Indigenous communities, linguists, teachers, and language activists have been developing methods to revitalise endangered languages over several decades. Not only are these methods diverse, they are usually implemented in various ways according to local needs and aspirations. Language revitalisation methods focus on proficiency, but there is also…

Existing studies on language learner emotions mainly focus on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE). They are primarily conducted in offline learning settings. This paper reports the empirical findings of an exploratory investigation conducted in a fully synchronous online learning environment for "ab…

This study investigated English first language (L1) speakers' motivation for learning Chinese as a second language (L2) in Australia and the links of underlying motivational components to learner sociobiographical (e.g. gender and reasons for learning) and language learning variables (i.e. experience abroad, hours of self-study, and speaking with…

Due to the 'global English bias' in the field of L2 motivation, many motivational constructs have been primarily investigated in relation to learners of English. One of these, international posture, has been recently found to hold some relevance to LOTE students. Despite this, no research has examined comparatively similarities and differences in…

Sociolinguistic research on language attitudes has revealed that non-standard accented speakers are usually perceived more negatively than members of the dominant speech community. Few studies, however, have examined whether a speaker's ethnicity, evidenced by nonlinguistic factors such as appearance, may play a role in listeners' perception of…

Australia is a 'hotspot' of Indigenous language endangerment, but has a growing number of language revival projects. We describe one such project which is using a community development approach for the revival of the Gamilaraay language in north-eastern New South Wales. As a result of colonisation there are now no fluent speakers of Gamilaraay and…

This study investigates how the attitudes of 60 Korean university students towards five varieties of English are affected by the identification of the speaker's nationality and ethnicity. The study employed both a verbal guise technique and questions eliciting overt beliefs and preferences related to learning English. While the majority of the…

Australia's language and multicultural policies have constructed the intercultural dimension of Australian identity and practice in a number of different ways relating to different community groups. This paper traces the evolution of multicultural policy from the 1970s until the present through the main national policy documents in order to…

Discusses the linguistic systems of children of Italian immigrants in Australia and the children's mastery of standard Italian and various dialects. Also reviews evidence for claims of the emergence of a new linguistic form labelled "Australitalian." (EKN)

Culture is recognised as an important part of languages teaching in Australia and has been increasingly integrated into policy and curriculum documents and the general rhetoric of languages education. The result is that policies include statements about aspects of cultural competence. However, the nature and scope of the cultural component in…

Examined bilingual Australian elementary students' attitudes toward their first and second languages, noting attitudes they attributed to significant others in various contexts and investigating the impact of demographic and educational factors. Interviews indicated that children held significantly different attitudes toward first and second…

Reviews variations in levels of English-language proficiency among immigrants from non-English-speaking countries to Australia. Data on 27 of the largest birthplace groups are used from the 1996 census. Discusses immigrants' motivation to learn English and be included in Australian society and Australian policies regarding immigration-selection…

This report discusses an investigation on the processes involved in the acquisition of French by students in late immersion programs in Australia. An ethnographic style of data collection was used in the study, which covered a full year. (Contains 14 references.) (JL)

Discusses multilingual resources for children--books in languages other than English as well as dual language books written in both heritage languages and English for immigrants. Focuses on the challenges dual language books present for translators, emphasizing that publishers' insensitivity has often resulted in inadequate translations. (10…

Until 1947, Australia was considered one of the most monolingual countries in the world. However, now there are more than a million bilingual Australians who regularly use a language other than English when talking with friends and families, or on religious or social occasions. (SL)