Policy statement of the Modern Language Teachers' Association of Victoria (Australia). (DS)

Discusses how languages other than English are perennially under pressure not only in Australia but in the United States as well. Focuses on how the eighteen City university of New York system--better known as CUNY--implemented a blueprint for the future to help foreign language programs from disappearing. This included reorganizing language…

Provides observations from a study of an attempt to introduce Indonesian in an Australian high school. Data collection was done through interviews and classroom observations. Classroom test results were used to compare achievement in subject content and language learning. Findings are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Discusses a research project that aims to study the grammatical development of two groups of language immersion students, one that is participating in an Internet project involving collaboration with learners in France and Canada, and another that is exposed to the teaching of grammar that has been integrated with content area studies. (Author/VWL)

Presents data on interlanguage development obtained from a storytelling exercise using a picture storybook for children in an Australian French-English immersion program. (Author/VWL)

Provides a dialogue that is a series of semi-structured interviews with a language educator who taught French for 4 years before becoming a full-time mother. After 9 years, she became involved in teaching in a French immersion program in Canada. The interviewer is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Australia. (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 why there has been a decline in the political and educational pressure to learn languages other than English in Australia. Recent political, economic, and educational changes are outlined that encourage the study of European and Asian languages. (Author/CB)

A discussion of Languages Other Than English (LOTE) curricula in Australia considers the country's social demographic composition, structure of educational provision, national language policies, state-level (particularly Victoria) curriculum design, and LOTE enrollment. (CB)

Reports the results of a survey in Adelaide (Australia) concerning public attitudes toward language diversity and the need to teach English and/or second languages to children in the schools. The survey analyzed responses on the basis of respondent's occupation, sex, income, and age, and found a high degree of support for language diversity. (MSE)

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)

Australia has a language paradox: great richness and great poverty of language resources. Despite its many cultures and immigrant groups, Australia emphasizes English-language assimilation and thereby endangers its chances for durable multilingualism. (MSE)