New "Heritage" LOTE level in the making

[IntoTheNewWorld]

The VCAA is participating in a national survey to seek feedback on the consultation drafts of language-specific senior secondary Heritage Language Courses in Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean.

(Japanese description, its the same for the rest anyway) Heritage language students are typically those who have been brought up in a home where the Japanese language is used and have a cultural connection to the target language. They have some degree of understanding and knowledge of Japanese, although their oral proficiency is typically more highly developed than their proficiency in the written language. These students have received all or most of their formal education in schools where English (or a language different from the target language) is the medium of instruction and are therefore to some extent bilingual.

(info stolen from VCAA site) http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/lote/japanese2nd/jap2ndindex.html

I interpret this as those who speak the target language at home get kicked out of SL and put into this new level (which is still far away from implementation).

Is this an attempt to encourage non Chinese people to pick up Chinese by Kevin Rudd?

[Gloamglozer]

I think there has been talk of this for a long time, especially with Chinese.

Right now in Victoria, there are three groups for Chinese: First Language, Second Language & Second Language Advanced.  In NSW, I heard that there were like 5 groups, with groups separating background and non-background students to make the competition more fair.

However, because VCAA is cash-strapped, Victoria hasn't followed NSW.

Unfortunately, I only know info about Chinese.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

I think it would be a good idea. If a white guy decided to Chinese now he would most likely get completely destroyed eh. Do you think that they should make a new level for those with a Chinese background? But would they distinguish between non Mandarin speakers?

...But first Vietnamese needs an SL level.

[Gloamglozer]

...But first Vietnamese needs an SL level.

Yes, the emergency right now would be Vietnamese SL.  I'm sure Nguyenrising would be able to provide strong anecdotal evidence for this because quite frankly, I think it's quite unfair.

You also mentioned:

But would they distinguish between non Mandarin speakers?

That would be quite interesting and may even the playing ground a little, but I reckon it would be open for exploitation.  An example would be: what if you speak Mandarin and another dialect at the same time?

[vea]

Luckily this will never happen in my VCE lifetime. I love exploiting chinese.