Our research

There is no way to know what any student of any age in any class across Australia is learning in terms of languages.

We do not know what levels of proficiency students have in primary or secondary schools or in community languages schools.

We are researching ways to credit student achievement in learning languages.

With funding from the NSW government, we have developed a ‘prototype’ progression for community languages. This has milestones for students in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The prototype also describes the language repertoires that students develop. With academic experts and experienced teachers we are developing milestones, annotated work samples and indicators for Arabic and Chinese.

In 2023/4 we will trial these in schools and collect validity/ reliability evidence.

SICLE Deputy Director, Merryl Wahlin is working with co-researchers Prof. Linda Tsung and Dr. Nadia Selim (Sydney University) and Dr Mohamed Mahgoub (University College London) and Prof. Boping Yang (Cambridge University).

Community Languages schools are voluntary not-for-profit organisations often with few resources depending on the goodwill of parents and community members.

A key strand of research has been researching evidence-based ways of teaching appropriate to these contexts.

In 2021 we conducted a research project into quality teaching in CL schools with 20 teachers developing and trialling units of work in 12 languages. The next year we carried out a similar study of introducing digital storytelling into the Khmer Language School.

In 2023 we conducted a study of CL teachers participating in a process drama program in which they worked with traditional stories from their own backgrounds.

We are continuing this  professional learning of CL school teachers in process drama with a group in 2024 taking another six week program led by Zoe Hogan and Victoria Campbell. You can read more information about this here.

These three studies link to SICLE’s participation in research for the international Critical Connections project run by Prof. Jim Anderson and D.r Vicky MacLeroy (Goldsmiths, London).

Up to 25% of Community Languages Schools offer early childhood language support and teaching; growing numbers of parents want their children to have the experience of language learning before they start mainstream school – something which is not on offer in most mainstream kindergartens and pre-schools.

SICLE has been funded by the NSW Department of Education to find out the extent and nature of early childhood education in CL schools and to explore teacher professional learning strengths and needs in this area.

Dr. Criss Jones Diaz (WSU) will be based at SICLE in 2023 and Dr. Beatriz Cardona (Macquarie University) will be a key researcher on this project.

Community/ Heritage Language Learning and students with disabilities is an area which has received little attention, despite there being an estimated 3,700 learners with specific education needs in NSW CL schools.

With Department of Education support, we are undertaking a survey/ interviews and intervention study of NSW CL schools.

We hope to identify cultural and educational issues relating to the teaching of students with disabilities.

Ken Cruickshank, Louise Sutherland, Michael Michell and Lina Markauskaite undertook a study of quality teaching for EAL in science in eight Sydney lower-SES secondary schools.

Teams of teachers worked on developing rich task projects with Year 8 classes spanning two school terms.

The design-based research approach worked from data collected including teaching materials, video/ audio, interview and observational evidence.

The focus on rich tasks led to documented increase in student language and learning and impacted on approaches to teaching language and science in the schools.

Sutherland, L., Markauskaite, L., & Cruickshank, K. (2023). A complex systems framework for examining the impact of school-based professional learning initiatives: emerging agentic practices in a collaborative curriculum redesign. Professional Development in Education, 1-16.

SICLE's groundbreaking report, The Skills in Question (pdf, 763kB), involved survey data from 900 community language teachers, as well as in-depth interviews with 45.

It explores the professional-learning strengths, as well as the professional-learning needs of the volunteer teachers who staff community languages schools.

Key findings were that community languages teachers have high levels of qualification (60% university level, 20% college level) and that 55% have teaching qualifications and experience from overseas and 79% want to become teachers in Australia.

These findings are significant in the context of present teacher shortages.

Another key research program is our study of teacher mobility; of teachers and professionals with overseas training gaining re-accreditation in Australia.

The project is a joint one with researchers at WSU (Dr. Kay Carroll and Dr. William Nketsia) and will make a significant contribution to this emerging field of international research.

Researchers tracked and interviewed teachers in the community who are deciding on whether or not to requalify as teachers; we have also tracked teachers in their tertiary programs at WSU and ACU using interviews and surveys.

This has also involved interviewing lecturers in the program on their perceptions of the teachers and the adjustments they have made in their courses for inclusion. SICLE researchers are Dr. Tina Sharpe, Maya Cranitch and Dr. Ken Cruickshank.

The key publications to date are:

• Sharpe, T., Cranitch, M & Cruickshank, K., (under review) Hidden in plain sight: Internationally-educated professionals and the teacher shortage crisis, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education.
• Sharpe, T., Cranitch, M & Cruickshank, K., (2022). Having a Different Currency? Overseas-trained teachers and the pathways to accreditation in Australia. SICLE: Sydney University, pp.62
• Cruickshank, K., (2021). The Skills in Question: Professional Learning Strengths and Needs of Teachers in NSW Community Languages Schools. SICLE: Sydney University, pp.38
• Cruickshank, K. (2021). Pathways for internationally-trained teachers: practices, policies and provisions in the Australian context, European Educational Research Journal, 41,2, 130-148 https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041211048983
• Cranitch, M., Sharpe, T., Cruickshank, K., 2022. Having a different currency? Teacher shortages and community languages teachers with overseas qualifications. SICLE. Sydney University.

Many teachers and prospective teachers are native speakers of a language but do not have two/ three years tertiary study of that language, something which was traditional required to gain approval to teach languages.

In 2018, NESA, the teacher accreditation authority changed their guidelines and accepted teachers who could supply evidence that they had high levels of fluency in their language.

SICLE had developed the Language Proficiency Test in 15 languages, assessing teacher/ pre-service teacher proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural understanding.

‘The language proficiency test as a high-stakes assessment.’

Teachers in the K-6 Community Languages Program can gain permanency; pre-service teachers can gain entry to language teacher method and existing secondary teachers can gain languages as a third method.

For this reason, SICLE undertook a validity and reliability study. The findings provide strong evidence for equivalence of the test to proficiency gained in three years’ tertiary study and also for basic vocational proficiency. The final published report can be viewed here.

The outcomes of this study will support increasing the supply of languages teachers in schools.

A follow-up to The Skills in Question report, "Parallel lines: community languages schools and their role in growing languages and building communities" (pdf, 2.1MB) resulted from one of the few in-depth studies ever undertaken into the organisation of community languages schools.

The report explores the organisation, capacity, curriculum and teaching of the 310 community languages schools in NSW.

Based on the responses to an online survey; case studies of selected schools; and interviews with principals, teachers, parents and students; the report of the study concluded there had been dramatic changes in the schools over the past decades.

There has been a shift from first- to second-, third- and fourth-generation Australian students; the age range of students has broadened from almost exclusively primary-aged pupils to now include early-childhood, secondary and adult students and growing numbers of non-background learners.

Community languages schools ‘make’ communities and act as key cultural centres. Key recommendations are that community languages schools be recognised as a key provider of languages education in NSW and aligned more with other sectors.

Representatives should be included in policy and program planning, especially in the areas of early childhood, primary, secondary and adult education; and also that community languages schools, especially smaller schools in lower-SES communities, need proactive support from government.

The study has had three outcomes. SICLE has gained funding for a study of smaller less-commonly taught languages and lower-SES schools to assess their capacity and explore ways in which their capacity can be strengthened.

Data from the study and two earlier studies forms the basis of a book on CL schools in NSW to be published in 2024 by Multilingual Matters UK and written by Prof. Cruickshank and Prof. Tsung.

This roadmap has been compiled by a group of expert languages teachers and associations, teacher educators, researchers and academics.

It draws upon decades of research as to the educational benefits of language education, perspectives from practitioners in the field and in-depth knowledge of challenges in schools and universities.

This document outlines a roadmap for change, in the provision of languages education in NSW. 

This discussion paper is undergoing consultation with community groups, Aboriginal Language groups and with language teacher associations, the process is being documented and studied.

This statement sets out a rationale and framework for a policy on the role of education in enabling language diversity to flourish in NSW.

It is intended to inform stakeholders and the community of how and why a State policy would support the individual and collective benefits of learning and maintaining and developing language diversity. 

The statement also discusses the main challenges for expanding languages education in NSW and proposes some key priorities that will strengthen their teaching.

Read 'Towards a Languages and Learning Policy for NSW' here.