Editorial

Abstract

On 21 July a momentous event was realised: The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) released the 'Australian Curriculum: Languages' for four languages: Chinese, Italian, Indonesian and French. In shaping, development, writing and revision since 2009, it is an occasion of note, as finally there is available a set of language-specific curricula, soon to be followed by another seven, for national use in Australian schools. AFMLTA executive members attended the launch, and delivered keynote speeches to herald the release of the curriculum. The report in this issue of 'Babel' notes this moment of significance. The curricula can be found at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/languages/preamble. Another significant event currently underway is a review of teacher education by the Australian Government. The AFMLTA was invited to meet with the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) to provide advice on language teacher education. Andrew Scrimgeour and I represented the AFMLTA and teachers of languages at this meeting, and our advice was keenly welcomed as an informed and positive way forward for language teacher education. The AFMLTA submission to this process can be found on the AFMLTA website.