Institute of Modern Languages (Queensland)
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The Institute of Modern Languages, also known as IML-UQ, is a language and translation institute located within the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia. Today IML-UQ enrolls 3000 plus students annually in all of its language programs.
IML-UQ provides courses in over 30 languages. Designed to enrich the knowledge of a language and its culture, these courses are taught by native speakers with a focus on enhancing fluency and accuracy of expression. Apart from Latin, their content is based on themes and topics of the modern world in which we live.
IML-UQ is an Australian translator and interpreter service for 75 different languages, specialising in English language translations. Languages available at the IML-UQ include Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, French, Greek, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese amongst many others.
Established in 1934, IML-UQ continues to serve the community by facilitating language learning and cross-cultural communication.[1] Over the years it has sought to develop strategies to reach out to students in order to enrich their experience of learning another language. IML-UQ still meets the language service needs of the corporate sector, small businesses, government departments and community organisations. IML-UQ seeks to fulfill the original aspiration of the University of Queensland Senate to give more adults the chance to deepen their lives by bringing them into the university community via language courses open to the public. IML-UQ also provides a vehicle for UQ students to remain connected with its alumni in a meaningful way over the decades in which they are no longer engaged in more formal study.
When the seventh Senate of the University of Queensland met in March 1932, it stated its intentions "…to serve increasingly, despite straitened resources, not only education but whatever public needs science and learning could serve."[2]
One of the ways these intentions were made manifest in 1934 was "to bring those classes under an Institute of Modern Languages (IML-UQ) associated with the Faculties of Arts and Commerce and to offer through it instruction in any modern language for which there should be a sufficient demand."[2]
The successful launching of the IML-UQ was largely the result of the personal commitment to non-traditional university studies of a number of prominent University of Queensland academics. These academics recognised the demand for language teaching from the community at large.[3]
Foundation
When IML-UQ was established at the University of Queensland on 11 May 1934, it was the first adult education extension unit in modern languages to be attached to an Australian tertiary education institution. According to a university statute, IML-UQ was intended to "promote and extend the teaching of Modern Languages."[4]
The Telegraph reported the University’s decision to establish IML-UQ as follows (12 May 1934): "At the meeting of the University Senate yesterday afternoon a recommendation for the establishment of IML-UQ was approved. This is clearly an important educational development, since it provides machinery for the study of foreign languages that have a cultural and commercial value for the State, and for which no provision is made in secondary schools for Junior, Senior, and Matriculation purposes."[5]
IML-UQ commenced operations with one class each in French and Italian and two in German. In an article entitled ‘A Wider National Perspective’ (Courier-Mail, 14 May 1934, see page 5), the author articulates a vision of language education serving the national interest. The view was that IML-UQ courses would provide training in practical skills which would benefit business and international travel.[6] Language programs were also endorsed as suitable educational ventures towards better international understanding and tolerance.
Australia’s changing perceptions of the non-English speaking world were reflected through the changing patterns of IML-UQ enrolments. New prospects in international commerce and tourism and the evolution of a cosmopolitan Australian society through post-war immigration were reflected in the diversification of language courses. These new courses were offered in response to public demand.
In another article, entitled ‘Foreign Languages’, which appeared in the Courier-Mail on the same day, the new IML-UQ courses were defined as follows: "The courses were…for commercial purposes, and would not enter so deeply into the literature of the languages as in an ordinary degree course, but rather would aim at the impartation of good working business knowledge of each tongue dealt with."[7]
Teaching methods
The history of language teaching at IML-UQ has been characterised by an ongoing search for more effective ways of teaching languages. The Grammar Translation Method was the main language teaching method in the initial decades. After this the Direct Method, which emphasises listening and speaking skills, was introduced.
Today, languages are primarily taught using the Communicative and Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning approaches with less emphasis on whole class activities and more on pair and group work.