Cover not available

In:Plurilingual Education: Policies – practices – language development
Edited by Patrick Grommes and Adelheid Hu
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 3] 2014
► pp. 55–74

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

Australian Language Policy and the design of a national curriculum for languages

 | Macquarie University
Published online: 15 July 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsld.3.05mol
Australia’s efforts at valuing its multilingualism through the development of national language policy have been acclaimed by international scholars on bilingualism, but all is not well with Australia’s state as a multilingual society. A significant proportion of the population is bi- or multilingual, but this is not the norm, which is particularly obvious in the education sector where Australia-wide less than 15% of students in year 12, the final year of schooling, take a language other than English. In 2011, a national language curriculum Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages was drafted, which is discussed in this contribution against the background of Australian language policy and with a particular focus on the distinction between different pathways of language learning.
References (21)
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority – ACARA. 2011a. Draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages . <[URL]> (2 March 2011).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011b. Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages . <[URL]> (28 January 2012).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011c. The Shape of the Australian Curriculum. Version 3., October 2011 . <[URL]> (28 January 2012).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
Clyne, M., Hajek, J. & Kipp, S. 2008. Tale of two multilingual cities in a multilingual continent. People and Place 16(3): 1–9Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
COAG. 1994. Asian Languages and Australia’s Economic Future . Brisbane: Queensland Government Printer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curnow, T. 2010. Participation in languages education in Australian Schools: What do we know, and what does it mean anyway? In Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions , A. Liddicoat & A. Scarino (eds), 25 – 40. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET). 1991. Australia’s Language: Australian Language and Literacy Policy . Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Galbally, F. (Chair). 1978. Review of Post-Arrival Programs and Services . Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingram, D. E. 2000. Language policy and language education in Australia. Invited paper to the students and staff of Akita University, Akita, Japan, 18 August, 2000. Reprinted in a special issue of Akita English Studies, Trans-Equator Exchanges: A Collection of Academic Papers in Honour of Professor David Ingram , March 2001: 7 – 20.
Liddicoat, A., Scarino, A., Curnow, T., Kohler, M., Scrimgeour, A. & Morgan, A.-M. 2007. An Investigation of the State and Nature of Languages in Australian Schools . Canberra: RCLCES, University of South Australia/Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liddicoat, A. 2010. Policy change and educational inertia: Language policy and language education in Australian schooling. In Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions , A. Liddicoat & A. Scarino (eds), 11 – 24. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lo Bianco, J. 1987. National Policy on Languages . Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Second Languages and Australian Schooling . Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. The struggle to retain diversity in language education. In Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions , A. Liddicoat & A. Scarino (eds), 97–108. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MCEETYA. 1989. The Hobart Declaration on Schooling . <[URL]> (28 January 2012).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the 21st Century . <[URL]> (28 January 2012).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians . <[URL]> (28 January 2012).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNamara, T. & Elder, C. 2010. Beyond scales. In Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions , A. Liddicoat & A. Scarino (eds), 193–201. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scarino, A. 2008. The role of assessment in policy-making for languages education in Australian schools: A struggle for legitimacy and diversity. Current Issues in Language Planning 9(3): 344–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Language and languages and the curriculum. In Languages in Australian Education: Problems, Prospects and Future Directions , A. Liddicoat & A. Scarino (eds), 157–178. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Polzin‐Haumann, Claudia
2025. Language, Languages, Plurilingual Education. In The Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning, ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
Yan, Dave
2022. The evidence-based intervention for teaching the Chinese language in Australian classrooms. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 45:1 ► pp. 50 ff. DOI logo
Weinmann, Michiko
2018. ‘Asia Literate’ Learning in Global Contexts: Curriculum Perspectives on Asian Languages Education in Australia and Germany. In German-Australian Encounters and Cultural Transfers [Global Germany in Transnational Dialogues, ], ► pp. 111 ff. DOI logo
Möllering, Martina
2016. Australian Language Policy and the Learning and Teaching of Chinese. In Exploring Innovative Pedagogy in the Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Foreign Language [Multilingual Education, 15], ► pp. 19 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 december 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