This paper examines recent developments in the Community Languages Program in Western Australia. In particular, it explores how community languages, and community language schools (CLS), have been re-situated, and how the... [ view full abstract ]
This paper examines recent developments in the Community Languages Program in Western Australia. In particular, it explores how community languages, and community language schools (CLS), have been re-situated, and how the associated processes have impacted the potential for the diversity of communities within Western Australia to respond to, and be accommodated within a dynamic linguistic environment.
Specifically, the paper reports on the implementation, and evaluation of a pilot program aimed at aligning the development of CLS with professional learning, and with languages education more broadly in the Western Australian context. The paper is framed by a number of ‘borders’ associated with policy, practices, perceptions and bureaucracy, needing to be ‘crossed’ as part of the implementation and evaluation process.
A mixed methods approach using a concurrent design is used in the study, and this enables the collection of data reflecting the views and experiences of all stakeholders and participants involved in ‘border crossings’ to re-situate community languages. Data is sourced using a variety of methods including surveys, semi-structured interviews and document analysis.
The resultant discussion focuses on the interplay between:
- the disciplinary spaces and discourses associated with government sectors and education policy,
- the epistemological spaces and discourses associated with the learning and use of languages, and;
- the geographical spaces of a diversity of communities (both local and global) together with associated discourses.
This interplay has created a new landscape for community languages in Western Australia. There are connections and also fissures, and these are explained in the paper. Some borders are porous and some impermeable but the changed landscape suggests potential for a significant multilingual turn in Western Australia’s community languages future.
