Although "VCE English Language (EL)" has been offered for twenty years in Victoria, Australia, the subject, and especially students' experience of it, has had little evaluation. Using data from four surveys conducted across seven years with over 1500 Unit 3-4 "EL" students, augmented by VCAA enrolment data, a profile of…

Since Joseph Nye introduced the concept of "Soft power" in his 1991 book, "Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power", analysts have discussed states' efforts to exercise their influence by attracting and co-opting rather than coercing or using force. This paper will examine enrolments trends in Indonesian language…

Discussion about how to monitor and increase participation in languages study is gaining relevance in the UK, the US and Australia across various sectors, but particularly in higher education. In recent times levels of enrolment in modern languages at universities around the world have been described in terms of "crisis" or even…

"New Courses 2012" refers to a new course structure adopted by the University of Western Australia, which has established a three-year general Bachelor degree followed by professional degrees. Since its introduction, enrolments in languages have increased, in a context in which languages across Australia have found themselves "under…

Using academic capitalism as a theoretical foundation, this phenomenological study examined the new study abroad experiences of Chinese college students in six popular English-speaking study destination countries--the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Singapore. Qualitative data collected from 20 interviews indicate some…

Australian teacher education programmes that prepare teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) are confronting the nexus of two facets of globalization: transformations in the Asian region, captured in the notion of the "Asian century", and shifting conceptions of professionalism in TESOL in non-compulsory education. In…

The overrepresentation of students from minority ethnic groups in separate special education settings has been extensively documented in North America, yet little research exists for Australian school systems. The authors of this study systematically analyzed 13 years of enrollment data from the state of New South Wales and found stark, increasing…

In a period of renewed efforts to encourage language study in Australia, with a particular view to increasing the number of students completing secondary school and studying a language, consideration of the reasons behind retention and attrition of students becomes paramount. In this preliminary study, which surveyed nearly 200 students entering…

Reasons that foreign languages have both cultural and pragmatic-vocational contributions are discussed. Reasons for the decline in foreign language study in Australia and ways to reverse the present trends are presented. (SW)

Extracts are given from the 78-page survey which deals with the changing pattern of enrollments in university language courses and with changes in range, structure and orientation of university language courses. An address from which the full report may be obtained is given. (RM)

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)

Australian enrollment statistics support the general trend that boys are more likely than girls to discontinue their study of languages and less likely to excel in the language class. The article argues that language teachers need to promote language learning for boys and work proactively on developing teaching methods that will suit boys and…