This presentation will describe the scope, aims, methodology and results of an Australian Government funded research project into the provision of languages education in schools and home language practices in Families and  in communities. A second related proposal to be submitted to the conference will outline the presentation of specific findings that directly relate to the perspectives of youth and the affordances available to them to pursue the development of languages additional to English.

Concern for languages education and the maintenance of home and heritage languages is evident in current research in a large number of European and non-European countries. In Australia too, there is an urgent need for research to inform policy development, program provision and the expenditure of allocated funding so that the quality of languages education can improve and so that all students are provided with opportunities for the development of home and elective languages.

This paper will also propose the ways in which the findings from this research should inform language education policy and languages provision in schools and community language schools. The overall aim of the research was to provide for a much stronger theoretical basis for policy decisions that affect the lives of young people who use a language other than English in their daily lives.

In Australia, many community languages have become firmly established in the education system.  At the same time, successive governments in Australia have pushed various language education policies, trying to increase the number of students graduating school with a language additional to English.  In fact, millions of dollars have been spent on targeted languages policies with little evidence of effective outcomes in school programs and no notable impact on the decline in language enrolments in Australian schools. In the process, the notion of 'speakers of community languages' and 'second language learners' have been constructed separately, with the former often marginalised in languages education. 

 The narrative of this research needed to include the opportunities presented to individual children to use and maintain their home or heritage language in a variety of domains in addition to mainstream schools. Inspired by the work  of Extra and Yagmur in Europe, the methodology combined the tools of large scale mapping and surveys with in-depth case studies of schools across systems and sectors. The presentation will outline the way in which the theoretical framework  for the project enhanced the development of a layered approach that was deeper and more extensive than previous accounts of languages provision and uptake.

 It was necessary to gain a much clearer understanding of the physical and virtual spaces where the languages are used, of the role of the various interlocutors and the importance of new media in the home and at school. Previous reports focusing on school and curriculum have failed to take into account the actual context for languages use and many have undervalued the role of communities in developing the vitality of particular languages.

 The research presented in this paper specifically explored the gap between policy and practice, between local resources and government programs. The study was designed to focus on the perspective of young speakers and learners and the affordances available to them to pursue study in the home (or heritage) language pr other languages. The paper will outline the four stages (see below) of the research. Collectively, these stages were designed to provide macro- and micro- perspectives on issues relating to the uptake of languages as well as the out of school contact with Languages experienced by children.

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