WIDER TEACHING OF LANGUAGES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 24

WIDER TEACHING OF LANGUAGES

Suggested Extension In Intermediate Schools (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 2. The teaching of Russian, Japanese, German and French to pupils in intermediate schools was advocated today by the district senior inspector for the Auckland Education Board (Mr J. F. Johnson). Mr Johnson was commenting on a query put to him at a board meeting yesterday by Mr A. Gear, who said that pupils in the Kowhai Intermediate School who were taught French were told to forget everything they ' had learned when they went on to grammar schools.

Mr Johnson said that there were many bright children in intermediate schools, and it was felt that competent children who were being taught French were being given something to ‘‘bite upon” while they were at those schools. ‘‘However, far from this being an over-all policy, it is a matter of making the best possible use of staff in each school, he said. “There might well be schools where it is not advisable to embark on a foreign language simply because of a lack of suitable teaching strength. “There is no reason why we should restrict ourselves to French and it could well be that, when suitable teaching strengths are available, beginnings could be made to the study of German, Russian, and even Japanese—all languages which will be of increasing importance in the world in which today’s intermediate pupils are growing up.”