MLTA ACT Meet and Greet. The MLTA ACT Meet and Greet will be held this year at the Loft at Duxton (Macpherson St & Sargood St, O'Connor) on Thursday, 25 February. Arrivals from 5pm with a 5:30pm start.

Please bring along any new language teaching colleagues that you have at your school this year, even if they are not yet an MLTA ACT member. Please ask them to complete the RSVP as it will help plan for catering numbers. It would be great for them to come along and learn about our association!

We will be announcing the plans for 2021 and presenting the Fiona Arthur Language Teaching Award for 2020 to Sheree Avard. See the Meet & Greet PDF for more information. Please RSVP using this link by COB Monday 22 February 2021.

Previous years

MLTA ACT news items for previous years are available as pdf documents, listed below, commencing with the most recent year.

Last updated

Canberra

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