Languages

More than 90 per cent of independent schools in Victoria offer a Language Other Than English (LOTE) component in their curriculum.

Languages taught include: Indigenous languages, Arabic, Auslan, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish and Turkish.

The Australian Government’s Language Program helps schools and school communities to improve the learning outcomes of students who are learning languages other than English.

Funding is allocated for:

• teacher development
• teacher and student resources
• employment of language assistants
• specific projects.

 The following grants are offered:

Building Capacity Grant - this grant enables schools to target funding towards specific areas of their Languages program. It may be used in the areas of teacher professional learning, staffing, resources upgrades and specific learning programs. The Building Capacity Grant is a base grant and is paid directly to schools.

Specialist Consultancy Program – enables a specialist Languages in-residence consultant to work with schools for up to four days to assist Languages teachers to improve and further develop their programs. Application forms are available on the Targeted Programs Languages web page in November of each year.

Country Schools LOTE Program – to fund specialist Languages consultants to hold two-day meetings with teachers in country schools to help them develop Languages programs. This grant is restricted to small country schools with one Languages teacher. Application forms are available on the Targeted Programs Languages web page in November of each year.

Professional Development Program – to fund teachers to:

• undertake intensive language study in-country
• undertake training or retraining courses
• undertake post-graduate study for languages
• attend national or international conferences.

Application forms are available on the Targeted Programs Languages web page.

Resource Development Grants – to develop school resources for Languages. Application forms are available from Ms Kathy Macfarlane, Education Consultant, on 9825 7247.

Downloads

• 2012 Languages Targeted Programs Application
• Languages Resources