The MLTAQ Journal a Journal of Professional Current Practice and Research for Language Teachers
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The MLTAQ Journal A journal of professional current practice and research for language teachers Journal of the Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland Inc. Affiliated with the Australian and International Federations of Modern Language Teachers’ Associations (AFMLTA & FIPLV) Summer 2020 ISSN 1327-7782 Volume 170 CONTENTS Editorial …………………………………………………….. 0 2 MLTAQ History ................................................................ 0 3 The Origins of the MLTAQ – David Ingram …………………………………………... 3 The First MLTAQ President: Professor J H Mahoney -- Roger White……………… 6 The Past Decade: 2009-2019 – Cynthia Dodd and Marcel Noest………………… 9 MLTAQ Volunteers......................................................... 18 Profile: Beau Pett …………………………………………………………………..……. 18 MLTAQ Awards................................................................ 19 New Life Member ……………………………………………………………………… 19 MLTAQ 60th Anniversary Awardees ………………………………………………… 22 MLTAQ and Beyond………………………………………. 33 MLTAQ: From the President - Judy Williams………………………………..………. 33 AFMLTA: AFMLTA and the Languages Landscape in Australia– Amanda Pentti 35 FIPLV: Language Teacher Associations: A Personal Journey – Denis Cunningham 39 Front cover: The 60th Anniversary Award recipients. See pages 22-32. EDITORIAL In this Summer 2020 edition of the MLTAQ Journal the professional association itself features prominently. With the 60th Anniversary celebrations still fresh in our memories, a number of people were asked to contribute research, memories and experience to this publication with the purpose of painting a picture of the MLTAQ’s history, its operations and its wider role in the field of languages education. The section MLTAQ History takes us on a trip down Memory Lane. Distinguished Life Member Dr David Ingram AM discusses how the association was born. Roger White, another Life Member, provides some surprising insights about the first MLTAQ President, Professor James Mahoney. Still with the eye on the past, The Past Decade summarises the most memorable events of the past ten years. As you read this Journal, you will find additional spotlighted information about our recent history. What makes people decide to join associations and volunteer for positions on a committee? Contrary to what some believe, membership of committees is not always the result of failing to leave a meeting in time or swatting a fly at the very moment someone in front asks for a volunteer (though it has been known to happen). However it happens, it is a fact that as an association of professionals with a common cause we depend on MLTAQ Volunteers who take the step forward in order to make things happen. This time, we introduce Central Queensland member and CCLT Convenor Beau Pett. Teachers past, present and future make active choices to contribute to the profession. We pay tribute to the members nominated and celebrated by their colleagues at the MLTAQ 60th Anniversary event, where a new Life Membership and 53 Awards were bestowed upon our colleagues in recognition of their services to the profession. Both the Journal’s cover and the special section on MLTAQ Awards are dedicated to them. As educators of languages we fully appreciate that a picture is worth a thousand words; therefore, a special thank-you is extended to our awardee Atsuya Kotoda who has kindly lent his artistic skills to the Anniversary Night colour spread inside. Where does professional dialogue about teaching and learning Languages begin? Where does it end? What is being discussed elsewhere? Where can this dialogue take us? In order to answer such questions, it is helpful to consider that professional networks such as ours extend well beyond classrooms and school communities. The MLTA-Queensland provides a network that encompasses the state, as Judy Williams’ article reminds us. It does not stop there! It is part of a greater, Australia-wide federation, the AFMLTA. This national body, in turn, is part of a still wider international network, FIPLV. Through this global web, Queenslanders are part of the Australia-wide conversation and the voices of Australians are heard around the world. MLTAQ and Beyond provides an insight into these greater networks, as illustrated by Amanda Pentti’s article on the AFMLTA and Denis Cunningham’s personal account of his professional journey. Dr Leigh Kirwan, Griffith University Dr Marcel Noest, Institute of Modern Languages, The University of Queensland Page 2 MLTAQ HISTORY Origins of the MLTAQ Dr David E. Ingram, AM David Ingram (BA, AEd, MA, Ph.D) worked for many years as a teacher in Queensland and subsequently as an academic at various Australian universities (e.g. Griffith University, Melbourne University Private and The University of Melbourne). He was AFMLTA President (1982-1996) and FIPLV Vice-President (1986-1992). David was the Australian representative on the joint British-Australian IELTS development project in 1987-88 and IELTS Chief Examiner (Australia) for ten years to 1998. He became a Fellow of the National Foreign Language Center, Maryland, USA in 1993. In 2003, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “service to education through the development of language policy, through assessment procedures for evaluation of proficiency, and through research and teaching”. David has published very widely; his recent books include Fostering Positive Cross-Cultural Attitudes through Language Teaching (2008) and A Short History of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (2014). He initiated and developed with research assistance the International Second Language Proficiency Ratings (ISLPR®). In 2007 he and his wife Nelly established and continue to direct ISLPR Language Services Pty Ltd. The early history of the Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland is integrally related to the early history of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (AFMLTA), whose origins, in turn, were linked to MLTAV and its leadership in the1950s and 60s, especially Professor R. F. Jackson, Keith Horwood and Manuel Gelman. The AFMLTA History states the following: MLTAQ was formed in 1959 … A short history of the MLTAQ appeared in “The MLTAQ Journal”, Vol. 146, June 2009, the 50th anniversary of its formation. In that report, it was stated that an impressive 105 members attended the first meeting of MLTAQ. On 28 August, 1959, the foundation President of MLTAQ, Professor James Mahoney, wrote to Professor R. F. Jackson in the Department of French, University of Melbourne to inform him of the impending formation of MLTAQ and to suggest that MLTAQ cooperate with MLTAV in the production of “Babel”. [AFMLTA History: 27]11 Professor Mahoney went on in his letter to say that there had been a refresher course in French at The University of Queensland at which a joint session was held with teachers of German and Italian. One of the outcomes of that joint session was a decision to form the MLTAQ. In his address to MLTAQ’s 25th anniversary AGM, Professor Mahoney explained that one of the reasons for the formation of MLTAQ was ‘the concern of the Language Departments of the University of Queensland over the decline in the study of Latin and Greek; they feared that French and German would be next.’ [AFMLTA History:28] 1 Ingram, D E (2014). A Short History of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations Inc. (AFMLTA Inc.) – 1962 to 2006. For convenience in this short article, AFMLTA History is used for reference to this book together with page numbers. Page 3 In fact, several of the state MLTAs were founded around this time. MLTAV had commenced in 1947 [ AFMLTA History: 21]. MLTANSW was formally established in 1957 [AFMLTA History: 26] though it was preceded by other organisations, most notably a Modern Language Association (MLA) which was established in the early 1900s, “flourished” for many years, held the first ever modern languages conference in Australia in 1915 and, for a short time, published the Modern Language Review of New South Wales starting in 1920 [AFMLTA History, pp. 25-26]. Undoubtedly, a key figure in these developments was Professor Alan R. Chisholm who moved to the Department of French in the University of Melbourne where he became the founding President of MLTAV in 1947. These developments may seem irrelevant in an article on the origins of MLTAQ but, apart from the stimulus to the formation of MLTAV and AFMLTA, the initiatives leading to MLTAV and eventually AFMLTA all took place in the building that housed the language departments at the University of Melbourne and which, for obvious reasons, became known as the Babel Building, which, in turn, lent its name to what became the AFMLTA journal, Babel. Thus, contrary to the popular belief over many years that the journal was named after the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, our national journal was actually named after a building. In 1958, MLTASA and, about the same time, MLTAWA started following a period in which individual members had joined MLTAV. In 1960, MLTAT commenced. It was much later that the Territory associations were established. Their formal starting dates as independent associations are not very clear but it is definite that MLTA of ACT was operating by 1975 and LTANT by 1981 [AFMLTA History: 29-30]. In his letter to Professor Jackson, Professor Mahoney also asked whether MLTAQ could join with MLTAV in the production of Babel, since, he said, it would be difficult for a newly formed association to attempt immediately the publication