Politics, Economics, Society, and Overseas Chinese Teaching: A Case Study of Australia

Abstract

The history and current state of Chinese teaching in Australia has largely been determined by two key factors: first, the country’s policy on languages, and in particular its policy regarding foreign language education; and second, its immigrants and overseas students from Chinese-speaking countries and regions. Beginning in the 1980s, Chinese teaching gained powerful support under Australia’s official language policy, and the number of people studying Chinese has continuously grown. At the same time, it is worth noting that the majority of those learning Chinese are students of Chinese descent. The questions of how to design courses, prepare teaching materials, grade examinations, and train qualified teachers in response to this situation merit careful consideration.

Keywords:

• Australia
• language policy
• overseas Chinese teaching
• students of Chinese descent

Notes

According to the analysis in Clyne (1991), Australia began using the term community language around 1975 to refer to languages other than English in use in Australia. In the United States and Canada, these are generally referred to as heritage languages. The primary reason why the term community language came into use was because there were no other suitable terms. The term foreign language could not be used, because although these languages lacked the status of national language that had been granted to English, they were used daily by certain ethnic groups in Australia; the term migrant language was also unsuitable, because many speakers of these languages had been born and raised in Australia. In addition, the term community language also encompassed the languages of aboriginal peoples, who naturally could not be referred to as migrants. The use of the term ethnic language was also unsatisfactory, as people of other ethnicities also used these languages. Clyne argues that the terms foreign language, migrant language, and ethnic language all had a derogatory meaning in Australia, thus the most commonly-used term since the 1980s is “language other than English,” abbreviated as LOTE. The occasional use of the general term foreign language in this paper is completely for the sake of convenience, and does not carry any value judgment.

The divisions and names for the various stages of primary and secondary school education do not quite match up with China, and sometimes even vary from state to state. In Queensland, where I was located, Primary Year 1 to Year 3 were termed lower primary; Year 4 and Year 5 were termed middle primary; Year 6 and Year 7 were termed upper primary; Year 8 to Year 10 were termed lower secondary; and Year 11 to Year 12 were termed upper secondary. In addition, in some states, secondary school referred to the period from Year 7 to Year 12, while in others it referred to Year 8 to Year 12. Some schools also divided the middle stage into “middle school.” For details, see EIA (2012).

State regulations varied: in Queensland, the majority of schools set foreign languages as a required subject for Year 6 through Year 8.

The phrase “Chinese teaching Chinese to Chinese” also appeared in the headlines of several news reports describing Chinese teaching at local schools.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ping Chen

Ping Chen is Professor and Chair in Chinese Studies and Director of the Confucius Institute at the School of Languages & Cultures, The University of Queensland, Australia.