Opinion
The articles included here are designed to represent a range of opinions related to languages education - in Australia and elsewhere. We invite people to contribute their views, some of which may be controversial and at odds with other viewpoints.
The views expressed in these opinion pieces do not necessarily represent the policy positions of the Australian Council of State School Organisations or the Australian Parents Council.
Links are to print-friendly PDF versions of each article, or to web-based content sources. You will need Adobe® Reader® to open the PDF files - if you don't already have this free program, you can download it here.
13 June 2008: Lia Tedesco
Languages education in Australia in 2008
This article provides an overview of the current situation in the teaching of languages by providing some data regarding student participation in languages, outlining activities being undertaken collaboratively at the national level and providing information about recent Australian Government initiatives ... read more
28 May 2008: Karen Woodman
Multilingualism and multiculturalism
From the perspective of a Canadian, the current discussion on language education in Australia is very interesting - primarily because many of the questions being raised about the viability of language education have arguably been answered by other international experiences ... read more
23 May 2008: Nicholas Ostler
Squandered worlds
I was struck by Joe Lo Bianco's persuasive description of Australia's current language education policy as "squandering the gift of home-grown bilingual skills". It reminded me of a gut-wrenching - and for me unforgettable - moment in Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men ... read more
19 May 2008 Julia Gillard
Leading 21st Century Schools Engage With Asia Forum
I have to concede straight off that when it comes to making a speech about Asia, our Prime Minister has set the high jump bar incredibly high. I know it may seem a cop out, but... this one's going to be delivered in English. So let me start by giving you, in plain English, some facts which I am sure many of you know but which zero in on one of the biggest challenges we face as we start the Education Revolution ... read more
16 May 2008 Phillip Mahnken
Repairing languages education
You ask: What's the point of language teaching? Is it just economic, or are the biggest benefits intrinsic? What languages should be taught, how should we determine priorities? We need to do so much to repair languages education in this country, it is puzzling to know where to begin, what to prioritise ... read more
15 May 2008 Jane Orton
Languages at school
Learning a new language is a multifaceted educational experience which offers a range of potential benefits in and of itself, as well as providing longer term dividends in the form of mental and emotional flexibility, and the language proficiency and intercultural competence for broader social and work-related interaction ... read more
13 May 2008 Peter Jones
Reversing the trend
"If you don't know foreign languages, you don't know anything about your own language." Johann Goethe. In a multi-lingual world, yet one where languages are dying out every month, it is essential for Australians to speak a second language, particularly as we face the tyranny of English language imperialism: or should I say, American English imperialism? I feel ashamed that many students in Europe often speak two or three languages fluently and put our students to shame ... read more
12 May 2008 Paul Doolan
Ignorant of the fact of being ignorant
There is a joke doing the rounds that goes as follows: What do we call people raised speaking many languages - multilingual. What do we call people raised speaking two languages - bilingual. What do we call those poor souls raised speaking only one language - native English speakers. Some years ago Yale historian Paul Kennedy became involved in a polemic in the pages of Harpers Magazine with the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said ... read more
12 May 2008 Brian Manning
What's the point of teaching languages?
I was invited to attend the first Conference of Fretilin since Independence in May 2000 and the issue which attracted the most debate was: what languages would East Timor use now? Bearing in mind that a whole generation had grown up being forced to speak Bahasa, all the schools were using Bahasa and some students were part of the way through their courses in secondary and tertiary institutions ... read more
9 May 2008 Jo Lo Bianco
Tapping the reservoir: languages at school
People are often surprised to see how intense debates about language education can be. People often expect that, like geography or science, language education is an unproblematic affair. They might value the cultural insight that languages offer, but many feel that since so much communication in the world happens in English language teaching is a minor issue of interest only to teachers, students and their parents ... read more
8 May 2008 Henriette Vanechop
A universal language
The great number of language courses taught in New South Wales' schools proves the quasi-impossibility of enabling all human beings to communicate universally, by use of national languages. Only an auxiliary language, easy to learn, error-proof, taught in all primary schools in every country, would provide our descendants with a tool for international communication, while respecting and ensuring the continuity of all national tongues ... read more
7 May 2008 Claudia Mainard
A world of understanding
Learning a second language gives us an improved understanding the world, as much as it helps us to be understood. Being born in Australia, but of migrant parents, my heritage has taught me the value of speaking more than one language ... read more
6 May 2008 Penny Vos
Language learning
Australia spends up to $50 million a year teaching a LOTE (Language Other Than English) to our children. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of dedicated teachers, it is not working: almost no one is becoming bilingual as a result of LOTE education in Australian schools ... read more
5 May 2008: John Hajek and Yvette Slaughter
Let's send a message to the world ... in their languages
There has been much discussion recently about language issues in Australian media, revolving around two closely intertwined areas: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's public speaking of Chinese and anxiety about Australia's language capacity. As for the first, it's a highly commendable public act. It has generated real interest here and overseas, and reignited debate about the state of languages in Australia and in our schools in particular ... read more
May 2008: Lorraine Thornquist
Languages in the spotlight
How timely that in the UN designated International Year of Languages the Australian government should revisit the debate on Language Learning with renewed vigour. In the face of the dismal figures on students who graduate high school with a language, Federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, has now indicated that her government will work towards putting in place actions to significantly increase the number of students who acquire language skills ... read more
28 April 2008: Matthew Davies
Learning a Language is Not Just Words
The 2020 Summit missed half of the problem: Australia's weakness in foreign languages comes from widespread problems of attitude. Overcoming bad attitudes is crucial to mastering languages. How could Australians miss the publicity for Prime Minister Rudd's command of Mandarin? And what does it say of Australian identity and our place in the world when such pride and curiosity greet a public figure who has mastered another tongue very different from his first language of English? ... read more
2 April 2008: Matthew Absalom
Stop minding your language
The push to revitalise the learning and teaching of Asian languages by Lu Kewen (Kevin Rudd's adopted Chinese name) and the federal Government is welcome and overdue. The Howard government's curtailing of National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy funding, which supported Asian languages education in schools from 1995 to 2002, has led to the dramatic lack of expertise we experience today ... read more
26 March 2008: Joseph Lo Bianco
A Language Is a Window to Another World
In 2004 I took part in a joint conference of the US departments of education and defence. In the wake of 9/11, languages were a major concern: defence personnel wanted educators to fix the language problem, public institutions needed to offer the "right" languages, linguistic skills had to be tied to security and trade, and "heritage" speakers of strategic languages should help the nation catch evildoers ... read more
12 March 2008: John Töns
Minding our language
On Monday, February 25, the Advertiser ran a front-page item about the imminent release of a report on languages. The report recommends that all children should have access to learning a second language from kindergarten ... read more
March 2008: Tony Liddicoat et al
Languages: All Key Learning Areas are Equal - But Some Are More Equal than Others
One of the differences in language education policies around Australia is whether languages are compulsory or elective parts of the curriculum. The mandating of languages is probably the most controversial of the policy issues around language study ... read more
16 February 2008: Michael Clyne
Mother tongue, father tongue
A keen proponent of bilingualism, Michael Clyne grew up with two languages, one of which -- German -- became the language he gave his daughter, to become her father tongue ... read more
9 February 2008: Alexandra Aikhenvald
Me and other languages
Marking the United Nations-declared International Year of Languages, as well as its goal to preserve and promote linguistic diversity, the linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald tells the story of her own multilingualism, which reflects the story of a country that no longer exists ... read more
2 January 2008: Michael Clyne
Diverse language skills will open the world to Australians
In 2008, the International Year of Languages and the European Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue, many countries will be reflecting on their achievements in these areas and what can be done better. On such occasions, Australia is often cited as a nation that has achieved a unique identity based on cultural diversity, successful integration, harmony, and inclusiveness ... read more
17 November 2007: Andrew Ferguson
Languages for Australia's Future
The report by the Australian Primary Principals Association, titled In the Balance - The future of Australia's primary schools, points out the reasons why primary schools are failing our students in the area of languages education. Firstly, literacy and numeracy presently dominate the curriculum. Across the nation, teachers spend 38 per cent of their instructional time teaching English and 18 per cent teaching mathematics - more than half the total. The other six Key Learning Areas share the rest of the instructional time, with languages averaging only two per cent ... read more
5 November 2007: Koïchiro Matsuura
Languages Matter
The year 2008 has been proclaimed International Year of Languages by the United Nations General Assembly. UNESCO, which has been entrusted with the task of coordinating activities for the Year, is determined to fulfil its role as lead agency. The Organization is fully aware of the crucial importance of languages when seen against the many challenges that humanity will have to face over the next few decades. Languages are indeed essential to the identity of groups and individuals and to their peaceful coexistence ... read more
27 October 2007: Peta Lowry
LOTE@HOME
I am a full time business professional as well as mum of two young boys and, throughout my career, I have travelled to many different countries and worked with many bilingual colleagues, finding not being able to speak another language a challenge. All this makes us even more determined to support our children's second language learning, as well as motivating us to begin our own journey of learning Italian ... read more
23 October 2007: Jieh-Yung Lo
The Case for Investing in Diversity
The recent presentation by Kevin Rudd to Chinese President Hu Jintao showcased the importance of being bilingual. Yet the children of migrants face many challenges in negotiating between cultural identities as they attempt to participate in Australian society. For young new arrivals, the complexity of these challenges are heightened by the pressure to fit into their new environment, which may often conflict with the cultural norms, the social expectations of their country of origin and the values held by older generations. It is important for the many young Australians with culturally and linguistically diverse roots to be supported in maintaining their culture and language of origin ... read more
7 October 2007: Michael Clyne
The Time has Come to Go Forward Together
It is wonderful to see such a range of people from different backgrounds, who play different roles in the community together, and I think this a very important year. For the last 10 to 15 years we have seen enormous cutbacks in the kinds of things that we used to take for granted in Australia, particularly in education but also in many other areas. We need to make sure that we don't lose any more of the initiatives that have made Australia a model for the rest of the world. We certainly are not a model any more. Both internally and externally, we can't allow things to get any worse than they are ... read more
6 October 2007: Michael Clyne
Languages Leverage Learning & Life Skills
THE harnessing of Australia's rich linguistic resources is inhibited by a dominant monolingual mindset. There are many more people in the world who are bilingual or multilingual, yet the assumed dominance of monolingualism underlies several language fallacies popular in Australia. The first is the crowded curriculum fallacy, which suggests there's no space or time for a second language. Languages are a key learning area but are treated as inferior to other key learning areas. Many other countries do not consider their curriculums too crowded to include two languages other than the first ... read more
September 2007: L Thornquist
Language Learning: Beyond Politics - Practice as Policy
In the lead up to 2008, designated by the United Nations as the Year of Languages, 2007 has seen a flurry of activity in the debate on language education at a national level with reporting on papers such as the National Statement and Plan for Languages Education in Australian Schools 2005-2008, a national survey and report on Attitudes Towards the Study of Languages and a National Languages Summit - Languages in Crisis, to mention a few ... read more
August 2007: Dr Nola Purdie
Indigenous Languages in Australian Schools
As the nation focuses on the plight of Australia's Indigenous people, it is timely to be reminded of the impact of colonisation on Indigenous languages. In 2005, the authors of the National Indigenous Languages Survey Report concluded that the situation of Australia's languages is very grave and requires urgent action. Of 250 known Australian Indigenous languages, it was found that less than 20 could be considered as strong. Three or four languages were showing signs of moving into endangerment because they were spoken only by small groups of people, most of whom were more than 40 years of age ... read more
6 July 2007: Matthew Absalom
Language, the Missing Word in Our Schools
Walking around Preston Market this weekend, I was overjoyed to hear not a word of English spoken around me. Despite the fact that Melbourne is a linguistic hotbed, Australia has an appalling record with languages. Commentators such as the Australian Council of State School Organisations label this "an international embarrassment and national disgrace". Influential groups such as the Group of Eight Australian research-intensive universities call for "a new attitude towards languages and the learning of languages in Australia" ... read more
8 June 2007: Prof. Robin Jeffrey
Ignorance as a Second Language
The Dutch do it. The Norwegians do it. Even the French and the Canadians do it. The Indians do it a lot. They all learn second (and third) languages. Australians do not. Yet there's broad though passive agreement: Australia's capacity to understand and talk with Asia and the Pacific is deficient, even pathetic ... read more
June 2007: Sharyn Rankine
Why Should My Child Learn a Language?
As a Head of School I was occasionally approached by parents who questioned the need to learn a second language. Some felt that the Early Years focus should be on literacy and numeracy and that LOTE was an unnecessary addition to a 'crowded curriculum'. Others believed that a child should be proficient in their first language before another language is introduced. A few thought that bilingualism was of little value to Australian children. My attempts to convince parents of the benefits of second language learning were met with mixed success ... read more
14 May 2007: Rupert Macgregor
Languages in crisis
General Peter Cosgrove put the issue squarely: "I cannot imagine a future in which people of all cultures and nations are not increasingly connected by ties of travel, commerce and migration. Language skills and cultural sensitivity will be the new currency of this world order (and) provide the keys to participation in the global economy." But across Australia the study of languages continues to languish in a state of ongoing decline and crisis ... read more
8 April 2007: Tim Lindsey
Relaxed, complacent and risible
It's a funny thing, the Australian-Indonesian relationship. On the one hand, Canberra likes to assure us that it is better than ever and that John Howard has a special relationship with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. On the other hand, the relationship is routinely described by commentators as volatile, fragile or troubled ... read more
28 March 2007: Michael Clyne, Anne Pauwels & Roland Sussex
The state of languages education in Australia: a national tragedy and an international embarrassment
There has recently been much public discussion on the dangerously weakened status of mathematics and science in Australian education. But the issue of languages other than English has been neglected and marginalized in the too-hard basket. It is no exaggeration to state that this area is now a catastrophe in Australian education ... read more
24 March 2007: Judith Weeldon
Speaking in tongues
SHOCK! Horror! An Australian government minister has tried to learn some of another language, and a difficult one at that, to assist in her relationships with her Chinese speaking counterparts. We have spent millions of dollars asking the barely articulate question "Where the bloody hell are you?" and now we complain about thousands of taxpayer dollars and significant personal effort the former immigration minister Amanda Vanstone invested in developing positive relationships with Chinese speakers with whom she was doing government business ... read more
19 March 2007: Luke Slattery
Multicultural but still monolingual
Business educators and business leaders talk loftily about the need for global skills. But one global skill manifestly lacking in the business community is bilingualism. According to a report on language education before the Group of Eight research universities, Australian Chief Executives are less proficient in foreign languages than those of 27 other countries, including the US, UK and New Zealand ... read more
17 March 2007: Mike Carlton
Our neighbour, and yet we know little of them
And so once again we see Australian bodies coming home from Indonesia. It has happened so often. We have had the five journalists murdered at Balibo in Timor in 1975, presently the subject of a harrowing coronial inquiry. There have been the two Bali bombings; the death of nine defence personnel in the navy helicopter disaster at Nias in 2005, and now Wednesday's sombre return of the five killed in the Garuda crash in Yogyakarta ... read more
11 March 2007: Noel Pearson
The value of our imperilled native tongues
In 1973, a linguist doing field work on Aboriginal Australian languages realised he had met the last speaker of Yaygir, a language once spoken in present day northeast of NSW. The custodian of this invaluable piece of Australian culture, Sandy Cameron, was living in obscurity and had not spoken Yaygir for several years. He was however eager to work with his university-educated guest to record and preserve his ancestral language. The linguist decided to return to Cameron's home in a couple of months to finish the recording of this national treasure. But Cameron died before the linguist returned. A region of Australia lost a large part of its heritage. Such tragedies happened in many parts of Australia in our lifetime, and are still happening. Our nation's culture and history is needlessly impoverished ... read more
19 February 2007: Rupert Macgregor
Attitudes to study of languages in Australian schools
The Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO) and the Australian Parents Council (APC) have been actively involved in the ongoing languages education debate at least since our national consultation process to provide input to the development of what became the National Statement and Plan for Languages Education 2005-2008 ... read more
9 February 2007: Roly Sussex
Speaking in Tongues
Two-thirds of the world's population is bilingual or better: They can function in two or more languages. That's more than four billion people. In many parts of Europe - excluding the English-speaking parts - it is not uncommon to find trilinguals in secretarial and clerical jobs: for employment you need, say, Dutch plus English plus another language. Belgium has two official languages, French and Flemish, so Belgians tend to have both plus English. Switzerland has four - plus the ubiquitous English. South Africa has 11 ... read more
10 December 2006: Shanti Senadeera
The Importance of Learning the Mother Tongue in an Adopted Country
It is through language that we develop our thoughts, shape our experience, explore our customs, structure our community, construct our laws, articulate our values and give expression to our hopes and ideas. 'Mother Tongue' is a common language that is freely and comfortably spoken by adult generation both at home and outside to their successors in a community and reflect one's culture and ethnic backgrounds. It is the means by which different groups within the society maintain their identities ... read more
2 November 2006: Phillip Mahnken
Obstinate Ignorance - the Glad Game and the Blame Game in Languages Education
The last decade has seen a retreat in Australia's commitment to the study of other languages. Australian university students routinely study international business, politics, law, art and music without studying a related language. In Europe this would be unthinkable. Post-Hansen and post-Howard, in the midst of complex security concerns and debates, different others are most often represented as a threat. The Howard government abandoned the "Asia literacy" push and cut NALSAS funding. Failing to provide a model of positive engagement produces a trickle down effect on the media and the whole society. Languages teachers maintain that persistent study of other codes and modes of thought and living brings joy, fulfillment, useful knowledge, skills, self-awareness and being "other-interested" instead of purely self-interested. Obstinate ignorance is dangerous, an act of disrespect and passive racism ... read more
November 2006: Nola Purdie
Investigation into the Current Provision of Indigenous Language Programmes in Australian Schools
This is a PDF copy of a set of Powerpoint slides which provide a useful outline of Nola Purdie's presentation to the National Languages Summit in Canberra in November 2006, an outcome of an ACER project. As no useful Proceedings were published of that event, these are of great interest and considerable value ... read more
