Early years and primary teachers have a unique opportunity to apply their strong teaching practices, classroom management and understanding of childhood literacy development to teaching a language. This paper reports on a project from Independent Schools Queensland to increase language programs in schools by retraining classroom teachers.…

It is quite common for Australian schools introducing Japanese as a foreign language to engage native Japanese volunteers to assist in the classroom using a collaborative team-teaching approach. These volunteer Japanese assistant teachers, commonly referred to as Japanese Assistant Teachers (JATs), are an indispensable asset to school language…

In 2008 the New South Wales Board of Studies included Hayao Miyazaki's film "Spirited Away" as the prescribed text for the Higher School Certificate Japanese Extension course. A study of the film in this context requires students to engage with the text in three distinct ways: through language, cultural symbolism and relevance, and…

The paper examines the appropriateness of translation and interpreting tasks for language teaching. To this end, it analyses an advanced-level Japanese language subject taught at an Australian university, utilising the concept of intercultural language learning (ICLL) as a theoretical framework. The study also investigates the learning experience…

In 2009, the then State Minister for Education in New South Wales, Verity Firth, announced a plan to introduce bilingual education in four primary schools across the state for the National Asian Languages and Studies in School Program (NALSSP) priority languages: Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean. This paper reports on one aspect of a…

This longitudinal qualitative study investigates how cultural experiences of staying in Japan may affect attitudes and self-directed learning of kanji among learners of Japanese as a foreign language. Six beginner learners pursued semester-long weekly kanji learning sessions and their diachronic behaviours were observed and recorded for attitudes…

In late 2008, the Australian Government announced funding for a national collaborative project to develop a curriculum framework for courses of study in Chinese (Mandarin), Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean for "heritage speakers" of these languages at the senior secondary school level. This article examines some of the issues surrounding…

Due to the global momentum of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), Anglophones may perceive that there is less urgency for them to learn other languages than for speakers of other languages to learn English. The monolingual expectations of English speakers are evidenced not only in Anglophone countries but also abroad. This study reports on the…

This article seeks to explore how various language policies may have impacted Year 12 language candidature in Victoria. Australian Federal and Victorian State Government language policies are but one of the influences yet, it may be argued, the most significant influence. These stand alongside waves of immigration, global events and conflicts, and…

A key consideration in course planning and teaching is motivation, which is sometimes considered the single most important factor in the practical realisation of language teaching in the classroom. The motivation students have for attending recreational courses can be somewhat different from that of students in school and university programs.…

This article seeks to explore how a sociocultural approach to learning can change pedagogy in the teaching of second language literacy. As a first step, the changing notions of first language literacy are acknowledged. Vygotsky's notion of everyday and schooled concepts is then used to understand research data gathered in a Year 9 Japanese…

Reports on research that was undertaken as part of a Bachelor of Teaching Honours degree program where researchers looked at a Japanese program in a Tasmanian government primary school. Describes the strategies that were used to develop learners' metalinguistic awareness. (Author/VWL)

Aimed to investigate what cultural factors might influence the classroom performance of overseas-educated foreign language teachers in Australian classrooms. Particular focus is on the early classroom experience of Japanese native speaking teachers and trainees. (Author/VWL)

The author reports on the organization and methodology of her Japanese program for the primary grades in Canberra, Australia. (PMP)