This article seeks to explore how various language policies may have impacted Year 12 language candidature in Victoria. Australian Federal and Victorian State Government language policies are but one of the influences yet, it may be argued, the most significant influence. These stand alongside waves of immigration, global events and conflicts, and…

Many novice language teachers have difficulty putting into practice their developing knowledge of language teaching. This article focuses on one of seven case study teachers as an exemplar of those involved in a New Zealand in-service professional development program for teachers of languages (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish) in…

The following refections are little more than that: they represent the idiosyncratic experiences of a schoolroom novice in a German class, together with an attempt to view these experiences in light of published research and theoretical considerations. However, it would be surprising if the remarks below represent no more than an isolated case,…

By using the case study of an advanced German course at ANU, the authors explore the main objectives of university language teaching and learning: language, subject matter, culture, research skills, and generic skills. The case study focuses on a student research project in which students investigate a topic of their own choice related to Swiss…

Language teachers are called upon to understand both the nature of students' intercultural competence and their own role in its development. Limited research attention has been paid to the relationship between the types of behaviour that language teachers model and the intercultural competence their students acquire. This article reports on a case…

This article reports on a cultural studies course about Switzerland conducted within the German Studies program at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2005. It discusses the pluricentric concept of "Landeskunde" of the German-speaking region which informed the design of the course seminars and presents the main themes which were explored…

International Grammar School was founded twenty years ago on the belief in the benefits of immersion language learning for children. It offers immersion second language learning in German, Italian, French, and Japanese which continues through kindergarten into the high school years. With language as the medium and not the object of learning,…

In collaboration with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Department of Education and Training, the Australian National University has been offering a professional development program for language teachers (called LIFT, or Language Inservice for Teachers) for more than ten years. As the program is specially tailored to meet teachers' current…

The use of dictionaries in second language proficiency examinations has been the subject of controversy and debate for a good many years. Debate often focuses on how dictionary availability impacts on examination performance as measured, for example, by test scores or by the quality of test-taker responses. This article presents findings of an…

Teachers like to believe that students learn what they are taught. Following up on research that questions this belief, a large-scale study of the acquisition of German as a foreign language by French-speaking school students in Geneva (DiGS, or "Deutsch in Genfer Schulen," "German in Geneva schools") further explored the question with some…

Demonstrates recent curriculum developments in the German Studies Program at an Australian University by describing a case study as an example of the integration of literature into an advanced German course. (Author/VWL)

Describes the German partial immersion program at St. Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane, Australia. The study confirms that content-based partial immersion teaching produces effective, communicative production in the language of immersion, and confident, competent language speakers even when the learners are quite young. (Author/VWL)

Discusses teacher-developed cards, for use in German foreign language classroom games, that help reinforce students' language skills in such areas as numbers, names, noun plurals, question and answer sequences, verbs, sports, interviews, and participles. (CB)

The decline of German language and area studies worldwide is documented, and ten specific strategies for strengthening German language education in Australia are outlined. (MSE)