Language Education in the School Curriculum: Issues of Access and Equity

Description

There is widespread concern in all English speaking countries at the rapid decline in study of languages. The promise of 'languages for all' in the UK and North America in the 1970s marked a shift from languages as elite subjects for the privileged few, but this promise has not been fulfilled. This book explores the reasons for and solutions to this decline. More importantly, it looks at how these trends have been reversed in successful school programs and the implications of this for language education policy makers. The study draws on an analysis of data from 600 primary, secondary and community languages schools over six years and from detailed case studies in a representative sample of 45 successful schools. The book proposes a range of strategies to address the decline: from engaging classroom learning, assessment outcomes and embedding languages as central in school curriculum on the one level, to a mix of incentives and mandation for language study, especially at upper secondary school level. The authors explore the impact of learning languages on the thinking, educational experiences and outcomes of young people across a range of ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. They show the importance of having equal access to languages study in a world where young people will have increasingly more diverse working lives and argue that the gap in languages between policy and uptake is really a gap in the thinking of policy makers and government.

Ken Cruickshank is Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Australia. Stephen Black is Senior Researcher in the School of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Honglin Chen is Associate Professor in TESOL in the School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia. Linda Tsung is Associate Professor in Chinese Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Australia. Jan Wright is Emeritus Professor in the School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia.

This book provides a welcome, powerful and insightful perspective on contemporary language education in schools focusing on the learning of languages other than English. Drawing on a robust five-year multilevel study into the provision and uptake of languages in schools in New South Wales, Australia, this research problematizes a wide range of social, cultural, educational and political issues in English-speaking contexts which signal a decline in the realization of inclusive multilingual and multicultural ideologies and their translated practices. In the face of increasingly exclusive provision and take-up, lack of continuity and concerns over achievement and accreditation, alongside the generally poor status of languages within the broader curriculum, the study details the complex nature of 'enactment' across case study schools. Data provide in-depth lived-through accounts of the complex factors which in some instances have led to the marginalization and inequitable access of language education and in others to successful experiences for young people and their communities. I strongly recommend the book to educators and researchers interested in Language Education not only in English-speaking contexts but across the globe - the message is thought-provoking and informative, uncomfortable and inspiring. * Do Coyle, Professor in Language Education and Classroom Pedagogy, School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, UK * The unique contribution of this important book to regenerating the study of languages in English-dominant societies is its tight and coordinated analysis of geography, SES, school system and language. The authors throw new light on the current "retreat from policy" and point towards the action needed to reverse the decline of language study. * Joseph Lo Bianco, Professor of Language and Literacy Education, University of Melbourne, Australia *