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This paper reports on a pilot implementation of the FL2 approach and resources, developed to support tertiary students' wellbeing as well as their second language learning (L2). The FL2 approach and learning activities were piloted in two Spanish language courses at Australian universities. Evaluation data were collected through an online survey of participating students and compared to the results of previous pilots conducted with students of Italian. Responses to scale items and open-ended questions indicate that the majority of participants greatly enjoyed their experiences in the courses and were satisfied with the learning opportunities provided, which shows potential for the FL2 approach. Evaluations of seven Positive Psychology-informed learning activities also piloted in this study were more nuanced. Taken together, these results suggest that designing curriculum to support student wellbeing as well as disciplinary learning can yield positive results. However, careful consideration must be given to alignment between FL2 activities and curriculum, as well as to students' individual differences in the reception of Positive Psychology-informed activities.

This study bridges a gap in the current research on motivation and demotivation learning a second language (L2). It is meant to provide an overview of students' goal setting when they start to learn an L2 at university level in Australia. Drawing on goal-setting and learning goal orientation constructs (cf. Miller, 2020), goal formation is deconstructed and analysed to throw new light on students' psychological processes identified at the micro level and the influences on goal setting stemming from the social context at the macro level in which students operate. The interaction between the two levels is explored in order to understand which dynamics lie behind research participants' desire of gaining proficiency in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Qualitative data analysis outcomes are shown in an attempt to provide clear and applicable pedagogical suggestions for L2 practitioners (see, e.g., Al-Hoorie et al., 2021).

A substantial body of research shows that various types of audiovisual (AV) input such as videos and videos with second language (L2) subtitles can facilitate language learning. However, language teachers' day-to-day practices with regard to multimodal input is less understood. To bridge the gap in language education, this study investigates teachers' perceived use of four types of AV input (video only, video with subtitles, video with captions and video with enhanced captions) and factors influencing teachers' perspectives on these types of input for in-class and out-of-class learning. Questionnaire data were collected from 193 L2 teachers across the globe about their perceived use of AV input. Teachers reported that they use video and captioned video most frequently in both classroom and out-of-class contexts. Logistic regression analyses revealed that teachers' perceived importance and comfort using specific AV input types were the two most important factors explaining teachers' reported use. Complementarily, open-ended responses were analyzed qualitatively to identify teachers' additional reasons for (non)use of such input.

Variability in the form of article (i.e., a and the) omissions and stressing has been attributed to a mismatch between first (L1) and second language (L2) prosodic and syntactic structures. An overlap between the L1 and L2 systems, on the other hand, is expected to contribute to native-like article productions. This case study aims to explore the role of L1 prosodic structure (Turkish, Spanish and English) and syntactic environment (nouns with and without adjectives) on article productions of two end-state L2 speakers and one Australian-English native speaker. The data consisted of a sentence imitation task and spontaneous speech recordings of these three speakers. Article use patterns in the data were coded as supplied and omitted, and indefinite article durations were excised and measured using PRAAT. The findings suggest that the presence of an adjective in the noun clause increases cognitive demand, since irrespective of the L1 background, all the speakers had longer indefinite article durations in contexts with an adjective. Second, the Turkish speaker, whose L1 has a different prosodic and syntactic structure from Spanish and English for encoding definiteness, had higher rates of article stressing and omissions in contexts with an adjective. Third, L1 prosodic constraints can be responsible for article stressing and omissions in end-state L2 speech since only the prosodic transfer hypothesis predicts a difference in article durations between the two syntactic environments within the interlanguage of the same speaker. Despite long years of exposure to and frequent daily use of the L2, the persistent difficulty in article productions, as reported in this paper, may imply the importance of age of acquisition in overriding certain L1 prosodic effects in acquiring an L2.

Researchers and teachers often invoke context to explain their particular research/teaching issues. However, definitions of context vary widely and the direct impact of the context is often unexplained. Based on research showing contextual differences in second language (L2) learner beliefs and interactional behaviors, the current project compared those factors in two distinct contexts: Chilean English as a foreign language (EFL) (n = 19) and Australian English as a second language (ESL) (n = 27) contexts. In this project, the learners completed a set of group discussion activities as part of their regular class work. They then completed a questionnaire pertaining to L2 motivation, perceptions of group work, and first language (L1) use. The group interaction data were analysed for: (1) the frequency of language-related episodes (LREs); (2) the initiator of LREs (self or other); and (3) L1 use for resolving LREs. The results showed that the EFL learners produced significantly more LREs. The EFL learners also used more L1 to resolve LREs. Factor analyses of the questionnaire data, conducted within- and across-contexts, showed notable differences in the two contexts as well. However, the findings of learner beliefs did not necessarily account for the differential classroom behaviors. We discuss our findings by reference to the socio-linguistic and socio-educational statuses of English in the two contexts as well as approaches to instruction which together shaped the learners' differential needs and purposes for learning the L2.

While its importance for promoting learning is well-documented, feedback can only promote learning to the extent that it is acted on by learners. However, there is evidence that students often have difficulty understanding feedback or with knowing how to act on it and/or are not necessarily receptive to the feedback provided. These kinds of problems underscore the importance of including the learner perspective in any consideration of feedback practices. This paper describes an intervention which used the 'reflective feedback conversation' and educational technologies to provide written feedback to students in University level Spanish language classes. The aim of the study was to improve learner uptake of feedback, develop student agency and self-regulation, increase alignment between teacher and student goals and expectations, and encourage learners to take a more active role in feedback processes as well as reduce teacher workload. Participants were 50 students enrolled in their third semester (pre-intermediate) of a university-level Spanish program. Data included student questionnaires, interviews with the teacher and students (n=9) and documentation of feedback and responses to feedback across a 12-week semester. Questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics while interview and documentation data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Despite issues with the technology, the findings demonstrate the potential of this approach for making feedback processes more efficient as well as for improving learning.

In order to disseminate the findings and recommendations from their studies, researchers publish papers in scientific journals in their subject area. Research communities thus emerge as a result of the communication between authors who cite other relevant papers. This study focuses on the relationships between Spanish and English research communities in the specific field of Educational Technology. We explore as hypotheses whether there are signs of scientific journal communication between authors in these two communities, and if the English authors reciprocate citations by Spanish authors. In order to verify them, a social network analysis was conducted by considering outgoing and incoming citations in eight open access journals (four in English and four in Spanish) published over ten years (2007-2016). The sample includes 3,407 articles, which were analysed using UCINET and Gephi software. The results show partial confirmation of the hypotheses, since two separate research communities were recognized, with almost no communication between them. However, the Spanish community was presented as more connected than the English one. We interpret these results by considering not only language factors, but also the journal roots and the particular subject field under consideration. Finally, we highlight some general recommendations to enhance future communication between these two education research communities.

This study investigates the impact of same-language subtitles on the immersion into audiovisual narratives as a function of the viewer's language (native or foreigner). Students from two universities in Australia and one in Spain were assigned randomly to one of two experimental groups, in which they saw a drama with the original English soundtrack either with same-language English subtitles (n = 81) or without subtitles (n = 92). The sample included an English native control group, and Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Spanish groups with English as a foreign language. Participants used post-hoc Likert scales to self-report their presence, transportation to the narrative world, perceived realism, identification with the characters, and enjoyment. The main results showed that subtitles did not significantly reduce these measures of immersion. However, subtitles produced higher transportation, identification with the characters, and perceived realism scores, where the first language of viewers and their viewing habits accounted for most of this variance. Moreover, presence and enjoyment were unaffected by either condition or language. Finally, the main results also revealed that transportation to the narrative world appears to be the most revealing measure of immersion in that it shows the strongest and most consistent correlations, and is a significant predictor of enjoyment.

This study explores the potential contribution of Eggins and Slade's (2004) Speech Functions as tools for describing learners' participation patterns in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC). Our analysis focuses on the relationship between learners' self-efficacy (i.e. personal judgments of second language performance capabilities) and discourse roles displayed in the online medium. A small corpus of data was selected as a sample from a larger study, comprising one face-to-face interaction (FtF2) and one synchronous text-based chat interaction (SCMC2) between two participants: Celine, a high-self-efficacy (HSE) learner, and Concetta, a low-self-efficacy (LSE) learner. The chat-log and conversation transcript were analyzed by employing: (a) quantitative measures of participation; namely words and turns produced by the participants, (b) Dörnyei and Kormos's (1998) taxonomy of Communication Strategies, and (c) Eggins and Slade's (2004) classification of speech functions. Our results suggest that speech functions are indeed effective at describing the social roles enacted by learners during interaction across the two media, in terms of discourse dependence or independence, as well as dominance. Therefore, by complementing other methods, such as quantitative measures of participation and qualitative analyses of communication strategies, speech functions can contribute to providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between SCMC, learners' self-efficacy, and participation patterns.

This analysis is but one small fragment of a broader project exploring conceptions of response-able Spanish bilingualism in Australian secondary education. An initial thematic analysis revealed patterns and trends in the data but overlooked the nuanced, subtle differences regarding the ways in which Spanish bilingualism might be entangled with a number of troubling discourses and practices. Drawing inspiration from concepts in decolonial, new material, and sociolinguistic theories, I explore how a diffractive inquiry of my conversations with Spanish as a world language teachers (SWLTs) might attend to the affirmative differences and transgressive data they mention. Through this diffractive inquiry of focus group conversations with SWLTs in Australia, a multitude of response-abilities emerged relating to digital antagonisms in and beyond the classroom, the role of experimental practices in supporting Spanish and other named languages and the capacity for us as researchers to remain mindfully attentive to the generative affects present in this type of data. Hence, such an inquiry presents an opportunity to focus on previously unseen data but also invites all those engaging in critical language inquiries to question their response-abilities as researcher/teacher/learners.

Many scholars across the world have studied the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to use digital media. Yet as digital texts have proliferated and evolved, there has been much conjecture over what it means to be 'digitally literate'. As literacy researchers from Australia, Sweden and Argentina we are concerned with the drive to standardise definitions of 'digital literacy' despite notable differences in the cultural politics of education in each country. This paper analyses how the term digital literacy has been conceptualised and applied by scholars in these three language contexts. To do this, we analyse the most cited publications on digital literacy in the English-speaking; Scandinavian; and Spanish-speaking contexts. In the analysis the variety of definitions across "and" within each context, the key tensions and challenges that emerge and the implications for digital literacy education are explored. Our findings reveal that similar tensions and challenges exist in all three contexts, however, the path to resolution varies given contextual differences. The article concludes with suggestions for educational research that acknowledges and advocates the need for local conceptualisations of digital literacies in increasingly globalised educational systems.

Professional interpreters are obliged by their codes of ethics to interpret the speakers' speech faithfully, including offensive, profane or vulgar language. In order to achieve this goal, interpreters need to be pragmatically competent, so as to understand the intention and effect of the offensive remark in the source language and be able to appropriately render it into the target language to achieve the same effect in the hearer. Research has shown, however, that not all interpreters abide by this requirement, and many tend to tone down or even omit any offensive language, for a number of reasons, including attempts to protect the hearers or to save their own face. This study examined the ways in which Arabic, Mandarin and Spanish speaking interpreters interpreted offensive language by a suspect in a simulated police interview into English. Experienced qualified interpreters in the three languages, maintained the highest levels of pragmatic equivalence.

The relationship between the polite and conventional nature of friendly language and the sincerity of the writer's feelings is a central topic in linguistic and historical research on friendship in epistolary communication. This relationship can be understood in the context of the emotional values and conventionalised emotional practices that characterise the writer's emotional community. The language of friendship has a significant role in the history of letter writing in religious communities. However, epistolary and emotional practices among religious groups in the modern era remain a rather unexplored filed of research. In this regard, the nineteenth century is of particular interest, as it saw the consolidation of sincerity as a central notion in European standards of letter writing. Bringing together historical pragmatics and the history of emotions, this paper describes the forms and functions of sincerity in the negotiation of friendships between nineteenth-century Catholic churchmen. The article analyses a corpus of letters in Italian and Spanish from the multilingual correspondence of European Benedictine missionaries in Australia between the 1850s and the 1890s. The results of the analysis show that sincerity and emotional self-disclosure, while dependent on the pragmatic conventions of letter writing, belonged to cross-linguistic cultural scripts typical of religious communities.

Drawing on data from a longitudinal linguistic ethnographic study of a trilingual (English, Japanese, Spanish) family in Australia, this paper suggests that rather than looking at their language use in terms of family language policy, better insights can be gained by exploring the translingual family repertoire. This repertoire is a central apparatus in the operation of this family, part of what holds the family together, both as an everyday means of communication and as an ideal of family integration. It is a set of resources that different members of the family can draw on in their everyday interactions. Looking at everyday interactions in the family, and the ways these are related both to this repertoire and to surrounding objects and space, this paper suggests that the focus of language use in the family is not on heritage language maintenance or any other kind of language policy, but rather on getting by translingually, on doing family life with the aid of a repertoire of diverse resources. This has important implications for how we think about multilingual families within the wider social domain.

Scientific reasoning competencies are relevant science competencies and therefore the development of assessment instruments for scientific reasoning competencies has become an integral part of science education research. However, some authors have questioned the validity of the instruments available so far, since their psychometric quality has not been evaluated satisfactorily. In this study, an established German multiple-choice instrument to assess scientific reasoning competencies has been translated into English and Spanish and the translated versions were evaluated based on the "translation," "review," "adjudication," "pretesting" and "documentation" (TRAPD) approach. Based on samples of German (N = 497), Australian (N = 103), and Chilean (N = 135) pre-service science teachers, statistical analyses (e.g. dimensionality and DIF analyses) provide psychometric evidence for test equivalence between the German and the translated versions of the instrument. Known groups comparisons provide evidence for the valid interpretation of the test scores as measures of scientific reasoning competencies. It is discussed that further studies might evaluate additional sources of validity evidence for the translated versions of the instrument, particularly focusing on cultural specificities. Independent of this need for further research, it is suggested that the three versions can be used to assess the scientific reasoning competencies of pre-service science teachers whose first language is English, German, or Spanish.

In the era of quality assurance (QA), close scrutiny of assessment practices has been intensified worldwide across the board. However, in the Australian context, trends in QA efforts have not reached the field of modern/foreign languages. This has largely resulted in leaving the establishment of language proficiency benchmarking up to individual institutions and programs of study. This paper discusses the findings of a cross-institutional collaborative research project focused on the comparative analysis and review of assessment practices in the Spanish language majors at the University of Queensland (UQ) and Griffith University (GU), both members of the Brisbane Universities Languages Alliance (BULA). The project had a two-pronged focus; on the one hand, establishing comparable student academic achievement standards, specifically for oral assessment in intermediate level courses; and, on the other hand, providing tools and resources to train teachers (continuing and sessional staff) in consensus moderation (CM) practices through an online platform. The results presented here offer practical pedagogical suggestions to support planning and review of oral assessment, thus contributing to QA management in languages other than English.

This study investigates the links between anxiety during oral activities in the Spanish language classroom and the teacher's role, as well as the strategies students use to cope with their anxiety. Most of the studies on language anxiety have focused on beginner groups; however, such anxiety is not limited to just that group. As this study has found, second-year students learning Spanish also experience a certain level of anxiety, many times caused by different factors from those that might have caused them anxiety in their first year of learning. This study uses different methodologies to investigate those factors, including a journal and a semi-structured interview. Based on the results, this study shows some strategies that students use to overcome anxiety, and ways for teachers to effectively support students in their learning process.

The present study compared the performance of two groups of second language learners processing three linguistic structures in Spanish. The linguistic targets were passives, object pronouns in O[subscript pro]VS sentences, and gender-cued null subjects in subordinate clauses. The primary differences between the two groups were language experience and an instructional treatment. The group with greater language experience was enrolled in the last course of their Spanish major, the other group in the middle of their major coursework. The group with less language experience received Processing Instruction on passives. The scores of the greater language experience group were compared to the pretest and then posttest scores of the Processing Instruction group. Results demonstrated that greater language experience gave learners an advantage in processing the linguistic targets when compared to the Processing Instruction group's pretest scores. Comparisons between the greater language experience group's scores with the Processing Instruction group's posttest scores showed that Processing Instruction provided a superior effect on passives, an equalizing effect on null subjects, and a non-effect on object pronouns. Experience counted more with object pronouns.

Inclusive education of students with disabilities in general education contexts has been a global movement for at least 30 years. We completed a systematic review of articles published in English- and Spanish-language peer-reviewed journals to obtain an international perspective on the status of inclusive education research and practice regarding students with disabilities, as reflected in the literature from 2002 through 2016. Our literature search, which involved two parallel searches to compare and contrast articles published in the English and Spanish professional literature, yielded 2380 articles which were categorised into seven categories: theory, descriptive, attitudinal, literature review, intervention, and non-inclusive. For both the English and Spanish literature, the most two common article types were theory and descriptive. The number of intervention articles, with findings on the efficacy of interventions to promote inclusive practices, was drastically lower in the Spanish literature. Implications for advancing future research and practice are discussed.

Because English is widely used as a lingua franca, language testers have started to consider the introduction of non-native accents into English listening tests. This study investigates how accents influence test-takers' performance, and also elicits test-takers' subjective perception of accents. Eighty adolescent L1-Mandarin test takers were divided into four groups of equal proficiency, with each group listening to one accented version of the same English listening test. The test input was delivered in Australian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Mandarin-accented English varieties with tasks measuring lexical and propositional comprehension and consisting of picture selection, true/false, and gap completion items. Test-takers' perceptions of accent familiarity, comprehensibility, and their attitudes were also measured. Results indicate that the test takers who received Mandarin-accented input performed best, lending support to a shared-L1 effect, with the strongest advantage for lexical comprehension. No significant difference was observed in test scores among the groups exposed to non-Mandarin accents. Findings also reveal that the type of accent was not significantly related to test-takers' attitude toward it. The central implication from this study is that there is potential for the inclusion of non-native accents into listening tests for adolescent learners if the shared-L1 effect can be addressed.

This autoethnographic investigation considers an English-speaking lecturer's observation and consideration of the predicament of non-native speakers of English in an English language mathematics classroom based on that same (non Spanish-speaking) lecturer's experience in a Spanish language mathematics classroom. Difficulties of understanding a course of mathematics instruction in a particular language for mathematically competent but language deficient students are outlined, and a number of guidelines for lecturers to improve the experience for such students are presented.

There is ample evidence that language learning strategies improve learners' outcomes. This is also the case in vocabulary learning. However, little attention has been given to students' language learning strategy knowledge. This experimental study assessed the extent to which keyword method (KWM) explicit instruction resulted in students' explicit strategy and meta-strategy knowledge. Two groups of 11-12 years old students also learned how to use KWM, a mnemonic vocabulary learning strategy, for encoding new Spanish-English word-pairs. One of these two groups, the experimental group, learned also how to use KWM at the time of bi-directional retrieval: forward or receptive recall, and backward or productive recall. An open-ended response Keyword Method Knowledge Questionnaire was used to evaluate if students learned key elements of the KWM and how to use them. The findings show that students gain detailed strategy and meta-strategy knowledge from KWM instruction. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed. This study provides the first investigation to date into what students know about KWM after being instructed on how it works and how to use it during encoding and bi-directional retrieval in FL vocabulary learning.

The number of Spanish students in Australia is increasing. This growth coincides with a period of revival in the teaching and learning of pronunciation in the foreign language classroom. However, unlike their peers in the UK and especially in the US, no specific materials are available for Australian students. In order to assist them, the first essential step must be examining their attitudes and beliefs, which is necessary to recognise the ways in which they conceive of learning pronunciation and thus shape further work, as the literature has long established. Therefore, we analyse here the results of an anonymous survey distributed among Australian university students of Spanish. The results show positive attitudes and loci of control towards the subject but also reveal the need for strengthening awareness and a number of tensions where action is still needed in order to ensure adequate pedagogical procedure for pronunciation success.

The present study examines how second language learners (L2) assign the thematic roles of agent/patient in Spanish passive sentences with "ser" (often referred to as the true passive) when it is their initial exposure to this structure. The target sentences were preceded by a contextual sentence. After hearing the two sentences, participants were asked to identify the agent of the passive sentence. All the sentences were reversible, and other linguistic variables were manipulated. Variables that have been shown in other studies on other linguistic structures to promote correct thematic role assignment include: the number (singular/ plural) of the agents and patients; the gender (masculine to feminine and feminine to masculine) of the agents and patients; and co-indexing of the grammatical subjects (+/-) in the context and target sentences. The quantitative analyses reveal that these native speakers of English, to varying degrees, assign thematic roles in passive sentences incorrectly. Furthermore, these learners show no sensitivity to number, gender, and co-referencing of grammatical subjects. None of the paired conditions promoted greater accuracy in assigning thematic roles. The results are discussed in terms of the First Noun Principle (VanPatten 2007) and the Canonical Alignment Hypothesis (Hyams et al. 2006).

This article is a critical reflection on a study of the views of Spanish teachers in South Australian schools about their professional development (PD) needs and experiences. Officials responsible for designing Spanish specific PD were interviewed. Sixteen teachers were randomly selected from private, public, country and metropolitan middle schools and were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire with an open-ended response format. Non-native and native Spanish speaking participants formed the cohort. The findings of the study revealed that within-system weaknesses and individual-identified locus of control, were barriers to Spanish teachers' PD and growth. Tensions existed between teachers and officials' expectations of PD which influenced participants' views of PD and achievable outcomes. The findings suggest participatory strategic negotiations are required if both parties are to improve the perceptions of the value of PD provisions and outcomes. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)

While children remain at the center of families' decisions to emigrate, the global contexts and technologies that allow diasporas to remain connected to their cultures have influenced families' aspirations in relation to their children's education. This article presents data from a qualitative study on how immigrant families negotiate the schooling of their children in Australia. Findings highlight there are incongruencies between immigrant parents' understanding of education and what the Australian public school system offers. This clash is combined with parents' determination to reinforce their culture at home, which is usually overridden by schools' standardization of practices and values. The study suggests there is a need to better understand the range of experiences and expectations that immigrant families bring to schools for educational institutions to be more attuned with an increasingly diverse, mobile, and mediatically interconnected population.

Griffith University is set across five campuses in south-east Queensland, Australia, and has a student population of 43,000. The School of Languages and Linguistics (LAL) offers programs in linguistics, international English, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, as well as English language enhancement courses. Research strands reflect the staff's varied scholarly interests, which include academic language and learning, sociolinguistics, second language learning/acquisition and teaching, computer assisted language learning (CALL) and language corpora. This report offers a summary of research recently published or currently underway within LAL.

The aim of this study is to examine the strategies majority language-speaking parents use to support the development of the minority language in families who follow the pattern of exposure known as one-parent-one-language (OPOL). In this particular pattern of raising a child bilingually, each parent speaks only their own native language to their children. Previous studies concerned with language development in children raised under the OPOL pattern primarily focused on how input from the minority language-speaking parent affects minority language development, leaving the role of the majority language-speaking parent largely unexplored. To address this gap, a case study was carried out on three families in Brisbane, Australia, who reported following the OPOL pattern. Video and audio recordings were taken, along with interviews using an elicited recall task based on the recordings to gather data on the families' language practices and motivations. The results of the qualitative analysis suggest that, in these families, the majority language-speaking parent plays an important role that extends beyond the provision of input in the majority language and may contribute to fostering minority language development and maintenance.

This study presents an insight into content and language integrated learning (CLIL) practices in the Australian state of Queensland. The article comprises four main sections. The first section outlines the context of CLIL in Australia and Queensland; there follows a brief review of the literature on stakeholders in CLIL programmes, such as programme directors, teachers and parents; a third section presents the methods used in the study; and finally a summary of the findings will be presented. Based on semi-structured interviews, the research set out to uncover the views of programme directors of 11 different CLIL programmes regarding their pedagogical decisions and contextual experiences in a societal climate that tolerates but does not prioritise the study of second languages. The article concludes that CLIL programmes exist as individual programmes without an umbrella organisation supporting them and that, as a consequence, there is a necessity and mentality amongst programme directors to fulfil more roles than just those of leading teachers, including advocacy, recruitment and coordination of translations for teaching units. The article makes two claims: that stakeholder agency in CLIL programmes in Queensland is characterised by a "sole fighter mentality"; and that this mentality is fostered not only by a generally marginalised role assigned to second language learning but also by contextual factors that merge language learning with language maintenance concerns in many of the existing CLIL programmes.

This article reports on an inter-generational inter-cultural pilot project carried out in suburban Melbourne which supports the second-language acquisition of younger people and enhances the social inclusion of older people of migrant background. The article begins with an outline of the multilingual context in which the project is based. The project is then described, and qualitative data indicating its success are presented. This is collected from a student focus group, phone interviews with older participants and conversations between students and older participants.

This article aims to demonstrate how the use of an online journal, a bilingual blog, can contribute to filling in the language and cultural gaps of foreign language learners. This case study focuses on the participation, interaction, motivation, language acquisition, feedback and cultural input improved by students of Spanish as a Foreign Language at the University of Queensland in Australia and students of English as a Foreign Language at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain. It demonstrates how this learner-directed instructional context allows intercultural and "language" exchanges, firstly between participants, as a peer revision exercise and secondly, as collaborative work and a discussion platform in the blog "GranCanBrisbaneEspanolEnglish". (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

This article seeks to explore how various language policies may have impacted Year 12 language candidature in Victoria. Australian Federal and Victorian State Government language policies are but one of the influences yet, it may be argued, the most significant influence. These stand alongside waves of immigration, global events and conflicts, and the agitations of community groups and academics. Data available on languages candidature at the Year 12 examination in its various iterations are examined. The framework referred to throughout this article is that devised by Lo Bianco with Slaughter (2009) as a means of describing, as a sequence, the overlapping periods of language planning in Australia. The phases are described as comfortably British, assertively Australian, ambitiously multicultural, energetically Asian, and fundamentally economic (Lo Bianco, 2009, p. 15). (Contains 2 tables.)

The call to internationalise the curriculum has become firmly ensconced in Australian educational discourse and university mission statements. Yet, scholars in this area agree that there are few concrete examples of how educators actually set about internationalising the curriculum in a tangible and easily replicable way. This paper adopts a definition of internationalisation of the curriculum which takes into account the experiential aspects of the process of becoming an intercultural communicator. The goal of internationalising the curriculum responds to the recognition that students need to develop a degree of intercultural competence in order to function efficiently in an increasingly globalised environment. Both international and local students need to be partners in this process, and the cultural diversity of contemporary universities in the west is an ideal setting to foster the ability to mediate across cultures. In this paper, we explore some practical ways in which key issues in intercultural communication can be implemented into university curricula through programmes that promote interaction across groups. (An example of a worksheet on the topic, "What is negotiable in academic settings" is appended.)

Visual information from the face is an integral part of speech perception. Additionally, orthography can play a role in disambiguating the speech signal in nonnative speech. This study investigates the effect of audiovisual speech information and orthography on nonnative speech. Particularly, orthographic depth is of interest. Turkish transparent and Australian English opaque speakers were tested for their production of nonwords in Spanish transparent and Irish opaque. We found that transparent orthography enhanced pronunciation and orthographic responses. Results confirm previous findings that visual information enhances speech production and extend them to show the facilitative effects of orthography under certain conditions. Implications are discussed in relation to audiovisual speech perception and orthographic processing and practical considerations such as second language instruction.

This paper compares two sets of data from the same year, 2001--the numbers of students taking languages other than English at primary and secondary level, and census statistics for the home use of languages other than English. The data draws attention to languages that are taught principally in day schools and those taken mainly in after hours programs, and to variation between States and between education systems. While it is acknowledged that the strong presence of a language in the community is not the only reason for offering it in schools, the paper demonstrates that some important international languages are now among the major community languages and that some of them are marginal in the mainstream education systems in Australia. The presence of large numbers of speakers will facilitate the utilization of community resources in language teaching. Consideration needs to be given especially to Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Spanish, community languages with increasing numbers, the first two especially among the young. (Contains 10 tables and 5 notes.)

Highlights strategies and processes implemented across two schools as part of the Languages Focus Schools project in Australia. The intention was to improve outcomes for student learning in Spanish through a streamlined approach to programming, assessment, and transition from the first year of primary school to Grade 9, with a focus on the middle years. (Author/VWL)

Describes a project that aimed to provide target language experiences for second and third year Spanish as a foreign language learners in Australia. The project involved exposing students to native Spanish speakers. Findings show that students made a noticeable improvement in communicative competence, and they became more knowledgeable about social, historical, and political aspects of the different Spanish-speaking countries. (Author/VWL)

Presents results of a detailed analysis of courtroom transcripts involving Spanish-English interpreting by four interpreters in Sydney, Australia, where consistent changes in the interpreted versions were found. Discusses omission of substantial diminution of reference to the courtroom reality in interpreted discourse and changes in tenor that may affect the relationship between the second-language speaker and the legal professionals. (VWL)

To discover the extent to which academic register develops in language-minority children, it is important to describe the academic register of the minority language and then to develop instruments to measure its development. This article looks at the means that were developed to accomplish these two tasks of description and instrument development in a study of Spanish-English biliteracy in Australia. (Author/JL)