Despite the recent Australian Government commitment to supporting schools in growing students into global citizens, language educators cannot rely on this alone to attract new language students. The Young Language Ambassador Program is a new initiative that started in August 2014. The Young Language Ambassador Program is a partnership between…

2015 marked the 20th anniversary of the National Languages conference of the AFMLTA. The conference was held in Melbourne with a welcome reception at the Melbourne Immigration Museum and conference dinner in the iconic Eureka Tower. Almost 300 delegates attended the conference from around Australia, as well as a contingent from New Zealand and a…

In this article, Anne-Marie Morgan, Deputy Head of School and a member of the English, Languages and Literacies Education team in the School of Education at the University of New England, and of the Languages, Literacies and Literature Research Network, presents highlights from the Summer AFMLTA National Languages Conference (20th, Melbourne,…

In recent debates about curriculum, Young (2008, p. 101) has proposed school learning must involve initiation into the "powerful knowledge" of the disciplines that underpin subject domains, thereby "giving students the tools to think the unthinkable". Opponents query whether such knowledge is available in subjects such as…

Queensland second language immersion programs have been in existence for three decades, and are part of a growing number of additive bilingual education programs in Australia. Most prominently, many new Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs have been established particularly in Victoria over the past few years. This focus on…

The idea of "powerful knowledge" has been developed by Young (2008; 2010; 2012; 2013), who argues for a subject-based curriculum. This notion has created widespread debate within the fields of sociology of knowledge and the sociology of the curriculum. Young's work takes a social realist perspective to describing the academic disciplines…

University programs for preparing preservice teachers of languages for teaching in schools generally involve generic pedagogy, methodology, curriculum, programming and issues foci, that provide a bridge between the study of languages (or recognition of existing language proficiency) and the teaching of languages. There is much territory to cover…

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.…

In this increasingly interconnected world, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with each other defines success in relationships, in the workforce and in one's personal pursuits. (AFMLTA More Leaps, 2012). There is an impetus in education, therefore, to improve the quality of language teaching and learning programs in schools and to…

Languages teachers are all aware of the significant advantages and benefits learning a language provides, and believe in the importance of second language acquisition. However, why is it that languages teachers need to justify learning a second language and work hard to encourage more students to see the importance of learning a language and to…