A Reconsideration of the Distinctive Role of Heritage Languages in Languages Education in Australia

The provisioning of community languages in Australian education has had a long and successful history when judged in the context of the number of specific languages being offered and assessed at senior secondary level in the formal examinations that provide the basis for entrance to tertiary education. However, although this provisioning is a direct result of languages policies that supported linguistic and cultural diversity in a nation with a history of migration, policies for teaching the languages of migrants have not been sustained. At the same time, the current context of complex diversity and globalized multilingualism prompts a reconsideration of the very nature and orientation of language learning (Stroud & Heugh. Languages in education. In R. Mesthrie (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 413–429). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). In this chapter, I consider briefly some dimensions of the provision for community languages in Australian education, highlighting the provisioning and the efforts on the part of communities to gain legitimacy for their languages and cultures, the complexity of national collaboration that has made it possible, and issues related to the nature and quality of programs. I then propose a reconceptualization of the learning goals and pedagogies for the learning of community languages. Both are necessary to ensure that they remain a distinctive form of provision in languages education in Australia and that this provision is responsive to the diverse and dynamic affiliations, desires, and expectations of learners of these languages in contemporary times. I conclude with a reflection on necessary research that would sustain the provision of community languages.