3. The current situation of LOTE teaching and learning in Australia

It is difficult to develop an accurate picture of participation in LOTE study for the nation as a whole. Jurisdictions collect and report data in different ways, which are not always conducive to the development of comparative tables. Only in the last few years have comprehensive data on NALSAS languages learning been available, following a national initiative of the MCEETYA Taskforce.

Table 1 below shows trends in Year 12 participation in tertiary-accredited Year language studies. The percentage of all language students has remained relatively stable over the period, with two exceptions: Greek is studied by relatively fewer students in later years than previously, and the relative popularity of Indonesian has increased. Japanese and French have continued to be the languages with the largest Year 12 candidatures.

Table 1: Year 12 enrolments in tertiary-accredited LOTE, by languages, all schools, Australia, 1994–2000 (per cent)

Language	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1998	2000
Japanese	20	21	22	21	22	22	22
French	17	18	17	16	17	17	17
German	10	11	11	11	11	11	11
Chinese	9	9	9	9	8	8	8
Italian	9	9	9	9	8	8	8
Indonesian	5	6	7	8	8	8	9
Greek	7	6	5	5	4	4	4
Vietnamese	5	5	4	4	3	3	3
Spanish	4	3	3	3	3	3
Arabic	3	2	2	2	2	2	2
Other	9	9	10	11	11	12	11
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100

Note: Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may exist between totals and the sums of
component parts, taking the totals above or below 100 per cent.

Table 2 shows overall enrolments for Year 12 students in the 10 largest languages.

Table 2: Top Ten Languages – Year 12, 1995-2000

Rank	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
1	Japanese 5032	Japanese 5381	Japanese 5287	Japanese 5524	Japanese 5198	Japanese 5292
2	French 4311	French 4201	French 3974	French 4204	French 4034	French 4082
3	German 2657	German 2674	German 2728	German 2791	German 2655	German 2935
4	Chinese 2469	Chinese 2361	Chinese 2478	Chinese 2692	Chinese 2569	Chinese 2935
5	Italian 2227	Italian 2100	Italian 2141	Italian 2061	Italian 1924	Indonesian 2089
6	Indonesian 1451	Indonesian 1762	Indonesian 2000	Indonesian 2003	Indonesian 1820	Italian 1959
7	Greek 1433	Greek1366	Greek 1322	Greek 1236	Greek 1037	Greek 954
8	Vietnamese 1174	Vietnamese 1038	Vietnamese 868	Spanish 785	Vietnamese 782	Vietnamese 678
9	Spanish 728	Spanish 767	Spanish 727	Vietnamese 774	Spanish 785	Spanish 626
10	Arabic 524	Arabic 589	Arabic 516	Arabic 628	Arabic 516	Arabic 545
Total LOTE students	24,214	24,670	24,755	25,570	24,051	24,562
% Yr 12 LOTE students	%14.05	%14.45	%14.33	%14.43	%13.88	%13.22

Source: Outcomes and National Reporting Branch, DETYA

Table 2 shows the ten languages with the largest enrolments of year 12 students. Over the period 1994-2000 the total number of students studying these languages declined slightly, while the total number of all Year 12 students increased, resulting in an overall reduction of the percentage of the total candidature studying a language. In 2002, only slightly more than one in ten Year 12 students included at least one language among their course choices.

Source: Data for 1994 and 1997 come from Partnerships for Change. 2000 data supplied by DEST. Note that 1994 does not include Tasmania and Qld secondary government sector and 1994 and 1997 figures do not include the Independent sector).

Figure 1 above shows that since the introduction of the NALSAS strategy, student participation has grown steadily in all four languages. Japanese and Indonesian remain by far the most popular languages, both of these languages almost doubling their enrolments over the past six years. Enrolments in Korean, while increasing, remain small on a national basis.

Table 3 below shows that in 2000, more than three-quarters of a million students, or just over 23 per cent of all Australian students, were studying a NALSAS language at some level. The exposure of students to these languages is greatest at the Years 5-7 level. While 2000 data is the first complete national data collection, these figures indicate significant progress over seven years. Even so they still fall well short of the original target for 60 per cent of year 10 students to be studying a NALSAS language by 2006.

Table 3: Students in Australian schools studying a NALSAS language by year level, 2000

Year level	Total student cohort	Students studying a NALSAS language	Per cent of students studying a NALSAS language
Pre Year 1	192927	43043	22.3%
Year 1	269331	53502	19.9%
Year 2	268446	51521	19.2%
Year 3	266071	67913	25.5%
Year 4	266378	76909	28.9%
Year 5	263712	97489	37.0%
Year 6	261185	102566	39.3%
Year 7	256843	150358	41.0%
Year 8	255707	77402	30.3%
Year 9	255957	35417	13.8%
Year 10	251461	21606	8.6%
Year 11	218402	9695	4.4%
Year 12	185810	8135	4.4%
TOTAL	3212230	750556	23.4%