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List of contents
1. Issues in the Provision and Uptake of Languages
2. Principals’ Perspectives on the Study of Languages
3. Secondary School Language Teachers' Identities and Experiences
4. Being a Languages Teacher in NSW Primary Schools
5. Parental Perceptions and Attitudes to Language Study
6. Student Attitudes to Languages Study
7. Language Provision in Primary Schools
8. Secondary School Languages
9. Teaching Chinese in Australia: A Case Study
10. Languages Curriculum and Change
References
Index
About the author
Ken Cruickshank is Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney, Australia.Stephen Black is a Research Fellow in the School of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.Honglin Chen is Associate Professor in TESOL and Language Education in the School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia.Linda Tsung is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia.Jan Wright is Emeritus Professor in the School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia.
Summary
There is widespread concern in all English speaking countries at the rapid decline in study of languages. The promise of ‘languages for all’ in the UK and North America in the 1970s marked a shift from languages as élite subjects for the privileged few, but this promise has not been fulfilled. This book explores the reasons for and solutions to this decline. More importantly, it looks at how these trends have been reversed in successful school programs and the implications of this for language education policy makers. The study draws on an analysis of data from 600 primary, secondary and community languages schools over six years and from detailed case studies in a representative sample of 45 successful schools. The book proposes a range of strategies to address the decline: from engaging classroom learning, assessment outcomes and embedding languages as central in school curriculum on the one level, to a mix of incentives and mandation for language study, especially at upper secondary school level.
The authors explore the impact of learning languages on the thinking, educational experiences and outcomes of young people across a range of ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. They show the importance of having equal access to languages study in a world where young people will have increasingly more diverse working lives and argue that the gap in languages between policy and uptake is really a gap in the thinking of policy makers and government.
Foreword
Explores the decline of foreign language education in schools and provides solutions to improve young people’s access to language study, their learning experience and outcomes.
Additional text
The unique contribution of this important book to regenerating the study of languages in English-dominant societies is its tight and coordinated analysis of geography, SES, school system and language. The authors throw new light on the current "retreat from policy" and point towards the action needed to reverse the decline of language study.
