A North and Far North Queensland initiative: rethinking the 'why' when promoting languages education

Boulard, Florence

Abstract

Despite the recent Australian Government commitment to supporting schools in growing students into global citizens, language educators cannot rely on this alone to attract new language students. The Young Language Ambassador Program is a new initiative that started in August 2014. The Young Language Ambassador Program is a partnership between James Cook University and schools in North and Far North Queensland that promotes the study of foreign languages while providing young people with the opportunity to develop their leadership capability. With more than 40 schools currently involved in the program and more than 300 Young Language Ambassadors, two successful conferences were held in October 2014 with the theme of Shaping the Future of Language Education in the Tropics. This paper will present the steps involved in the development of this program and explain how language educators in other parts of Australia could develop similar leadership initiatives to promote languages in their community and beyond.

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Babel

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0005-3503

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2/3

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Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations

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