Asia Education Foundation

Discussion topic: Asian language fluency in Australian schools

At least 12% of students completing Year 12 will be fluent in one the languages of our key Asian neighbours – China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea – by 2020.

While this is the aspirational goal of the Australian government, we are currently way off target. Recent research indicates that numbers of year 12 students speaking Asian languages are declining rapidly – see Languages Reports.

‘I want my children to speak a bare minimum of two languages. Do I have to move to Asia?’, says Tamerlaine Beasley of Beasley International. View more of what she said in the video below.

Questions:

1. What are the major challenges around promoting Asian languages in your school?

2. What would help your school provide a robust language program?

Asia Literacy Summit - May 2009



2 responses

Peter Merritt

posted 10 September 2010 at 5:58pm
We have a fundamental shortage of qualified teachers of Asian languages. Whilst there is an appetite for Asian languages in schools there is no capacity to attract, train and retain fluent speakers to enable systems and schools to implement meaningful and sustainable programs.

posted 17 September 2010 at 9:45pm
I feel the key is providing students in K - 6 the opportunity to study an Asian language, not wait until they reach High School. Peter is right, quality teachers and a commitment from governments to support a strategy that embeds Asian languages in the Australian Curriculum is vital for sustainability.

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