Abstract Summary
We present early findings from an Australian Research Council Discovery project investigating successful languages programs in preschools and early primary years. The project explores national and international policies and practices, teacher education, and examples of successful programs, across Australia, in 'world', community and Aboriginal languages, referenced against world trends.
Abstract :
Researchers from the University of New England and The University of Melbourne present early findings from an Australian Research Council Discovery project (2019-2022) investigating successful languages programs in preschools and early primary years.
The project investigates three main data sources: national and international policies, practices and research literature; languages teacher preparation in Australian universities and during their first three years in schools; and through case studies of ‘successful’ programs, across Australia, in 'world', community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) languages, referenced against world trends in practice, historical precedents in Australia, and the recent international literature on success factors in different program types.
Successful programs are identified in collaboration with languages teacher professional associations at the national level and in several Australian states, and encompass a range of pedagogical models and program approaches, including language as subject (additional language learning), content-based models (including CLIL), full immersion, bilingual, and out of school hours programs. Programs are evaluated in relation to factors including time available for learning languages, teacher preparation and motivation, school culture, the choice of languages and which communities they serve, learner and teacher backgrounds and experience, opportunities for ‘in country’ experience, use of online learning affordances, methodological approaches to learning (including intercultural foci, translanguaging, and concept-based learning), and student input.
The project occurs within the context of a new national curriculum for languages in Australia, now available for 15+ languages as well as through frameworks for classical languages and indigenous languages, and development of a long awaited national plan and strategies for languages. The appetite for a national policy to guide the plan and strategies is back on government and education department agendas, making the project timely in providing data on what works and why, for which communities and under what circumstances, in these critical early years.
