Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a question for the minister around early language learning, which I will get to in a moment. Part of the provision in Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2016-2017 covers an innovative learning program, the Early Learning Languages Australia app, otherwise known as the ELLA app. This is part of the government's measures which have been designed to encourage the ongoing learning and teaching of languages in Australian schools.

I am an enthusiastic advocate for the learning of languages in schools and I am proud to be part of the Turnbull Liberal government that is extending the opportunity to learn a different language to preschool students. I started learning German in primary school. In the small country town where I grew up, Kingston SE, we were lucky to have several German teachers who had travelled from Germany to teach us in their native language. I enjoyed German so much that I continued it through high school, studied it in year 12 and went on exchange to Germany. My sister Belinda also enjoyed German and took the same path, although she was far more talented than me and ended up studying German at university as part of her teaching degree. Belinda and her husband, Josh, who is also a teacher, have just returned to Australia after three years living and teaching in Germany. My niece Gwenyth is fluent in German and English, as she attended preschool there. This is an opportunity that most Australian children do not have unless they are lucky, like my niece Gwenyth, to have parents who have jobs that let them travel the world. Australia, as we know, is an isolated nation, relatively speaking, and we have to travel significant distances to other countries to be surrounded by people who speak a different language all day, every day, in every aspect of their day.

I recently spoke with one of my constituents, Natalie, who is a mother of four, who is a very talented Japanese speaker. One of Natalie's children has displayed a similar proficiency for languages, and I hope that this app may assist parents like Natalie and young children who show a talent for languages at a young age. This is why I am encouraged by the ELLA app, aimed at making language learning engaging and interesting for all young children. In 2015 the Australian government provided $9.8 million to trial ELLA in 41 preschool services. The first step was designed to determine the effectiveness of children learning a language through apps without a proficient language teacher. A total of 35 apps, consisting of seven unique apps for each of the five languages, were developed in Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, French and Japanese. As noted in the opening statement to this consideration in detail, research shows that learning languages develops capabilities that are transferable across a different range of different literacy related areas. This program is also sure to provide a head start towards language study at school. From a very early age, children will become more comfortable with a different language, which then increases their chance to engage in later years of life. The apps engage children in ways suitable for their age, through playing games and singing songs. You can see how engaging this app is when young children are counting, following recipes and singing in a different language they would not otherwise be familiar with.

I will certainly be promoting the ELLA app to childcare centres and preschools in my electorate such as the GoodStart Early Learning centre in Aberfoyle Park, which I had the pleasure of visiting on Saturday. The ELLA app is attractive, because a Deloitte evaluation of the program showed that 78 per cent of parents had seen their children using words from the language outside of preschool and around 49 per cent of parents said their children were showing interest in the culture of the language they were learning through the ELLA apps at home. Not only are students benefiting but Deloitte found that the app has helped 70 per cent of educators in the pilot program feel more confident about incorporating language in their lessons.

Following Deloitte's evaluation of the 2015 program, the trial was extended to nearly 300 preschool services in 2016. This expanded program has been such a success that the budget will expand the program to all preschools as of next year. I look forward to seeing the rollout of this expanded program in my electorate next year and ask the minister to explain the benefits of this program and the plans to expand it.

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