The Coquitlam School District is the first to approve a new Farsi curriculum for students as a local developed course. The new Farsi curriculum was developed by teachers from Coquitlam and Surrey, with help from a Simon Fraser University professor. The curriculum is currently under review by the Ministry to determine if it meets all the requirements to become an authorized ministerial language course..

Currently, the Ministry has nine additional languages curricula for French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish, and American Sign Language. The BC Association of Teachers of Modern Languages (BCATML) helped to co-write most of these curricula when the Ministry overhauled and redesigned the second languages curricula between 2014 and 2018. BCATML was also at the Ministry table rewriting the Languages Template in 2018-19 in order to support other language groups seeking a ministerial status for their curriculum, thus paving the way for teachers of Arabic, Croatian, Russian and other languages to get ministerial status using the Languages Template. 

In a recent interview, BCATML president, Rome Lavrencic, and treasurer, Wendy Yamazaki, spoke with Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert about the changing landscape and the need to expand Ministry curricula for other minority languages across BC, including the 18 Indigenous languages which currently hold ministerial status.

Read the full Vancouver Sun article by clicking here.

[https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/tsekene-farsi-punjabi-tagalog-the-push-to-diversify-languages-in-schools] 

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In the face of Russia’s war and genocide against Ukraine and Ukrainians, CASLT wishes to support Ukrainian language teachers and learners in Canada.

CASLT believes in the power of language learning to build community and intercultural connections. CASLT knows that learning a language also involves learning about the cultures and histories of its speakers. In the face of Russia’s war and genocide against Ukraine and Ukrainians, CASLT wishes to support Ukrainian language teachers and learners in Canada. In addition to teaching the Ukrainian language, their work is crucial to promoting knowledge and understanding of Ukrainian history, culture, and values. CASLT will therefore offer free CASLT memberships to Ukrainian language teachers in Canada.
Claiming a Free Membership:To claim their free membership, Ukrainian language teachers should email CASLT’s Communications Coordinator, Solomiya Ostapyk, at communications@caslt.org. Solomiya will provide a free discount code and registration instructions.
CASLT sincerely hopes Ukrainian language teachers will consider accepting this offer of free CASLT membership. Please share this message with any Ukrainian language teachers in Canada you may know.

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 Congraulations to Adam Barron of School District 68: winner of the Centro Mundo Lengua scholarship that is awarded to a BCATML member to attend teacher training in Cadiz, Spain. ¡Felicitaciones!
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Call For Proposals for CAJLE 2022 Annual Conference
CAJLE (Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education) holds an annual conference which includes lectures and workshops by guest speakers, as well as presentations and a general meeting. The conference provides a great opportunity for participants to exchange information and opinions on Japanese language education and Japanese linguistics. The CAJLE 2022 Annual Conference will take place online. More information will be posted on CAJLE website www.cajle.info/
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Many members of the BCATML have expressed their concerns, questions and shared their comments about the Ministry of Education’s Draft K-12 Reporting order, specifically in relation to language teachers and the challenges they face. Your BCATML Executive Committee has collected this information and created a document outlining these concerns that was sent to the Ministry on November 5th, 2021.

Below is the document containing both the BCATML's concerns and recommendations for the Ministry. ​

Many of us in British Columbia and across Canada have joined with the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc and other First Nations communities in mourning the 215 children found in the mass grave at the Kamloops Residential School. Since this discovery, educators have engaged in meaningful dialogue and activities with their students about the atrocities committed, needlessly. We all have a role in implementing the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.
 
Educating our students about these Calls to Action is an excellent beginning. Political action is also needed, and many language teachers have been working with their students to urge government to implement the Calls to Action through letter writing campaigns and having discussions about the next steps. Some are also initiating fund raising campaigns to support the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc who oversaw the costs of the ground-penetrating radar technology to locate the remains of the lost children.

Below are a number of links you may wish to explore with your students which may even spark your students' imagination to develop other recommendations to pursue; either as a year-end activity or something to prepare for during Orange Shirt Day on September 30th. If there are activities or other ideas you would like to share and help inspire other langauge teachers in our province, BCATML would be more than happy to share your activity in an article in our next edition of Lingo, our newsletter. Please email us at psac51@bctf.ca along with any photos you are able to share.
Links:

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Resources for students and educators
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Calls to Action (pdf)
• #215Pledge: The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund
• #215Pledge: Recommended resources
  
• List of Indigenous-led organizations accepting financial donations
• Template letters to Parliament
• Letter template to Prime Minister Trudeau asking government to commit to action
• Contact information: Federal Ministers
• Contact information: Provincial Ministers (Members of the Legislative Assembly)

Revisions to the BC Languages Template are finally complete and the Ministry of Education has posted this important document on the Ministry's curriculum website.

BCATML worked with the Ministry of Education in March 2019 to update and align the template to BC’s second languages curricula. This streamlined document is now available for all teachers and school districts who offer a locally developed language program which does not already have a provincial curriculum.  This will be an invaluable tool for teachers who currently offer Arabic, Croatian, Russian and even Gaelic to their students.

​We encourage you to use this tool and have your language program earn a Ministry-approved curriculum. For full details, information, and the template document, please visit the Ministry's website at  https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/content/languages-template.