Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Reconsideration of the Distinctive Role of Heritage Languages in Languages Education in Australia

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

  • 239 Accesses

Abstract

The provisioning of community languages in Australian education has had a long and successful history when judged in the context of the number of specific languages being offered and assessed at senior secondary level in the formal examinations that provide the basis for entrance to tertiary education. However, although this provisioning is a direct result of languages policies that supported linguistic and cultural diversity in a nation with a history of migration, policies for teaching the languages of migrants have not been sustained. At the same time, the current context of complex diversity and globalized multilingualism prompts a reconsideration of the very nature and orientation of language learning (Stroud & Heugh. Languages in education. In R. Mesthrie (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 413–429). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). In this chapter, I consider briefly some dimensions of the provision for community languages in Australian education, highlighting the provisioning and the efforts on the part of communities to gain legitimacy for their languages and cultures, the complexity of national collaboration that has made it possible, and issues related to the nature and quality of programs. I then propose a reconceptualization of the learning goals and pedagogies for the learning of community languages. Both are necessary to ensure that they remain a distinctive form of provision in languages education in Australia and that this provision is responsive to the diverse and dynamic affiliations, desires, and expectations of learners of these languages in contemporary times. I conclude with a reflection on necessary research that would sustain the provision of community languages.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    “Community languages” is the term used to refer to the specific languages used by immigrant communities in Australia. The term originated as part of the advocacy in the 1970s to expand languages provision beyond the prestige foreign languages that had been available (see Lo Bianco 2014). It is essentially the equivalent to the term “heritage languages” in the USA, though the Australian term does not also include the revitalization of languages or the languages of indigenous people.

  2. 2.

    The author was also the author of the Shape Paper for the Australian Curriculum – Languages.

References

  • ACARA. (2011). Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages. Report to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). Available from: http://www.acara.edu.au/_resources/Languages_-_Shape_of_the_Australian_Curriculum_new.pdf.

  • Cavallaro, F. (2010). From trilingualism to monolingualism? Sicilian Italians in Australia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 206, 109–154. doi:10.15/ijsl.2010.051.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clyne, M. (2008). The monolingual mindset as an impediment to the development of plurilingual potential in Australia. Sociolinguistic Studies, 2(3), 347–366. doi:10.1558/sols.v2i3.347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collaborative Curriculum and Assessment Framework for languages (CCAFL) [Internet]. (n.d.). Available from: https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/ccafl/enter/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_wA88/2

  • Della Chiesa, B., Scott, B. J., & Hinton, C. (Eds.). (2012). Languages in a global world: Learning for better cultural understanding. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/9789264123557-en.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas Fir Group. (2016). A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. The Modern Language Journal, 100(Supplement). doi:10.111/modl.12301-0026-7902/16/19-47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elder, C. The background speaker as learner of Chinese, Italian and Modern Greek: Implications for foreign language assessment. PhD thesis, Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, University of Melbourne; 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elder, C. (2005). Evaluating the effectiveness of heritage language education. What role for testing. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 8(2–3), 196–212. doi:10.1080/13670050508668607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: Global perspectives. Malden: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcia, O., Zakharia, Z., & Otcu, B. (Eds.). (2013). Bilingual community education and multilingualism: Beyond heritage languages in a global city. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • He, A. W. (2010). The heart of heritage: Sociocultural dimensions of heritage language learning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 30, 66–82. doi:10.1017/50267190510000073.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heugh, K. (2014). Turbulence and dilemma: Implications of diversity and multilingualism in Australian education. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3), 347–363. doi:10.1080/14790718.2014.921180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramsch, C. (2011). The symbolic dimension of the intercultural. Language Teaching, 44(3), 354–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramsch, C. (Ed.). (2014). Teaching foreign languages in the era of globalization: Introduction. Modern Language Journal, 98(1.) special issue, 296–311. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2014.12057.x.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung, C., & Scarino, A. (2016). Reconceptualizing the nature of goals and outcomes in language/s education. Modern Language Journal, 100(Supplement S1), 81–95. doi:10.1111/modl.12300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liddicoat, A. J., & Curnow, T. (2014). Students’ home languages and the struggle for space in the curriculum. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3), 273–288. doi:10.1080/14790718.2014.921175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. New York/Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lo Bianco, J. (1987). National policy on languages. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lo Bianco, J. (2014). Domesticating the foreign: Globalization’s effects on the place/s of languages. Modern Language Journal, 98(1), 312–325. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2014.12063.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo Bianco, J., & Slaughter, Y. (2009). Second languages and Australian schooling. Camberwell: Australian Council for Educational Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarino, A. (2008). The role of assessment in policy-making for language education in Australian Schools: A struggle for legitimacy and diversity. Current Issues in Language Planning, 9, 344–362. doi:10.1080/14664200802139596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scarino, A. (2014). Situating the challenges in current languages education policy in Australia – unlearning monolingualism. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3.) Special Issue: Educational Responses to Multilingualism, 289–306. doi:10.1080/14790718.2014.921176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, Y., & Hajek, J. (2007). Community languages and LOTE provision in Victorian primary schools. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 30(1), 07.1–07.22. doi:10.2104/14110707.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stroud, C., & Heugh, K. (2011). Languages in education. In R. Mesthrie (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 413–429). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tedesco, L, Buchanan, D (n.d.). School of Languages and Ethnic Schools provision. Unpublished data prepared by the Principal, School of Languages and the Executive Officer of the Ethnic Schools Association of South Australia

    Google Scholar 

  • Li Wei. (2011). Multilinguality, multimodality and multicompetence: Code- and mode-switching by minority ethnic children in complementary schools. Modern Language Journal, 95(3), 370–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for Languages and Cultures, School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia

    Angela Scarino

Authors
  1. Angela Scarino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angela Scarino .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. OISE/University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Peter Pericles Trifonas

  2. CERES/University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Themistoklis Aravossitas

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

School of Languages and Ethnic Schools (South Australia) Student Enrolment Data, 2016 (Reproduced by Permission)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Scarino, A. (2016). A Reconsideration of the Distinctive Role of Heritage Languages in Languages Education in Australia. In: Trifonas, P., Aravossitas, T. (eds) Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38893-9_31-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38893-9_31-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-38893-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-38893-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation