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"Articles" has articles on news and policy in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

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Languages is vital to Australia's strength

10 June 2009

Future depends on Asian languages
The Australian. Guy Healy

Australians risk being marooned in the dated jobs and industries of the 20th century unless a $11.3 billion mass Asian language literacy plan is acted on within a generation, according to Michael Wesley, a leading expert on international relations.

Boosting the number of schools students undertaking study of a second language is vital to Australia's cultural and economic strength. The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences has made languages policy a key issue for 2009. The languages national school curriculum is under review in 2009, and the new $62 million program to boost study of Asian languages and societies is also beginning this year.

CHASS welcomes Griffith University's contribution to the debate about how to develop languages study in its new report Australian Strategy for Asian Language Proficiency. It also supports development of the new National Tertiary Languages network by researchers and teachers at universities across Australia. Professor Jo Lo Bianco FAHA, Chair of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Language Studies Committee and one of the leaders of the new Network, is also active in the national debate on how to build knowledge and skills in language.