In 2012, the White Paper "Australia in the Asian Century" urged governments across Australia to improve access to Asian studies in schools. Despite this, schools still struggle to maintain interest and success for secondary students, particularly those without an Asian family background. In response to the low numbers of…

Recently, the incorporation of students' home languages into monolingual classrooms has been reinvigorated by a scholarly focus on extended linguistic repertoire. In bilingual programs, ideas of language separation have traditionally influenced teaching and learning as a way to protect the minority language, but there is a growing call to engage…

Narrative studies with migrant teachers offer new perspectives on local educational practices and policies. As part of a study investigating German migrant teachers' experiences in Australian language classes, this paper uses narratives to evaluate present language education strategies in Germany and Australia. It examines the provision and uptake…

This article discusses the second-language literacy practice of an ESL student in Australia. It firstly explores the literacy practices (reading and writing) exercised both in China (the subject's home country) and in Sydney, Australia, where the subject was taking an academic preparation course prior to her master study. Secondly, this article…

Views of country school teachers towards multicultural education and anti-racism policy directives are examined against a background of a largely "white" landscape but increasing numbers of language background other than English (LBOTE) immigrants. A 10 per cent response from a self-administered online survey of government primary and…

This longitudinal study investigated teachers' use of the first language (L1) in two French foreign language (FL) intermediate level classes at two Australian universities. A native French-speaking teacher (NS) and a non-native French-speaking teacher (NNS) were observed and audio-recorded approximately every two weeks over a 12- week semester.…

This paper reports on Stage 1 of a learning and teaching project focused on students studying in the Chinese and English language delivery of transnational Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs of an Australian university. The programs are delivered using limited and intensive face-to-face teaching augmented by self-directed and…

The International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education (ICCLE) represents a significant initiative by the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) to organise and describe objectives and content for a standardised Chinese language curriculum around the world. It aims to provide a reference curriculum for planning, a framework…

The National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments are designed to assess literacy and numeracy of all Australian school children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and to act as diagnostics as to whether children are meeting intended educational outcomes. Tests began in May 2008, and have been run annually since then. Results of the…

During Phase 1 of the Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in Practice (ILTLP) Project Nhu Trinh, a teacher of (Mandarin) Chinese, was one of a number of teachers who worked with project team members in a feedback process to develop intercultural units of work and longterm programs for their classes. The changes to Nhu's programming that…

Much has been written about teacher thinking and knowledge that underpin teacher behaviour in the classroom. Until the 1990s considerably fewer writers considered the moral and ethical dimension of teaching. This article reports on a study that analysed six Languages Other Than English (LOTE) teachers' reports about their teaching. Under the broad…

Suggests that the Australian Language Levels (ALL Guidelines should combine the sociocultural goals with the concept of cultural awareness and integrate them with the concept of intercultural goals at all stages of language learning. (Author/VWL)

Summarizes the Australian Language Levels (ALL) guidelines, originally defined in 1988, from the perspective of a professional who helped develop them and has examined their application over a period of years. Highlights aims in writing the guidelines, key concepts, goals and outcomes, and student evaluation and teacher training, and considers…

This introduction to second language learning is intended to provide language teachers with basic information on relevant principles and processes. After an introductory chapter, the second chapter looks at traditional beliefs about language learning, including those concerning transfer of first-language knowledge to the second language, the role…

While a broad range of tests is available for second language testing, two of the basic approaches are developmental and non-developmental testing. The former is based on psycholinguistic evidence that language development is systematic, with all learners progressing through the same stages. The latter includes content selected in an ad hoc…