This paper reports on the findings of a small-scale study carried out in Adelaide. We asked secondary students who had decided to continue or discontinue their language study once it was no longer compulsory what had prompted their decision. We also asked them whether they considered knowing a second language to be important. While all the…

For professional standards for language teachers to be valid they need to reflect what is valued by language teachers in their own professional practice. Standards need to reflect "current effective professional practice." In order to determine how the profession itself understands what characterises good language teaching and what "accomplished…

Views about the nature of culture and its relationship to language are constantly changing, and in relation to language learning, recent thinking has culminated in what is being termed "intercultural language learning." This orientation towards the teaching and learning of languages requires engagement with increasingly sophisticated views of…

This paper describes a project that set out to explore teachers' engagement with the issue of continuity in teaching, learning, and assessment as a central dimension of transition. The project revealed that teachers are deeply concerned with questions such as what progress students are making and how to maximise students' learning in the short and…