If we are to address this skills shortfall, we need to take decisive action. Within a generation, Australia needs over half of its population to be competent in a second language. Two-thirds of Australians under the age of forty need to have either high-level, sound, or basic proficiency in a second language.
The Australian Strategy for Asian Language Proficiency that is proposed in this report will, within 30 years5, quadruple the number of Australians studying an Asian language at the Preparatory, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels of education.
In 30 years, one-quarter of Australians in Grade 12 will be studying an Asian language and the culture it articulates. One-third of these graduates will have a high level of spoken and written proficiency in their language of study; two-thirds will have a sound level of proficiency.
Over three-quarters of all students completing high school will have had the opportunity to study Asian language and culture (history, arts, literature, society and politics) during their schooling. They will have a basic comfort with Asian languages and cultures.
Beginning initially with the targeting of a small number of Asian languages is not an attempt to eclipse Australia’s rich array of community languages, Aboriginal languages, or the study of European languages. We are a proudly diverse nation, and we must nurture the diversity of our linguistic resources.
The long-term intent is to increase the number of both Asian and non-Asian languages learnt and spoken by Australians. By facilitating a revolution in this country’s attitudes towards multilingualism, a National Asian Languages Policy will benefit the study of non-target languages.
An Australian Strategy for Asian Language Proficiency requires funding over and above what is already being invested in languages education. It will not detract from languages currently being taught in Australian schools, colleges and universities.
Language is a gateway to culture. The Australian Strategy for Asian Language Proficiency will build on, and advance, the important progress that is already being made in embedding the study of Asia across the Australian education curriculum.
Footnotes
- “Implementing a project which will mainly benefit future generations is often extremely difficult for democratic governments who are re-elected every 3-5 years. If a country decides to make English their second language, the reality is that – if they do everything right and have no untoward setbacks – they are embarking on a project which will take 30-50 years to fully mature. This is the length of time it took the countries which provide the main models, like Finland…Language education requires a commitment and consistency which is unusual in other policy areas. It also needs an approach which is highly flexible and responsive to a fast-changing world. The two are difficult to reconcile." (Graddol, D. English Next, pp. 120-121)