Bad move for language students
THE University of Tasmania is outsourcing some of its language courses and this is, in my opinion, bad news for language students. Online lessons, smartphone applications, TV platforms are fantastic to have, in fact, they are the best language aids that we ( those who learnt languages with pen, paper, cassette, the odd magazine, books and a teacher) could never have dreamt of.
Students need resources to learn but above all they need a teacher who is present, not behind a screen, who can react, correct and engage with them with humour and passion.
Learning a language is a wholistic exercise and technology can only go so far. The hidden benefits of learning language risk being lost with remote learning and that would be a real pity. Imma Hilly
Mt Nelson
CLOSING BORDERS OF THE MIND
THE University of Tasmania is marginalising language studies to outsourced online learning and has, as Dr Adam Russell writes, pulled away from its commitment to fostering language learning across the state (“Tassie language cuts beyond words,” Talking Point, November 4).
Generations of Tasmanian students have benefited from the increased thinking skills, intellectual rigour, cultural connections and creativity developed by the discipline of learning a new language. Learning a new language develops deeper understanding of, and improves literacy in, the birth lan
guage. Deeper understanding of the first language develops when learning a new language as comparisons are made between structure, grammar, sounds, thinking and cultural dynamics of different languages. Communication opens to a different society, the imagination is excited, as new capabilities are developed. Employment opportunities are increased for those who speak more than one language.
The UTAS move to online language teaching means that while Tasmania’s borders reopen to physical travellers, the borders of the mind are closing. Elizabeth Osborne
North Hobart
DISGRACEFUL OUTSOURCING
ADAM Russell makes some good points about the cancellation of face- toface language instruction at the University of Tasmania ( Talking Point, November 4). It is outrageous that any university outsources foreign languages or reduces them to zoom sessions. It is disgraceful that so few Australians have a second language.
It would appear that Tas Uni has lost the plot and is undeserving of the title university. It seems they are more interested in developing what should be a TAFE course on the Eastern Shore than engaging with true intellectual material.
They are quite happy to overcharge for arts courses to prop up STEM subjects and flood Tasmania with students who themselves need face- to- face instruction in English if they are to genuinely fulfil subject requirements without having exams modified to suit lack of English.
Bridget Landrell
West Hobart
ENCOURAGE LITERACY
WITH some 48 per cent of Tasmanians not having the required literacy skills to really make them able to feel comfortable in the workforce, community or in daily life, encouraging reading is a priority.
Whether it be for the understanding and completion of daily tasks, reading menus, spreadsheets, timetables, manuals or just the sheer joy of reading wonderful books, the ability to read and write will benefit all.
The ubiquitous use of mobile phones for written communication along with word processors and spellcheck has led to a rapid decline in spelling.
Many of us are aware of the joy on children’s faces when they read a book by Rudyard Kipling or the delight a novel brings that allows anyone to enter another world between the pages of a book. If more children could witness their parents reading they would be encouraged to follow.
There is a large sign in our State Library that says Read and Learn, yet some 23 years ago our Mobile Book Library Buses, an invaluable service to adults and children alike, were taken out of service. If we are to encourage the joys of reading then easy access to books is essential.
Mobile Library Buses and book exchange depots created discussion and debate among readers and non readers that encouraged all to read. They need to be reintroduced across the state. Glen Pears
Geilston Bay
OPPORTUNITY
OF course Professor Henry Reynolds should boost undergraduate teaching in beleaguered History and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Tasmania, when students have to pay top dollar for their degrees ( Amanda Ducker’s “Reynolds makes history”, Mercury on Saturday, October 10), but it is even more of a lost opportunity for the university not to have established a human rights centre around such a national icon where a community of interest already exists both in and out of the academy.
Pam Sharpe
Mount Stuart