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Abstract
This book is a timely comparison of the divergent worlds of policy implementation and policy ambition, the messy, often contradictory here-and-now reality of languages in schools and the sharp-edged, shiny, future-oriented representation of languages in policy. Two deep rooted tendencies in Australian political and social life, multiculturalism and Asian regionalism, are represented as key phases in the country’s experimentation with language education planning. Presenting data from a five year ethnographic study combined with a 40 year span of policy analysis, this volume is a rare book length treatment of the chasm between imagined policy and its experienced delivery, and will provide insights that policymakers around the world can draw on.
A unique perspective on how areas such as language planning, social change and classroom-based research interact and may contribute to the development of language planning theory and language education policy, Lo Bianco's and Aliani's volume stands out as an innovative and much needed contribution to both fields. The 'voices from the classroom' emerging from the authors' longitudinal study nourish, sustain and legitimate new ways of working for language policy makers while offering different tools for scholars exploring education theories in action.
Lucilla Lopriore, Roma Tre University, Italy
Joseph Lo Bianco is Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne and a noted language planning scholar and researcher. He is currently President of Tsinghua Asian-Pacific Forum on Translation and Intercultural Studies and Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Renata Aliani is an experienced researcher, programme manager and educator at the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.
This innovative book provides an excellent and critical overview of the intention, interpretation and implementation of Australian language policies. Educationalists and language policymakers in countries, like Japan, destined to depend on immigrants for a human power shortage, will find this book instructive and insightful.
Yasukata Yano, Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics, Waseda University, Japan
This book will be a welcome resource for all those interested in the processes of language planning and policymaking, including teachers of foreign or indigenous languages, directors of bilingual schools, applied and educational linguists, sociologists and anthropologists focused on educational settings, micro-ethnographers, and curriculum designers in linguistically diverse schools, as well as those scholars specifically interested in Australian education or policymaking. This book should stimulate future language policy research in other countries that are noticing major slippage between the goals of articulated policy and actual classroom results (e.g. the United States and Britain). It should also prove useful in further elaborating existing language planning theories or models, since it stresses that there should be “constant iteration between school and nation, policy and practice” (p. 132). Finally, it should be of great assistance to language education planners who wish to democratize and increase the efficacy of the planning process by integrating bottom-up perspectives with top-down directives.
Alicia Pousada, University of Pennsylvania
This is a major contribution to our understanding of the interplay between language policy - in all its manifestations - and the realities of teaching and learning. The authors clearly understand the broader significance of multilingualism for our 21st century society and offer some striking insights into the realities and possibilities of languages education in a multicultural context. In so doing they suggest a vision of the 'new spaces' opening up in the future.
Lid King, National Director for Languages, England, 2003-2011
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | v | ||
| Figures | viii | ||
| Tables | ix | ||
| Introduction: Aims, Limitations and Questions | xi | ||
| 1\tRemaking a Nation Through Language Policy | 1 | ||
| Introduction: Texts, Debate, Behaviour | 1 | ||
| Intention, interpretation, implementation | 3 | ||
| The Problem of English and Global Communication | 7 | ||
| The party politics of Australian language planning | 11 | ||
| Official Texts (Intention) | 14 | ||
| (1) National Statement and Plan for Languages, 2005–12 | 15 | ||
| (2) The National Indigenous Languages Policy, 2009 | 15 | ||
| (3) National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP), 2008–12 | 16 | ||
| The relationship between the three language policy declarations | 17 | ||
| National curriculum (2013) | 19 | ||
| Public Debate (Interpretation) | 19 | ||
| Prime Ministerial Visions for New Australias | 31 | ||
| Visioning and agitating | 34 | ||
| Italian and Japanese | 38 | ||
| 2\tAustralia’s Italian and Japanese | 40 | ||
| Reprise | 40 | ||
| Who Studies Which Languages? | 42 | ||
| Geography, economy, demography | 43 | ||
| Enter Italian and Japanese | 45 | ||
| The place of Italian | 46 | ||
| The place of Japanese | 49 | ||
| Post-war migration | 52 | ||
| Language Policy on Italian and Japanese | 54 | ||
| The Italian and Japanese Diasporas | 55 | ||
| Victoria | 58 | ||
| 3\tThe Research Approach and the Schools | 62 | ||
| The Setting | 62 | ||
| Aims of the Research | 64 | ||
| Research Methodology | 65 | ||
| Diachronic research | 65 | ||
| Synchronic (intensive) research: focus groups and Q-methodology | 66 | ||
| Overview of the Study | 67 | ||
| Language teachers, a key element | 68 | ||
| Languages in the school curriculum | 69 | ||
| Languages in the community | 71 | ||
| Languages and student motivation | 72 | ||
| Students’ views and perceptions of languages | 73 | ||
| 4\tStudent Subjectivity | 83 | ||
| Focus Groups | 83 | ||
| Context | 84 | ||
| Students and language groups | 84 | ||
| Languages and learning | 85 | ||
| Planning for the future | 87 | ||
| General reflections on the language programme | 87 | ||
| Improving the language programme | 88 | ||
| Specific likes and dislikes | 91 | ||
| Timetabling | 95 | ||
| Top or preferred subjects | 96 | ||
| Why learn a language? | 97 | ||
| Q-Study | 98 | ||
| Methodology and context | 99 | ||
| Sorts and perspectives - Italian | 100 | ||
| Differences between perspectives – Italian | 105 | ||
| Sorts and perspectives – Japanese | 111 | ||
| Differences between perspectives – Japanese | 115 | ||
| General Observations from the Data | 120 | ||
| 5\tPushing Policy To Be Real | 122 | ||
| Appendices | 134 | ||
| Appendix 1: Q-Statements, Italian | 134 | ||
| Appendix 2: Q-Statements, Japanese | 136 | ||
| References | 139 | ||
| Figure 3.1 Sample language journal | 81 | ||
| Figure 4.1 Numbers of students in focus groups who suggested ways to improve and promote the language programme | 89 | ||
| Figure 4.2 Numbers of students in focus groups mentioning their likes and dislikes about language programmes | 91 | ||
| Figure 4.3 Numbers of students in focus groups giving specific reasons why they wanted to learn a language | 97 | ||
| Table 1.1 World foreign language choices in education: overall percentage of schools (primary and secondary) offering German, French or English | 7 | ||
| Table 2.1 Student enrolments in languages in primary and secondary schools in Australia, year? | 42 | ||
| Table 2.2 Students enrolments in languages in primary schools (years 1, 3 and 6) in Australia, year? | 43 | ||
| Table 2.3 Students enrolments in languages in secondary schools (years 7, 10, 11 and 12) in Australia, year? | 43 | ||
| Table 3.1 Numbers of students who participated in the study | 74 | ||
| Table 3.2 Secondary students’ perspectives on language activities: percentages of survey respondents endorsing each activity as most enjoyed, as wanting more of them and as useful for learning and understanding the language | 79 | ||
| Table 4.1 Numbers of students who participated in the focus group interviews | 84 | ||
| Table 4.2 Numbers of students in focus groups placing a language among their ‘top’ subjects | 96 | ||
| Table 4.3 Numbers of students in focus groups placing a language among their ‘preferred’ subjects | 96 | ||
| Table 4.4 Q-sort for Italian perspective 1: Fix it, but ask us! | 101 | ||
| Table 4.5 Q-sort for Italian perspective 2: It’s a bludge! | 103 | ||
| Table 4.6 Q-sort for Italian perspective 3: They have to back it! | 104 | ||
| Table 4.7 Differences between Italian perspectives 1 and 2: between the discourse of Fix it, but ask us! and It’s a bludge! | 106 | ||
| Table 4.8 Differences between Italian perspectives 1 and 3: between the discourse of Fix it, but ask us! and They have to back it! | 108 | ||
| Table 4.9 Differences between Italian perspectives 2 and 3: between the discourse of It’s a bludge! and They have to back it! | 109 | ||
| Table 4.10 Q-sort for Japanese perspective 1: Let’s use it much more! | 112 | ||
| Table 4.11 Q-sort for Japanese perspective 2: I’m not following you! | 114 | ||
| Table 4.12 Q-sort for Japanese perspective 3: No compulsion! | 115 | ||
| Table 4.12 Differences between Japanese perspectives 1 and 2: between the discourse of Let’s use it much more! and I’m not following you! | 116 | ||
| Table 4.13 Differences between Japanese perspectives 1 and 3: between the discourse of Let’s use it much more! and No compulsion! | 118 | ||
| Table 4.14 Differences between Japanese perspectives 2 and 3: between the discourse of Let’s use it much more! and No compulsion! | 119 |