Overview
The Australian Curriculum: Languages is designed to enable all students in Australia to learn a language in addition to English.
The Australian Curriculum: Languages recognises that students bring their own linguistic and cultural background to their learning, whether this is English or the target language or various combinations of languages.
The organisation of the curriculum addresses learner background in the target language by providing a number of pathways and entry points of study to cater for background language learners, first language learners and second language learners.
Understand how Languages works
Introduction
The Australian Curriculum: Languages is designed to enable all students to engage in learning a language in addition to English. The design of the Australian Curriculum: Languages recognises the features that languages share as well as the distinctiveness of specific languages.
Rationale
Through learning languages, students acquire:
- communication skills in the language being learnt
- an intercultural capability, and an understanding of the role of language and culture in communication
- a capability for reflection on language use and language learning.
Aims
The Australian Curriculum: Languages aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure students:
- communicate in the target language
- understand language, culture, and learning and their relationship, and thereby develop an intercultural capability in communication
Key ideas
The interrelationship of language, culture and learning provides the foundation for the Australian Curriculum: Languages.
In the languages learning area the focus is on both language and culture, as students learn to communicate meaningfully across linguistic and cultural systems, and different contexts.
Structure
Learner background and time-on-task are two major variables that influence language learning and they provide the basis for the structure of the Australian Curriculum: Languages. These variables are addressed through the specification of content and the description of achievement standards according to pathways and learning sequences respectively.
Student diversity
ACARA is committed to the development of a high-quality curriculum that promotes excellence and equity in education for all Australian students.
All students are entitled to rigorous, relevant and engaging learning programs drawn from the Australian Curriculum: Languages.
General capabilities
In the Australian Curriculum, general capabilities encompass knowledge, skills, behaviours, and dispositions that, together with curriculum content in each learning area and the cross-curriculum priorities, will enable students to live and work successfully in the 21st century.
Cross-curriculum priorities
The Australian Curriculum gives special attention to three cross-curriculum priorities:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
- Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
- Sustainability.
Glossary
- Last updated:
- 6 June 2022
