About this Language Chat

In this episode, we share with you some of our general observations about what we like to call ‘the language learning landscape’ in Australia. For as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve been talking about elements of this in bits and pieces - our experiences of learning languages at school and uni, which languages were perceived as being ‘useful’ or ‘good for your career’ while others were seen to be an ‘unusual choice’ (!), the power and prominence of English despite the many languages used in our communities, and where languages other than English fit into our education systems. This is just an introduction, as this is a BIG topic and we’ll be going into a bit more detail in future episodes!

What are your observations of ‘the language learning landscape’ in Australia? Let us know your thoughts!

Episode Links

• National Policy of Languages, 1987

• “An average of 54 minutes per week was allocated to language study at primary level”, Language Provision in Victorian Government Schools, 2018

• “Australia’s school students spend the least time on second languages of students in all OECD countries”, Languages in Crisis: A Rescue Plan for Australia, 2007

Episode published: 1 Jun 2020