From the ACARA media release:
The Australian Curriculum: Languages for Chinese, French, Indonesian and Italian have now been made available on the Australian Curriculum website.
With the release of the languages curricula, ACARA has now published and made available for use curriculum for all eight learning areas of the Australian Curriculum – a significant moment in Australian education history.
The curricula for the four languages online are yet to be formally endorsed by the Education Council, but as decided by the council, have been made available for states and territories to use in schools in their jurisdictions.
Read more at the AFMLTA website http://afmlta.asn.au/2014/07/12/australian-curriculum-languages-update-from-acara/
The curricula are available at: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/languages/preamble
Read the AFMLTA response at the ACARA blog: http://acaraeduau.com/2014/07/21/afmlta-welcomes-the-release-of-the-australian-curriculum-languages/
What does this mean for teaching Languages in WA?
- The WA Curriculum continues to be The Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline available at http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/ for K-10 and the WACE courses for Senior Secondary (http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/senior_secondary/courses/wace_courses/)
- For English, Mathematics, Science, and History, the curriculum content and achievement standards within the WACAO and the Australian Curriculum are the same. We can assume, then, that any revision of the Languages curriculum for WA will be guided by the Australian Curriculum: Languages, and also be very similar (if not the same as with the other learning areas).
- The current WA curriculum for Languages is very flexible, and there is a lot of scope to plan using the Australian Curriculum: Languages for new units of work and at the same time achieve the curriculum content and achievement standards within the current WA curriculum
- The Australian Curriculum: Languages provides a great opportunity to review, renew, and revitalise our language programs. It is especially worth considering the General Capabilities and Cross Curriculum Priorities. Most Learning Areas are also currently undergoing curriculum revision – this is a great opportunity to work with colleagues across learning areas.
Speaking of reviewing, renewing, and revitalising – why not join us at the MLTAWA 2014 Conference (http://mltawa.asn.au/2014-conference/)? We will be exploring the Australian Curriculum: Languages and there will no doubt be a lot of discussion about it!