Editorial
EDITOR
Anne-Marie Morgan University of South Australia
PRODUCTION ACER Press
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See page 3 for submission guidelines .
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Editor , Babel Anne-Marie Morgan Research Fellow School of Education University of South Australia St Bernards Rd Magill SA 5072 Australia
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ISSN 0005 3503 © AFMLTA AND INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS 2012
Since my last editorial , we have seen the release of Ken Henry ’ s much anticipated White Paper , Australia in the Asian Century . The White Paper addresses the need for Australians to engage more deeply with our Asian neighbours , across all spheres of life and activity . The message that Australians need to be educated in the languages and cultures of Asia , as well as English , was front and centre in the paper . The paper noted that every Australian student needed significant exposure to studies of Asia across the curriculum , to have continuous access to learning an Asian language throughout their years of schooling , and to have the opportunity to learn an Asian language as part of every university program . Chinese , Hindi , Indonesian and Japanese were nominated as ‘ priority ’ languages , Hindi being the new kid on the block . As Hindi is currently taught in only a few schools in Australia , this addition will require concerted efforts – and funds – to enable programs to be developed and for teachers to be educated to teach it . Significant increases in teacher numbers will also be needed for the other priority languages , if the aim for every child to have continuous access to quality programs is to be realised . The slippage of Korean from the priority list is a concern , as recent gains in improved program quality , numbers and available teachers offer significant benefits to Australian learners and Australia ’ s future that should not be lost .
While Australia does need to engage with Asia and Asian languages to the degree outlined in the White Paper , what must also not be forgotten is the continuing need for engagement with languages of other regions and cultures , alternative markets and centres of human endeavour and decisionmaking ; as well as with the languages with which the diverse population of Australia identifies , including first ( mother tongue ) languages , heritage and home languages , at-risk and thriving Indigenous languages , and the languages of Europe , the Americas and Africa . Language , and culture learning and identification cannot be simplified to a formula to suit current political , economic or geographically focused trends , but must rather connect to the lives , histories and futures of the people who embody these languages and cultures and who contribute to and enact national objectives through their individual and collective participation in society .
You can read more about the AFMLTA ’ s response to the White Paper on our website – at www . afmlta . asn . au – where you can also find position statements on learning languages in Australia and on the Australian Curriculum : Languages shape paper .
In this issue , the papers cover a broad range of languages education topics , from bilingual education and its additional benefits to first language and literacy outcomes in a Macedonian case study ( de Courcy and Smilevska ); interpreting the so-called ‘ conversation ’ element of Victorian senior secondary French exams ( de Saint Léger and Storch ); what happened when a Japanese university program underwent a reduction of teaching hours ( Ascione and Bramley ); and an analysis of a project aimed at bridging the gap between school languages teachers and university languages researchers in relation to research literature , in Canada , with the involvement of the Canadian equivalent of the AFMLTA ( Mady ). All make for fascinating reading .
Finally , I draw your attention to the 19th AFMLTA biennial conference , to be held in Canberra in July . Registration for the conference before 15 March will also allow you to attend at the earlybird rate . See conference2013 . afmlta . asn . au for more details .
Anne-Marie Morgan
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