We should be teaching languages in Australia, yet we are not teaching languages

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) this week released some plans for language learning The Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages. In this document there are some very broad plans for the future of language learning in schools across Australia. The good news is that Chinese Mandarin and Italian are the first languages to be rolled out nationally under the new Australian curriculum

Within days the NSW Education Department is resisting any change. At present NSW schools are not required to teach any language other than English. Alarm bells have gone off in the NSW Education system and they are crying teacher shortages and over crowded curriculum as a reason not to teach LOTE. More information about current policy and comparisons to VIC education policy can be read here Primary school languages plan hits resistance with a letter to the editor response here Learning a language opens young minds .

This week there was also a response to the revolutionary idea to send youth to Asian countries to learn language and culture, that I posted about recently Radical Ideas . The response No quick fix in any language highlights many of the currrent problems with langauge learning in Austrailia, however it does not propose any solutions. This article like so many discussions in the current debate of LOTE in Austrailia shows facts and figures about the decline of language teaching and learning across all schools and universities. The common repetative theme discussed and debated in many articles and forums can be summed up as;

“We should be teaching languages in Australia, yet we are not teaching languages”