Year: 2014

Babies can detect language differences – understanding that people who speak different languages use words differently.

In a recent study at the University of Auckland, infants noticed that speakers did not share a language and did not generalise the rules of one language to another.

Infants as young as 13 months old understand that people from different linguistic communities use different words to refer to the same object, according to the new study published in the journal, Developmental Psychology by Jessica Scott and Dr. Annette Henderson from the University of Auckland.

“By that age, infants understand that people who speak different languages do not use the same words in the same way,” says Dr Henderson. “This is the first evidence that infants do not indiscriminately generalise words across people.”

“This early appreciation might help infants by encouraging them to focus on learning the words that will most likely be shared by members of their own linguistic group,” she says.
“They understand that object labels have shared meanings among speakers of the same language.”

In this study, the authors explored whether infants understand that word meanings (object labels) are not shared by individuals who speak a different language.

To test this, infants from English-speaking families in Auckland were first shown video clips that introduced them to two actors speaking a different language; one actor sang popular French nursery rhymes and the other sang popular English nursery rhymes.

Infants were then repeatedly shown a video clip of a French speaker picking up one out of two objects that infants had not seen before, and giving it a novel label (i.e., “medo”).

Since infants look longer at things they find novel, or unexpected, two critical test events were designed to investigate the research question.

In one test event, infants saw the same French speaker pick up the same object and label it “medo”; in another test event, infants saw the French speaker pick up the object that had not previously been labelled and label this “medo”.

In line with previous research, infants looked longer when the French speaker referred to the unlabelled object as “medo”.

“This suggests that infants apply the rules they have learned of their own language and expect speakers of foreign languages to label objects consistently,” says Dr Henderson. “Infants do not expect to hear the French speaker to use the same label for two different objects.”

Notably, when infants were shown critical test events of an English speaker using the same label for the same objects as the French speaker had (i.e., the object previously labelled “medo” and the unlabelled object) there was no significant difference in infants’ looking times towards both objects.

“This finding shows that infants appreciate that words are not shared by speakers of different languages, suggesting that infants have a fairly nuanced understanding of the conventional nature of language,” she says.

“People often think that babies absorb language and you don’t have to teach them, (and they do absorb it and they learn very passively), but the’yre not just learning willy-nilly, they’re being smart and making distinctions about the words they hear and use,” says Dr Henderson.

More information: Scott, J.C. & Henderson, A.M.E. (2013). “Language Matters: Thirteen-Month Olds Understand That the Language a Speaker Uses Constrains Conventionality.” Developmental Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/a0031981

Journal reference: Developmental Psychology

Provided by University of Auckland

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-babies-language-differences.html#nRlv

Personal endorsements from leading figures in the arts, sport, media, business, and politics demonstrate how learning languages can open doors to an array of careers and life experiences.

The Academy has repeatedly stressed that language scholarship is a long-term investment – for the individual, for research, for competitiveness and for society at large – providing a wealth of culture and skills beyond textbook knowledge. Every language learnt opens doors to a world of exciting opportunities, allow you to tap into networks, and enrich your education. And each one you tackle will make learning the next easier.

Talk the Talk is a guide for students and teachers, and includes personal endorsements of learning languages from leading figures such as Arsène Wenger, Ellen MacArthur, Baroness Jean Coussins, Zeinab Badawi and Richard Hardie. The case studies demonstrate the plethora of practical, personal and employable skills that can be acquired through in the process of learning foreign languages.

India’s position as a key player in global student mobility is set to grow in the next decade, according to a recent report. Meanwhile, proposed reforms to India’s higher education sector illuminate how forecasted growth in both mobile and overall tertiary numbers will occur against a backdrop of significant new efforts to expand and internationalise India’s universities and colleges.
Postgraduate student growth

As we reported recently, a new report produced by the British Council, Postgraduate student mobility trends to 2024, suggests that India is set to become one of the fastest-growing sources of mobile postgraduate students over the next ten years.

According to Zainab Malik, author of the report and director of research for Education Intelligence in the British Council, India will account for 54% of the growth of inbound postgraduate students to the United States by 2024. While India will have the most tertiary students in the world by that year – 48 million, compared to 37 million for China – China will still be the largest overall source of outbound students, at 338,000, compared to India’s 209,000.

The report traces the key “drivers of change” that will propel outbound mobility from major markets like India in the coming decade. The chief driver will be seismic demographic shifts that will see the number of tertiary aged students grow (or shrink) across countries. The tertiary aged population in India, for example, will rise to over 119 million in 2024 (from just over 115 million in 2013), even as this same demographic group will see significant declines in countries like China, Russia, Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan.

Overall, India’s growth in mobile postgraduates will be driven by this rise in tertiary enrolment, but also by economic growth and expanding incomes. “For destination markets, this is likely to be the real opportunity for inbound student growth over the next decade,” the report highlights. While the largest destination country for Indian postgraduate students will continue to be the United States, Australia, Germany, the UK, and to a lesser extent Canada will also see a rise in Indian postgraduate students to 2024.
Profile of mobile Indian students

So who are these new globally mobile Indian students? A recent guest blog in University World News by Rahul Choudaha, chief knowledge officer and senior director of strategic development at World Education Services (WES), provides some insight into the changing profile of mobile Indian students.

In recent years, Dr Choudaha explains, typical Indian students choosing to study abroad were so-called ‘strivers’. This segment tended to be enrolled in masters-level programmes in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). In the US, for example, three-quarters of Indian masters students are enrolled in STEM programmes. According to Dr Choudaha, this cohort has traditionally relied on student loans or financial aid to finance their studies, which is why the impact of the 2008 global recession – and the resulting credit crunch – has kept the growth of this segment anemic.

Beginning in 2015, however, “the biggest change in the profile of Indian students aspiring to global education will be the emergence of ‘high fliers’ – those who are academically prepared and more importantly have an ability to pay for their experiences,” Dr Choudaha maintains.

He defines ‘high fliers’ as children born in the late 1990s to parents working in new age industries like IT, financial services, and telecommunications. These parents are considerably more well off than previous generations and more likely to invest in top quality education abroad for their children.

Growth in outbound mobility comes at a time when overall higher education enrolment rates are also rising rapidly in India.

A further British Council report pegs the current higher education participation rate at 18% (compared to 26% in China or 36% in Brazil) and highlights the Indian government’s goal to increase participation to 30% by 2020 – a target that would require an increase of 14 million spaces over six years. (And this on top of a reported two million new spaces created since 2009.)

In short, India is planning a massive expansion of its higher education system over the next decade.

The Hindu Business Line indicates that financial accessibility, physical accessibility, and “virtual accessibility,” or online education, will all play a key role in the availability and effectiveness of Indian higher education in the coming years. However, an expansion of the scale and pace currently imagined will no doubt come with some daunting quality control issues and with new prospects for expanded participation by the private sector and by foreign providers.

In part to address increasing demand, and to pave the wave for easier domestic mobility and deeper internationalisation, the Indian government announced a new round of proposed reforms in September. According to The Times of India, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani plans a higher education overhaul set to deliver guidelines for common admission, common curriculum, student and faculty mobility, as well as a national system of credit transfers.

The Hindustan Times reports, meanwhile, that India’s HRD Ministry has also proposed the formation of a committee to develop a framework for India-specific rankings. According to Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director of IIT Madras, “Indian universities (and colleges) will be ranked in comparison with peer universities/colleges. Foreign universities/colleges will be included in this. The parameters and factors will be selected based on what is relevant for bachelor’s and master’s programmes, research programmes, and for different disciplines such as sciences, engineering, medicine, law, liberal arts, [and] fine arts.”

In addition to the large numbers of Indian students now studying abroad, and a smaller number of international students choosing to study in India (mainly from Asian and African nations), a number of Indian branch campuses have been established abroad, such as the offshore campus of Manipal University in Malaysia and additional offshore centres in the Gulf region.

Despite these initiatives, he finds that few Indian universities include internationalisation in their integrated strategic planning frameworks, a situation ascribed to the fact that India does not currently have a national policy governing the entry or operation of foreign higher education institutions. Likewise, few Indian institutions have alliances with foreign universities on joint course delivery, joint research, faculty and staff mobility, or other forms of collaboration. According to Mr Mathews, institutions most active in these areas tend to be newer, private institutions – those who use such internationalisation activities as value-added activities to strengthen their market position.

For Mr Mathews, the surge in the number of Indians studying abroad and a growing number of partnerships with foreign universities have occurred not because of government policy, but due to domestic political and social changes. That the number of Indian students abroad seems poised for further, substantial growth – amidst increasing efforts on the part of the government to reform and expand Indian education – points to the likelihood that internationalisation activities of all sorts will continue to play a key role in Indian higher education in the years ahead.

For the full report, please visit the site: http://monitor.icef.com/2014/10/indias-supply-demand-gap-education-expected-drive-international-mobility/

Here we have 5 out of 7 children from local families enrolled into our International Bilingual School.

Brummitt finally points out that, “the growing trend to send local children to international schools is based on the quality of teaching and learning that many of these schools provide, coupled with an understanding by local wealthier families of the value of an English-medium education”.

Thus the market for bilingual international schools meets the becoming stronger expectation of parents in search for their child to an excellent local learning combined with the mastery of the English language. Since the stresses of working life and future perspectives (high unemployment, particularly for young people, that concern parents) require finding solutions to help children in their education, to prepare them for the world of tomorrow.

Despite the crisis, parents are always willing to spend to provide education and quality activities for their children. This anxiety is reflected in the concern for the success that parents have for their progeny.

Thus, the market for bilingual international schools meet the increasing expectation of parents in search of quality teaching combined with the mastery of the English language in the community.

The stresses of work life and future perspectives (high unemployment, particularly for young people, a concern for parents) require finding solutions to aid children in their education and to prepare them for the world of tomorrow. This anxiety is reflected in the concern for the success that parents have for their children.

Despite the crisis, parents are ready to invest to ensure quality education and activities for their children.

We hear from ISC Research about how international schools are becoming more attractive to local families

There has been phenomenal growth in the international schools market in the past ten years and that growth looks certain to continue for the next ten years.

Since 2002, the number of students in international schools has tripled from one million to just over three million today. One of the main reasons for this growth is that the demographic of the typical international school student has changed during this time. According to research produced by ISC Research, part of the International School Consultancy Group, ten years ago the typical international school student was from an expatriate family. Today, that student is from a local family.

“The number of expatriate children attending international schools has not decreased, indeed there are many more,” says Nicholas Brummitt, managing director of the International School Consultancy Group. “But what has changed is the recognition by local families that international schools are a means of advancing to further education at some of the world’s best universities.”

It is this recognition, coupled with increased income, that is making attendance at an international school a real possibility for wealthier local families. So much so that today 80% of all students at international schools are local children.

In a number of cities, this demand from both expat and local families is outstripping supply. Hong Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha all have significant problems. To such an extent that many relocating expats with families are now demanding security of their school places before accepting new placements. In certain locations, it is the availability of good school places that is driving job decisions by expats rather than salaries and destinations. As a result of this demand, a number of countries are actively encouraging the growth of international schools, including China, India, Malaysia, Korea, and the UAE.

The International School Consultancy Group, which researches and analyses data on international schools worldwide, predicts that the number of students in international schools will reach six million within ten years. It expects the number of international schools to increase from 6000 today to 10,000.

Mr Brummitt says: “The international school market has become big business. There are now a number of highly respected, multinational groups of schools driving growth forward. There are also schools with campuses in several countries. This includes a number of British private schools with international operations such as Harrow (located in Beijing and Bangkok and with a third school in Hong Kong opening in September this year) and Dulwich which has schools in China and is opening several more in Asia over the next few years.”

The market going forward is expected to be dominated by for-profit international schools which will be bilingual to varying degrees with more of an emphasis on local language and culture but, at the same time, increasingly international in terms of curriculum and outlook.

“This continued growth will increase competition for the best teachers as well as the best students,” says Mr Brummitt. “Location, standards, facilities, USP and good marketing, along with salaries for teachers and fees for students, will all play a crucial part in the success of every school going forward.”

ISC Research is the only organisation that supplies data and market analyses covering the world’s English-medium international schools; data that it has been tracking for over 20 years. The latest market updates plus individual school information, news, statistical overviews, and country reports are all available from www.iscresearch.com

http://www.internationalschoolsearch.com/en/editorial-1/thriving-market