Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: John Edwards (St Francis Xavier University, Canada)
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Volume: 17 Number: 6 Page: 469–484
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Recent Developm ents in Australian Late Im m ersion Language Education
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Julia Read
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The success of immersion language instruction in Canada has inspired a number of immersion language programmes in Australia. An overview is provided of recent developments, contrasting the Australian experience
with that of other countries. Particular attention is paid to some developments that may have significance for the future of foreign language teaching, such as cold-start late immersion programmes in secondary
schools; teacher education through immersion; in-country intensive/immersion language programmes; a study comparing the effectiveness of intensive and immersion approaches; the emergence of the Australian
Association of Language Immersion Teachers; and publication of the AALIT journal as a forum for discussion. It is concluded that there is a danger that the lack of monitoring of the effectiveness of the
immersion experiments at primary and secondary level could lead to the interest of funding authorities waning. The most promising developments at tertiary level are thought to be the development of teacher
education programmes with content-based instruction in the target language, and an emerging focus on combining intensive and immersion instruction at tertiary level.
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