Teaching languages in a multicultural setting: Perspectives of a unique cohort of language teachers –at the Victorian School of Languages

Abstract

Within Australia, the State of Victoria has the greatest ethnic diversity and the largest number of second languages used at home. It also has the highest rates of students participating in language learning at school. It is also home to the country’s largest and oldest government school for second language learning - the Victorian School of Languages (VSL) which currently teaches 45 languages to approximately 16.000 students in 40 centres across the state. This paper develops a profile of the human capital of language teachers at the VSL and explores their views, which have until now been unexplored. It draws on an extensive anonymous survey of the VSL staff (mostly teachers) with over 552 responses. The results are both predictable and yet diverse. The findings show that the staff at the VSL are demographically a unique group, as they represent a rich gathering of cultural and linguistic diversity that is unlikely to be matched in any other institution in Australia. This paper presents the views of this exceptional cohort who work in a specialised environment that proudly holds the teaching of languages as its “core business”. The survey revealed that staff are highly enthusiastic and strongly believe in the role that their school is playing in nurturing multilingualism and multiculturalism in the state of Victoria. But it also showed their deep concerns about a number of current problems in the field of languages education in Australia. It also revealed that there is currently a fragmentation of opinion on the best label for languages as a curriculum area. This paper argues that the considerations of the staff at this specialist institution are highly developed and can therefore be seen as a beacon for the concerns of professionals in the field of languages education in other educational settings in Australia and overseas.

Keywords

• multiculturalism
• language education
• Australia
• multilingualism

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