Intercultural competence through language education in Australian higher education: Mission (im)possible?

Abstract

Language learning is now widely conceived as having to meet the 'twin goals' of language proficiency and intercultural competence. This interculturally-aware vision for language learners is particularly evident in Australian university policy statements and their descriptions of graduate attributes. However, for the most part, the inherent structural features of university language programs and the overall organisational philosophy of Australian universities fail to reflect a commitment to this widened educational mission. In this study I analyse these structural and organisational features through examination of three sources: a) government-commissioned reports; b) academic publications and c) news items concerning the critical state of languages education in the Australian higher education sector. I articulate the plethora of challenging, inherent limitations reported in these sources, all of which point to the absence of correlation between espoused goals and actual graduate outcomes. I then use the articulation of these limitations as a platform to question the feasibility of these 'twin goals' as they are currently conceived and realised in practice.