Broadening units to broadened horizons: the impact of new courses 2012 on enrolments in Italian at the University of Western Australia.
Caruso, Marinella ; Brown, Joshua
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ABSTRACT
New Courses 2012 refers to a new course structure adopted by the
University of Western Australia, which has established a three-year
general Bachelor degree followed by professional degrees. Since its
Introduction, enrolments in languages have increased, in a context in
which languages across Australia have found themselves 'under
threat' (Baldauf and White, 2010, p. 61) or indeed in
'permanent crisis' (Martin, 2005). This study explores the
impact this new structure has had on enrolments in Italian and considers
the challenge ' of how to maintain student numbers. After a brief
discussion of the new degree structure, we consider how it has affected
language enrolments at UWA, and then Italian in particular. Using
enrolment data from 2011 to 2014 and student surveys, we provide
substantial evidence to suggest that language enrolments are directly
related to issues of access and degree structure. We also show how a
large percentage of students studying Italian at UWA are not from the
Faculty of Arts, how this new degree structure has impacted on student
cohort and the implications this may have for pedagogy. The study
concludes by offering suggestions for further research and considers the
implications this model may have for language teaching in universities
around Australia and beyond.
KEY WORDS
enrolment; Italian; language policies; degree structure; retention
strategies; teaching and learning languages
INTRODUCTION
Reforms to Australian universities in recent times have seen
wide-ranging impacts on language departments. The Introduction of the
Melbourne Curriculum In 2008 (previously the 'Melbourne
Model') and New Courses at the University of Western Australia
(UWA) in 2012 introduced broad undergraduate degrees followed by
specialised programs. These universities allow students greater degree
flexibility and are a model of truly open access to languages. At The
University of Melbourne, for example, Spanish increased by 250.5 per
cent between 2006 and 2010, while Italian increased by 68.18 per cent
(J. Hajek, personal communication, 12 May 2011). Looking at the Increase
in Spanish over three years, Lane (2012) reports that this language
jumped by 539 per cent. The 2014 report of the Australian Academy of the
Humanities entitled Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in
Australia offers a one-page 'Languages Snapshot', noting that
between 2002-2011, 'a number of important structural initiatives
have been taken to facilitate language study over this time', such
as a Year 12 bonus for university entry, the introduction of the Diploma
of Languages as well as the specific tagging or naming of degrees, e.g.
BA (Languages)' (Hajek, 2014, p. 22). Nevertheless, the report
makes clear that 'structural restrictions continue to limit access
to language study, and current enrolments do not reflect true demand as
a result' (p. 22). In a previous paper on language offerings in
Australia between 2005 and 2011, Dunne and Pavlyshyn (2012a, p. 9)
called for 'continued monitoring of the country's linguistic
ecology' (cf. also Dunne and Pavlyshyn 2012b). As a response, Brown
and Caruso (2014) and Caruso and Brown (2014) described the first
impacts on what the degree restructure meant in terms of language
enrolments in Italian at UWA, and how new technologies can be adapted to
meet the different demands of a changed student cohort.
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This study continues this earlier work. It is situated in a context
of global pressures that are prompting a re-evaluation of higher
education around the world, particularly in terms of content and
delivery of tertiary courses. The new course structure at UWA is seen as
forming part of this trend identified at universities both locally and
internationally. For example, the Bologna Process Introduced a three
year general Bachelors degree followed by a two year Masters. In
Australia, the Melbourne Curriculum also adopted a generalist
undergraduate course structure leading to professional degrees.
The new UWA degree structure responded to this changing
environment. Therefore, this study also forms part of a broader
discussion throughout the tertiary language sector in recent years on
retention strategies (Nettelbeck et al., 2009) and on the need for the
'creation of processes to ensure that universities collect data in
a readily accessible form on the Languages OtherThan English (LOTE)
experience of their students' (Nettelbeck et al. 2007, p. 6). As
discussed below, the introduction of New Courses at UWA has led to
unprecedented levels of enrolment in languages, providing substantial
evidence that enrolments and participation are directly related to
issues of access and degree structure. The removal of previous
restrictions in rules governing degrees has meant that 'enrolments
in languages have risen dramatically as a result, particularly at UWA,
which has gone furthest in opening out language study to all
students' (Hajek, 2014, p. 22).
The accompanying website to the new UWA degree structure explains
that '[students] have the time and flexibility to choose their
career path and gain the skills and knowledge to succeed in an
international workplace', meaning no decision has to be made on a
narrow field of study straight from school. UWA's website on New
Courses lists the following six features as the main characteristics of
this new degree structure:
1. Broad education, in-depth knowledge
2. More choices, better choices
3. Highly developed communication and research skills
4. Community engagement
5. Opportunities to study abroad
6. Professional degrees at a postgraduate level
From over 150 undergraduate degrees under the previous model, five
are now offered at UWA. These are the Bachelor of Arts, Commerce,
Design, Science and the exclusive Bachelor of Philosophy for students
with high entrance scores. A major consists of completing eight
semester-long units in a certain discipline (where 'units' are
entire 'subjects' or 'courses', as they are called
in other universities). The other subjects of the degree come in part
from one's specific area of study, and in part from other areas. At
the base of this model is the intention to offer students the
opportunity of acquiring a broad general knowledge so that they can be
better prepared for the workplace. In short, students take a wide range
of subjects in first year and specialisation in successive years, as
summarised in the slogan of the degree 'broad education, in-depth
knowledge'. This degree structure is best seen in Figure 1 below,
where a student has chosen to take two majors:
FIGURE 1: An example degree structure with
two majors and four Broadening units
YEAR 1 Elective Elective Major 1 Major 1
YEAR 2 Elective Elective Major 1 Major 1
YEAR 2 Major 1 Major 1 Major 1 Major 1
YEAR 1 Major 2 Major 2 Broad Broad
YEAR 2 Major 2 Major 2 Broad Broad
YEAR 2 Major 2 Major 2 Major 2 Major 2
One important change to the degree structure is that students are
required to take Broadening units. Essentially, students must enrol in
at least four units over the course of their degree that are from a
Faculty different from their own. There is no maximum to the number of
Broadening units a student can include, subject to them meeting the
rules of their course. For example, a student studying a Bachelor of
Commerce may take four units from the Faculty of Arts. One way of
satisfying the Broadening requirement is to take a language, which is
suggested for students in the Handbook. In contrast to the Melbourne
Curriculum, UWA allows students from the Faculty of Arts to choose a
language as a Broadening unit, which results in some further flexibility
to satisfy the requirement.
The predictions of language academics at UWA were that languages
would be an attractive choice for students. This was for three reasons.
The first was that students would probably have had some exposure to a
language in high school, and so taking an extra course in a language
would seem a preferable option to other Broadening units. Secondly, for
students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts (BA), enrolling in a language
unit can count as their Broadening unit even though it is still within
their own Faculty. This would favour students wishing to pursue
interests in their BA. Thirdly, the increase in enrolments for languages
had been observed after the introduction of the Melbourne Curriculum in
2008 and after consultation with colleagues from that university, it was
reasonable to assume that similar increases would occur at UWA as well.
Having presented the new UWA degree structure, it is now possible
to describe the aims of our investigation and how the findings are
discussed. Our main objective was to document and interpret the impact
of New Courses on enrolments in Italian. As explained in more detail
below, the focus of our investigation was the group of students enrolled
in first and second year Italian units. Level 1 enrolments allowed us to
identify trends over a number of years, whereas Level 2 enrolments
offered insights into students' retention.
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: first we explain
how the data was gathered (Data and methodology): then we present and
discuss the results (Findings), considering both the general pattern of
language enrolments at UWA and the impact of New Courses on Italian.
Finally we draw some conclusions.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
The data presented in this paper are derived from two different
sources. Part of the information comes from figures on enrolments
available to UWA staff members or retrieved from UWA databases. Such
figures refer to the period 2011-2014 and will be referred to as
'UWA figures' in the tables. Some of this information is
comprehensive of all students enrolled in a certain discipline at a
given time. The rationale for gathering this type of data was to
identify trends in enrolments and retention.
In addition to these official figures we present data from a
student survey designed and administered in 2013 to look more
specifically into certain aspects of students' choices, and
specifically for Italian. The data from the survey are based only on a
sample of students of Italian. In order to obtain an adequate sample of
students who had enrolled in Italian since the introduction of the new
degree structure, we chose to investigate three 'streams' of
language learners enrolled in first- and second-year courses. One reason
for choosing these three groups was to see whether there were different
characteristics between students who had studied Italian at high-school,
post-WACE (Western Australian Certificate of Education) at Year 12, and
those who were ab initio students. Data referring to Level 2 students
were required to investigate the issue of retention. The year level and
number of surveys we collected is shown below in Table 1:
Table 1: Target groups and number of surveys collected
Surveys Total enrolled
Year level Entry type collected in the course
First year post-WACE 59 60
Second year ab initio 37 50
Second year post-WACE 31 34
The survey was distributed to the students at the start of the
semester in May 2013 and comprised the eight items listed below:
1. I enrolled in a Bachelor of (Arts / Commerce / Design / Science
/ Philosophy)
2. I would like to major In ...
3. I am thinking of taking Italian as a second major (yes / no)
4. I took ITALxx03 as a Broadening Unit (yes / no)
5. I obtained the Bonus for Languages (yes / no)
6. The Bonus for Languages helped me be admitted to the degree of
my choice (yes / no)
7. I will continue with the next unit of Italian in second semester
(yes / no)
8. I think learning a language is important for my education and my
future career (yes / no)
The rationale for gathering this type of data was: 1) to get a
picture of the students' background (i.e. degree in which they were
enrolled): and 2) to see whether students had indeed taken Italian as a
Broadening unit and whether they planned to major in it already from
their first or second year of study. We also wanted to know whether
students had planned to continue studying Italian, and whether they were
thinking of taking it as a second major. Students who take a second
language at secondary schools in Western Australia are also credited
with an extra 10 per cent as a language bonus to their entrance score at
UWA, and so we also wanted to find out whether this language bonus
helped them In making their decision to study Italian and come to UWA.
Finally, we wanted to Investigate the students' attitudes towards
the importance of learning Italian and the teaching of culture.
Before exploring what impact the introduction of New Courses has
had on Italian at UWA, based on both enrolment figures and the results
of our survey, we present the overall trends for all seven modern
languages taught at UWA. We then address enrolments, retention and
student cohort specifically for Italian.
FINDINGS
Languages and New Courses: overall trends
The introduction of New Courses at UWA saw enrolments increase
dramatically for all seven modern languages taught in the Faculty of
Arts: Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and Korean.
This information was gathered as data of enrolments in first-year first
semester units came through after the introduction of the new degree
structure in 2012, and was confirmed in 2013 and 2014. As can be seen in
Figure 2 below, in some cases, levels of enrolment in first-year
language units doubled from 2011 to 2014.
Enrolments in all languages Increased significantly from 2011 to
2012. In 2012 French outstripped by far other languages offered at UWA
with more than 450 students enrolled In their first-year ab initio
course. With regard to Italian, enrolments almost doubled from just over
100 in 2011 to 200 in 2012. The slight dip in 2013 and 2014 for French
and Italian (and German for 2014) could be explained in terms of a
change introduced in 2013: in order to increase further flexibility in
the sequence of the units, administrators made it possible for students
of the ab initio stream to start studying their chosen language in
second semester, with the possibility of completing the first year
requirements during the following summer. From 2013 the first unit of
the ab initio stream for Italian, French and German began being offered
also In second semester, contributing to the redistribution of the
enrolments over the two semesters. The next graph (Figure 3) illustrates
the total enrolments In all languages from 2011 to 2014.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
From 2011 to 2014 the increase as a percentage is as follows:
Chinese 84 per cent, French 55 per cent, German 100 per cent, Indonesian
26 per cent, Italian 94 per cent, Japanese 108 per cent, Korean 483 per
cent. In general, therefore, the effects of New Courses after its
introduction in 2012 have been clearly positive for languages. These
increases in enrolments are due not only to higher numbers of students
choosing a language as a Broadening unit but also to more students who
continue with languages.
The popularity of languages can also be seen when we consider the
percentage of non-BA students who took two Level 1 units (i.e. Semester
1 and Semester 2) in Arts in 2012.
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[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
In Figure 4 above, the seven modern languages offered at UWA have
been highlighted in orange. Of the 20 disciplines represented above,
languages are a clear preference for students not enrolled in the
Bachelor of Arts. Only Communication Studies had a higher percentage of
enrolment than any language.
The next graph (Figure 5) shows that the presence of non-BA
students in languages courses continues up to third-year level.
This is a significant result, as it suggests that many non-BA
students continue with the study of a language even after having
satisfied the requirement of the four Broadening units. It also implies
that these students may be eligible for a second major in the language.
For Italian the presence of non-BA students in level 3 units accounts
for more than 40 per cent. As we discuss below, the different student
cohorts we are now attracting have significant implications for our
teaching.
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The impact of New Courses on Italian
With regard to Italian, there have been significant increases in
enrolments over the past three years. Figure 6 below shows the increase
in the overall enrolments at all levels in Italian from 2011 to 2014.
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We can see clearly that the biggest increase is from 2011 to 2012
as a result of New Courses, and it is reasonable to assume that many of
the enrolments for 2012 come from first-year students. For 2013 and 2014
on the other hand the figures include many new enrolments of first-year
students as well as enrolments of students who continue into upper
levels. In 2014 enrolments in Italian at third year level only were up
116 per cent from the previous year.
Figure 7 shows how enrolments have increased for two first-year
courses and two second-year courses.
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The two first-year courses are Italian Beginners (ab initio
students) and first-year post-WACE. The first-year ab initio stream,
first-year post-WACE stream and second year ab initio stream have all
increased by over 70 per cent from 2011 to 2013 and, in the second-year
post-WACE stream, the increase has been over 180 per cent. This increase
must be due to the introduction of New Courses and the requirement for
students to take a Broadening unit. The increase in the second year
enrolments leads to another crucial question: whether students
continuing with Italian go on to complete a major in Italian. The
figures from 2014 suggest that a significant number do so as discussed
later.
With regard to retention rate, all courses have remained relatively
high. Students enrolled in an ab initio course who continue with Italian
in their second year of study in 2013 have a retention rate of 50 per
cent, slightly down from 2011 to 2012. It is important to remember that
since the introduction of New Courses, a large component of students are
from a non-BA degree. Given this changing demographic, the retention
rate of 50 per cent appears remarkable. In other words, this rate could
have been expected to be maintained with the pre-New Courses student
cohort. But even with a wide proportion of non-BA students, the
retention rate remained at a relatively stable level. This may point to
the preference for language study over other subject areas, since the
post-New Courses cohort have decided to re-enrol in second year units of
Italian, continuing with their first-year preference, rather than
switching to other subjects from different disciplines and faculties.
Citing similar studies by Nettelbeck et al. (2009) and Martin and Jansen
(2012), Schmidt (2012, p. 232) notes that when retention rates are low,
they 'cannot be linked to student dissatisfaction with their
language course', but most likely to obstacles Inherent to a rigid
degree structure.
For those who studied Italian at secondary school, then completed
first-year Italian at UWA, the retention rate from first to second year
in 2013 is 75 per cent. This is six per cent higher than the previous
year. The retention rate is even higher in 2014, when it reached 78 per
cent, as shown below in Figure 8.
Since New Courses the retention rate for the post-WACE stream has
improved progressively. It is difficult to establish if this is a trend.
However, it is legitimate to speculate that many of the students who
continue Into second year are those who chose Italian as a Broadening
unit in their first year and wish to continue with the same discipline
in the following year.
[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]
It is clear from the data presented so far that there is
considerable evidence that university enrolments in Italian (and
languages In general) are directly related to access opportunities.
Italian has reached unprecedented levels of enrolment that can only be
explained in terms of wider access to study choice, made possible by
Broadening units. Retention has therefore been impacted positively by
the structural changes introduced in 2012.
Student cohort and the implication for pedagogy
Another significant impact of New Courses on enrolments in Italian
is the changed composition of our student cohort, as we anticipated
above (cf. Figure 4 and Figure 5). While in the past students of Italian
were typically enrolled in a BA degree, now they come from a range of
degrees. Of the non-BA students, those from the Bachelor of Science
represent the majority. Figure 9 below shows the percentage of students
enrolled in a Bachelor of Science as a proportion of total enrolments In
Italian since New Courses.
In 2012, the percentage of students studying Italian who were
enrolled in the BSc was 52 per cent, before dropping to 40 per cent in
2013 and rising to 49 per cent in 2014. In the Italian ab initio stream,
students enrolled In a Bachelor of Science represent the largest non-BA
group, but there is still a majority of BA students in the first-year
post-WACE stream. When we group all the responses together for those
enrolled in a non-Arts degree and contrast them against those in Arts,
the distinction between first and second-year enrolments becomes more
obvious.
[FIGURE 9 OMITTED]
The data from our survey shed further light on Italian. The next
figure shows the proportion of BA vs. non-BA students from our sample of
post-WACE and second year students.
[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]
In the second-year courses, students enrolled In a non-Arts degree
slightly outnumber those from Arts. This change in the make-up of our
student cohort ultimately impacted on pedagogy and prompted a reflection
on curriculum. As a response to this new reality, certain changes were
adopted regarding the method of delivery of course content. For example,
our first-year programmes were re-designed and a decision was taken to
make greater use of technology in language learning, to appeal to all
students regardless of their academic background or learning style. In
order to incorporate greater use of technology at UWA, we introduced
into our post-WACE unit a group project involving iMovie to dub films
from English to Italian (see Caruso and Brown, 2014), hoping to appeal
particularly to those students who may have a
'problem-solving' orientation in their learning styles and who
may have little background in humanities subjects.
For example, our first-year programmes were re-designed and a
decision was taken to make greater use of technology in language
learning to appeal to those students who may have a problem-solving
orientation in their learning styles or little background in humanities
subjects. While we are not arguing that all Science students are
'analytical thinkers' and Arts students are not, our
experience suggests that there are differences in learning styles
between the two cohorts, and that they can be partly explained in terms
of the students' study background and learning experiences. In
order to Incorporate greater use of technology at UWA, we introduced
into our post-WACE unit a group project involving iMovie to dub films
from English to Italian (see Caruso and Brown, 2014).
Further use was made of online discussion boards and external
language learning websites for students as well. Additional rationale
for this decision was provided by similar innovations documented by
Occhipinti (2008), as well as Brussino and Gunn's (2008) study of
language learners and Italian internet media, contributing to the
growing body of evidence that use of technology promotes 'effective
learning and development of effective learning strategies' (p. 17).
This change in the student cohort raised other questions: would
students from other disciplines prefer to learn Italian by discussing
topics that related more directly to their chosen area of
specialisation, rather than traditional topics such as literature or
Italian history? And is language acquisition their major motivation for
enrolling in Italian? This question was previously raised by Schmidt
(2012) in her discussion on student diversity in German Studies. She
concluded that 'although nowadays language students are enrolled in
the whole spectrum of degrees available, they nevertheless share common
motives and expectations with regard to their language study'
(2012, p. 232). Schmidt also found that this diversity has resulted in
languages being studied for only a few semesters, i.e. language study
was not the focus of the degree for many students. While more research
is needed to provide an answer to the questions above, we decided to
revise our ab-initio first-year curriculum. This consisted of
introducing five lectures during the semester with a focus on cultural
content into a curriculum that had previously been designed only for
language acquisition. These lectures therefore represented a departure
from language being the unique focus of our first-year course, in an
effort to appeal to a broader cohort of students. The topics chosen for
the lectures varied from Italian-Australian economic relations, to
contemporary Italian cinema, to Italy-China contact.
These modifications were made to adapt to those students who were
likely to have a different learning background from students enrolled in
an Arts degree, although not necessarily so. At the same time, new
questions arose. We were cautious, for example, not to place too much
emphasis on topics or learning strategies related solely to the
scientific domain. This was felt to be particularly important since the
principal idea behind making students take a Broadening unit was to
enable them to acquire skills and learning methodologies outside of
their chosen area of specialisation. The complementary nature of this
part of their degree, it is hoped, will encourage students to take more
units in Italian and possibly a major.
Choice of major and unit type
Our investigation shows that New Courses has also impacted on the
number of students who have decided to major in Italian, and the type of
units they would like to study. Italian is preferred as a second major
rather than a first. From our survey data, in all three groups, only a
minority of students said they would like to major in Italian, less than
20 per cent. In this regard, the promotion of Italian as a Broadening
unit could suggest that it is ideally taken as a major alongside another
principal subject of specialisation. This argument would be valid for
all languages, not just for Italian, since all eight languages of UWA
are promoted as being one way of fulfilling the Broadening requirement.
On the other hand, the promotion of languages and of Italian outside the
Faculty of Arts opens up the exposure of language learning to a wider
variety and higher number of students, meaning that Italian has become
more popular as a second major than a first in our sample, as can be
seen in Figure 11 below.
[FIGURE 11 OMITTED]
In the second-year ab initio stream, the percentage of students who
responded that they are thinking of taking Italian as a second major is
close to 50 per cent. Furthermore, 35 per cent of students in the
first-year post-WACE stream said that they are also considering Italian
as a potential major. This argument is supported by students responding
to a question about their potential interest in taking units just on
Italian language or culture. For ab initio students in their second
year, 70 per cent of students said they would take a unit solely on
Italian culture, and this figure rose to 84 per cent for the post-WACE
stream. Nevertheless, there is clearly a subset of respondents who are
interested purely in language acquisition units, and for second-year ab
initio students, this was almost one third. In short, the increased
number of students taking Italian as a Broadening unit is potentially
leading to a new kind of non-specialist cohort who may decide to major
in Italian while being interested primarily in language acquisition.
These results seem to confirm that overall students are interested
in obtaining a full picture of what Italy has to offer and the culture
surrounding the language they have already learned, supporting the need
for pedagogies that view language and culture as inseparable and promote
intercultural competence. The more language study that students are
exposed to, the more cultural interest they acquire for Italy as a
whole, and the more equipped they are to be global citizens. In this
regard, it is essential that course descriptions available on university
websites are kept up to date, and aim to provide as much detail as
possible regarding the unit's content and the intercultural
competence that students will acquire during the course. In this regard,
Schupbach and Hajek (2012, p. 101) note that 'the use of the
internet to profile language programs in Australian universities is not
being maximised yet, despite the undeniable importance of the web for
global visibility'.
CONCLUSIONS
This study has shown that there have been a number of impacts on
enrolments in Italian since the introduction of New Courses. These
relate mainly to students' participation in the Italian program and
the changed students' cohort. In general, it appears that all these
impacts have been positive.
With regard to participation there has been an overall increase in
enrolments, with more students of Italian continuing into second and
third year. Broadening units are attracting students to all languages,
not just to Italian, and not just in their first year. Many students are
taking second- and third-year Italian as a Broadening unit as well. The
intake of students across the three levels has changed. There is a very
large group of non-BA students at first-year level, and many of these
continue to third-year level. Many non-BA students now take Italian as a
second major, suggesting that Italian appears to be becoming more
attractive as a second major rather than as a first. This change in
student cohort prompted members of staff to redesign parts of the
curriculum at first-year level, in order to appeal to a broader range of
students' backgrounds and therefore encourage them to continue with
their language study in second year. With regard to retention, the
percentage is higher in the post-WACE stream. Also encouraging is the
strong interest students have in wanting to study units focussed
entirely on culture.
With regard to curriculum and pedagogy, the changed cohort of
students has implications for the way in which classes are taught and
the content that is taught. At the same time it has raised questions
that are applicable to Italian departments around Australia as well. For
example, should we adapt our teaching to suit the varied motivations and
learning approaches of our students given they come from such diverse
faculties and learning areas? And should our language classes contain a
larger 'cultural' component or a shift in orientation to
intercultural competence? Moore, Rizzi and Ristaino have recently
observed 'it is regrettable that little or no recent literature
exists on the integration of culture and language In Italian ab initio
programs' (2012, p. 94). Their comments point to the Importance of
further research Into how language and culture can be successfully
combined (cf. Absalom 2013). In light of the increase in student
diversity as shown in our results above, these questions take on new
meaning and require different solutions to previous years, when almost
all students came from Arts. In particular, how do we address the
question of the integration of language and culture in the light of
increased student diversity, and what can we do to ensure our course
offerings appeal to a broad range of students' backgrounds,
interests and specialisations?
The developments that resulted from the introduction of the new
degree structure at UWA have significant implications for the future of
Italian in WA. The introduction of Broadening Units in all Bachelor
degrees removed the restrictive course regulations that had been the
major obstacle to students outside the Faculty of Arts who would have
wanted to take a language. The increase in language enrolments at UWA
does not only demonstrate that Australian students are indeed interested
in learning a language but it provides strong evidence that the study of
a language at university is directly related to issues of access and
degree structure. Remove the barrier and languages will flourish.
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Dr Marinella Caruso is Lecturer at the University of Western
Australia, where she holds the Cassamarca Lectorship of the Italian
Studies program. Her research areas include language contact,
particularly Italian in a migratory context, second language
acquisition, bilingualism, teaching innovation and language policies.
She is the author of Italian language attrition in Australia. The verb
system. Franco Angeli, Milan, 2010.
Dr Josh Brown's research interests cover the linguistic
history of Italy, particularly northern vernaculars in the middle ages,
as well as sociolinguistics of contemporary Italy. Recently his
attention has turned to patterns of language enrolment in Australian
universities, and is working on several projects around this theme with
Marinella Caruso. In 2014 he co-authored (with Professor John Kinder at
the University of Western Australia) a book exploring the life and times
of Canon Raffaele Martelli in Western Australia, 1853-1864
Caption: FIGURE 2: Ab initio enrolments in first semester,
first-year language units from 2011 to 2014 (UWA figure)
Caption: FIGURE 3: Total enrolments in all languages from 2011 to
2014 (UWA figure)
Caption: FIGURE 4: Percentage of non-BA students taking two Level 1
units Arts in 2012 (UWA figures)
Caption: FIGURE 5: Enrolments in languages from non-BA degrees,
2014, sem. 1 (UWA figures)
Caption: FIGURE 6: Increases in total Italian enrolments from 2011
to 2014 (UWA figures)
Caption: FIGURE 7: Percentage of increase in Italian enrolments
from 2011 to 2013 semester 1
Caption: FIGURE 8: Retention rates from first year to second year,
post-WACE (UWA figures)
Caption: FIGURE 9: Enrolments in BSc as a proportion of total
enrolments in Italian from 2012 to 2014 (UWA figures)
Caption: FIGURE 10: Students enrolled in a BA vs. non-BA degree
(2013 Survey)
Caption: FIGURE 11: Percentage of students considering Italian as a
second major (2013 Survey)
