More preschool children able to learn foreign language under expanded ELLA program

MORE young Tasmanians will be able to learn a foreign language thanks to an expanded program for preschool children.

Grace, 2, and Sophia Higgins, 5, learning their Chinese characters. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

TASMANIAN children will have the chance to begin learning a foreign language before they start school under an expanded Early Learning Languages Australia program.

The Federal Government will today announce applications for the program will be open to all Australian preschools.

The program is currently used by five Tasmanian kindergartens and child care centres.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said almost 10,000 children had been part of the program so far, with almost two in three students studying either Chinese or Japanese.

In Tasmania, 165 children have been using the Early Learning Languages Australia application on tablet devices to learn a foreign language.

The most popular language among Tasmanian preschoolers is Chinese, with 93 children, followed by Japanese with 38 and Indonesian with 29. The other five children are learning French.

Education Minister Senator Simon Birmingham. Picture: KYM SMITH

Senator Birmingham said Italian and Spanish would be added to the program from next year, and Hindi and Modern Greek in 2018.

“The ELLA program has been extremely popular with children, parents and educators and it’s exciting to see it not only expanded to a national rollout but to also include an additional four languages,” he said.

“Seeing and hearing young children counting, following recipes and singing in a language that isn’t their native tongue, you understand how engaging this app is and why it has had such positive feedback from kids, educators and families.”

The Federal Government is spending $15.7 million on the expanded languages program.

Hobart mother Lucy Yi said age three or four was a good time for children to start learning another language.

Ms Yi, who moved to Tasmania in 2010, said she wanted her daughters to learn Chinese for cultural and practical reasons.

“I’m originally from China so I would like my daughters to learn my mother tongue, and another language also gives them more opportunities,” she said.

Five-year-old Sophia started studying at the Tasmania Chinese School when she was three, and her two-year-old sister Grace will start when she is a year older.

“It’s good to start children at about three or four,” Ms Yi said.

She said Sophia was going well with her language studies and Grace was already learning from her big sister.

“Sophia talks to me in Chinese and talks to her dad in English,” she said.

Originally published as More preschool children able to learn foreign language under expanded ELLA program