Australian languages education in the Asian century : deepening of linguistic and intellectual engagements with Asia

On Wednesday 28 September 2011, Prime Minister Gillard announced that the Australian Government had commissioned a White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century for consideration by the full Cabinet in the first half of 2012 and subsequent release during the middle of the year.1 In providing a national blueprint for Australia at a time of transformative economic growth and change in Asia, this White Paper is expected to help the Australian Government, and the people of Australia navigate the ‘Asian Century’; to seize the opportunities it offers and to meet the challenges it poses. Languages and language education can be defined in various ways. A language can be thought of as an instrument, and language education in terms of the grammar, rhetoric and logic needed for exchanging information. Thus, it needs to be asked whether Australian policy-actors are about to construct the ‘Asian Century’ in terms of instrumentalist desires that mistakenly presume the possibility of ‘harnessing’ Asia’s economic power? Alternatively, a language can be thought of in terms of humanity and creativity, and language education in terms of personal expression, especially as captured in literature. From this perspective it can be asked whether the Australian Government will provide Australians with the means for securing substantive understandings of the complexity of Asia through genuine cultural and linguistic engagement. However, language understood as a practical social activity is seen as a necessary part of the very act of human creation, as constitutive of the development of social relationships. Language plays a dynamic role in the regeneration; production and reproduction. Language and labour of all kinds are seen as connected. Here it can be asked, what will the White Paper propose for the development of the labour force that Australia needs for engaging more closely with the peoples of Asia, to enable them to extend their joint activities and support each other in its terms of reference.