A comparative analysis of language education policy in Australia and China

Abstract

Language education policy is a topic of interest for all countries as they must all (directly or indirectly) select a medium of instruction, and foreign or second languages are commonly offered as subjects of study. This research aims to understand the discourses that are present and influence language education policy in China and Australia; both countries are highly linguistically diverse with many minority languages spoken in addition to the ‘national’ language. Using a cultural political economy framework (Jessop and Sum, 2006) this dissertation analyses the types of discourse present in language education policy in both countries. Discourses have been grouped into six different themes and analysed at the variation, selection and retention levels of policy. The analysis suggests that Australia and China are influenced and retain similar types of discourse, with human capital discourse being predominant at the national and global level. Additionally, both countries appear to be influenced by assimilationist social cohesion discourse. The findings seem to be largely in-line with other countries globally.