It’s great to learn that early learning and languages is supported heavily by the Australian government. It is on their education page of their website stating that they have provided $9.8 million so the ELLA trial could happen. This is an amazing opportunity for our pre-school children to be exposed to languages other than English at such an early age. This is part of the Government’s plan to encourage language learning throughout Australia in all sectors of education.
It is a proven fact that adding languages to an early learning curriculum not only benefits a child’s capacity for learning but also gives them an early start to their language studies as they are at the early stage of great mental absorption. This program will also set them up as they travel on their educational journey. When they get to primary school the effects will show through their ability to stay more engaged and adapt to language learning much more easily.
This amazing trial will assist the government in learning the potential of this as a permanent pre-school educational program. The final results will be interesting to know as they will determine the future of the program. There are 41 childcare services and centres that are on the program for 1 year this year. The languages include Mandarin, French, Arabic, Indonesian and Japanese.