The following interview was conducted with Catherine Elder in spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. Cathie has had a varied career in language testing, including work at universities in Australia and New Zealand and at the Language Testing Resource Center in Melbourne. In this interview, Cathie shares some highlights of her somewhat…

One of the consequences of globalisation in recent years has been the unprecedented spread of English as the world's lingua franca. This has particular resonance in postcolonial countries, such as Pakistan and Australia, whose histories have been strongly shaped by English colonisers in contrasting ways. Written from the perspective of someone who…

In this paper, I narrate highlights of my long process of learning and teaching English as a foreign language in mainland China and Australia, presenting a picture of the practices of learning and teaching English in mainland China from the bottom up. Over the past 50 years, English learners in mainland China, as Gao Yihong has written, have…

Much of the literature on social class and language study in schools argues that for middle-class parents and their children, languages are chosen for their capacity to offer forms of distinction that provide an edge in the global labour market. In this paper, we draw on data collected from interviews with parents and children in middle-class…

The suggested role for assessment in developing "Roadmaps for Learning" has potentially important implications for the learning of second or foreign languages in school, a major concern of applied linguistics. In this response, the authors consider how the findings of a detailed ethnographic study of classroom-based assessment in two…

For young bilingual students a feeling of connection to their background languages and cultures forms one important aspect of their developing identities. This paper addresses some of the findings from a larger study examining students' understandings of their identities as bilingual. The study involved students who are part of a bilingual program…

The globalisation of education has meant that English medium universities are enrolling unprecedented numbers of students for whom English is not a first language. This, in turn, has put increased pressure on institutions to ensure they have in place suitable measures for screening applicants in respect of their English language proficiency and…

This commentary reviews recent literature on a number of problematic issues arising from the use of English proficiency tests by registration bodies as the sole assessment of the professional communication skills of overseas qualified health professionals from non-English-speaking backgrounds. It discusses differences between the assessment…

This article provides a critical review of popular models for literacy pedagogy with regard for the needs of low-literacy refugee-background students. We argue that in a context of high linguistic diversity there is a need to re-evaluate teaching practices and curriculum in a way that is more responsive to difference and which pays closer…

Premature discontinuation rates among second language students in New Zealand are higher than for most other subjects in secondary schools, although this phenomenon has not given rise to a great deal of debate within the NZ language teaching community. In a recent study into premature discontinuation in Christchurch, NZ, the most frequently cited…

In this article, the author gives a short account of her own perceptions about teaching and learning a second language in Australian schools. She emphasises that these are her own observations, which have been coloured by her conversations with language teaching colleagues and students over many years. In this respect her views differ from those…

Language is crucial in our lives and to all disciplines. It affects our well-being individually and collectively and touches important sociopolitical issues. Linguists/applied linguists have exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to work in contexts personally meaningful to them. While language is the concern of all people,…

Focuses on the uses of the Wiz Electronic Translator, a plastic linguistic gadget that promised more than it was capable of delivering. (Author/CK)

Focuses on what has been learned from the implementation and evaluation of the Australian Language and Continuity Initiative (LCI) in relation to addressing transition issues in language education. (Author/VWL)

This is the first part of a three-part paper that explores the role that school language learning can play in the development of literacy, as well as the role that the teaching of literacy can play in language learning. This part deals with what current Australian Federal Government policies on literacy mean by literacy. (Author/VWL)