Cover not available

Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 40:3 (2017) ► pp.280–310

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Continuity in foreign language education in Australia

The Language Bonus plan

 | University of Western Australia
 | Stockholm University
Published online: 7 May 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.17029.car
Abstract
This article discusses the validity of the bonus for languages other than English (known as the Language Bonus) established in Australia to boost participation in language education. In subjecting this incentive plan to empirical investigation, we not only address a gap in the literature, but also continue the discussion on how to ensure that the efforts made by governments, schools, education agencies and teachers to support language study in schooling can have long-term success. Using data from a large-scale investigation, we consider the significance of the Language Bonus in influencing students’ decisions to study a language at school and at university. While this paper has a local focus – an English-speaking country in which language study is not compulsory – it engages with questions from the broader agenda of providing incentives for learning languages. It will be relevant especially for language policy in English speaking countries.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Language education in Australia
    • The Language Bonus point plan
    • Incentives and motivation
  • Methodology
  • Results
    • Profile of respondents
    • General attitudes
    • Enrolment trends and impact of the bonus on study continuity at high school
    • Impact on admission to university
    • Impact on study continuity at university
    • Awareness about the incentive plan
    • Equity issues
  • Discussion
    • Attitudes
    • Enrolment trends and impact on study continuity at school
    • Admission to university
    • Study continuity at university
    • Awareness of the plan
    • Equity
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (47)
References
Absalom, M. (2011). ‘Where have all the flowers gone?’: Motivating continuation of languages in secondary school. Babel, 46(2/3), 12–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ager, D. (2001). Motivation in language planning and language policy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asia Education Foundation. In collaboration with M. Kohler, T. Curnow, R. Spence-Brown, C. Wardlaw and the Australian Council for Educational Research (2016). Senior Secondary Languages Education Research Project [Final report]. Retrieved from [URL]
Australian National University (ANU). Language Bonus Allocation. Retrieved from [URL]
Baldwin, J. (2011). ‘Comfortably British’ to ‘fundamentally economic’? The effects of language policies on Year 12 language candidature in Victoria. Babel, 46(1), 30–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, J., & Caruso, M. (2014). ‘New Courses 2012’: The impact on enrolments in Italian at The University of Western Australia. In C. Travis, J. Hajek, C. Nettelbeck, E. Beckmann & A. Lloyd-Smith (Eds), Policies, Practices and Research in University Language and Culture Programs (pp. 39–53). Sydney: Office for Learning and Teaching.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Access granted: Modern languages and issues of accessibility at university. A case-study from Australia. Language Learning in Higher Education, 6(2), 453–471. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, J. D., & Rodgers, T. S. (2002). Doing second language research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caruso, M., & Brown, J. (2015). Broadening units to broadened horizons. The impact of New Courses 2012 on enrolments in Italian at The University of Western Australia. Babel, 50(1), 24–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clyne, M. (2005). Australia’s language potential. Sydney: UNSW Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruickshank, K., & Wright, J. (2016). A tale of two cities: What the dickens happened to languages in NSW? Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 72–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curnow, T. J., & Kohler, M. (2007). Languages are important, but that’s not why I’m studying one. Babel, 42(2), 20–24.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Kretser, A., & Spence-Brown, R. (2010). The current state of Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean language education in Australian schools: Japanese. Melbourne, Education Services Australia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z., Henry, A. & Muir, C. (2016). Motivational currents in language learning: frameworks for focused interventions. New York, Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z., MacIntyre, P., & Henry, A. (Eds.). (2015). Motivational dynamics in language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). The psychology of the language learner revisited. New York, Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elder, C. (2000). Outing the ‘native speaker’: The problem of diverse learner backgrounds in foreign language classrooms. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13(1), 86–108. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Extra, G., & Yaǧmur, K. (2004). Urban multilingualism in Europe. Multilingual Matters: Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Group of Eight (2007). Languages in Crisis: A rescue plan for Australia. Retrieved from [URL]
(2014). Languages Incentive Schemes. Retrieved from [URL]
Hajdu, J. (2005). Year 8 attitudes to language learning: A focus on boys. Babel, 39(3), 17–24.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hajek, J. (2014). Languages snapshot. In Turner, G. & K. Brass (Eds.), Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia (p. 22). Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, D. T. (2011). Indonesian in Australian Universities: A Discussion Paper. Paper presented at the National Colloquium on the Future of Indonesian in Australian Universities, The Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Retrieved from [URL].
Liddicoat, A. (2010). Policy change and educational inertia: Language policy and language education in Australian schooling. In Liddicoat, A. & A. Scarino (Eds.), Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions (pp. 11–24). Newcastle-on-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liddicoat, A., Scarino, A., Curnow, T. J., Kohler, M., Scrimgeour, A., & Morgan, A. M. (2007). An investigation of the state and nature of languages in Australian schools (Report to the department of education, employment and workplace relations). Adelaide: Research centre for languages and cultures education, University of South Australia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liddicoat, A., & Scarino, A. (Eds.). (2010). Languages in Australian education: Problems, prospects and future directions. Newcastle-on-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Long, J. (2007). A language (LOTE) bonus at The University of Western Australia, UWA Academic Council.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lo Bianco, J. (1987). National policy on languages. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). The struggle to retain diversity in language education. In A. J. Liddicoat & A. Scarino (Eds.), Languages in Australian education. Problems, prospects and future Directions (pp. 97–108). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lo Bianco, J., & Slaughter, Y. (2009). Second languages and Australian schooling. Camberwell, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2005). Second language research. Methodology and design. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martín, M. D. (2005). Permanent crisis, tenuous persistence: Foreign languages in Australian universities. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 4(1), 53–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martín, M. D., Jansen, L., & Beckmann, E. (2016). The doubters’ dilemma: Exploring student attrition and retention in university language and culture programs. Canberra, ANU Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murray, N. (2010). Discussion: Languages education in Australia: Shaky data, disjointed policy and a chicken and egg problem. In Liddicoat, A. & Scarino, A. (Eds.), Languages in Australian education: Problems, prospects and future directions (pp. 87–93). Newcastle-on-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norris, L. (2010). The current state and nature of language teacher education. In Liddicoat, J. & A. Scarino (Eds.), Languages in Australian education: Problems, prospects and future directions (pp. 71–86). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Northwood, B. (2013). Passion and persistence: a study of motivation among learners of Japanese in Australia (PhD Thesis), University of New South Wales, Australia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Northwood, B., & Kinoshita Thomson, C. 2012. What keeps them going? Investigating ongoing learners of Japanese in Australian universities. Japanese Studies, 32(3), 335–355. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pauwels, A. (2007). Risk to Australian primary education being out of touch with world trends in education. Retrieved from [URL].
Pauwels, A., & Carr, J. (2006). Boys and foreign language learning: real boys don’t do languages, Basingstoke, England; New York, Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Retrieved from [URL]
Rubino, A. (2007). Immigrant minorities: Australia. In Hellinger, M. & A. Pauwels (Eds.), Language and communication: Diversity and change (pp. 87–122). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scarino, A. (2014). Situating the challenges in current languages education policy in Australia – unlearning monolingualism. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3), 289–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spence-Brown, R. (2014). On rocky ground: Educational structures and Japanese language education in Australia. In Murray, N. & A. Scarino (Eds.), Dynamic ecologies: A relational perspective on languages education in the Asia-Pacific region (pp. 183–198). Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teese, R. (1996). Academic success and social power. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
UWA Academic Council minutes (2007). Retrieved from [URL].
Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2012). Languages 2025. Draft plan for implementing the Victorian Government’s Vision for Languages Education. Retrieved from [URL]
Zacharias, N. T. (2012). Qualitative research methods for second language education: A coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Oliver, Rhonda, Honglin Chen & Sender Dovchin
2024. Review of selected research in applied linguistics published in Australia (2015–2022). Language Teaching 57:3 ► pp. 341 ff. DOI logo
Biebricher, Christine
2023. Creating a Sustainable Mandarin Language Programme in an Aotearoa New Zealand Primary School: Complexities and Achievements. In Teaching Chinese in the Anglophone World [Multilingual Education, 44], ► pp. 149 ff. DOI logo
Díaz, Adriana R., Naomi Fillmore & Marisa Cordella
2023. The (im)possibility of breaking the cycle of rippling circularities affecting Australian language education programs: a Queensland example. Language Learning in Higher Education 13:1 ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue