Celebrating 50 years of Babel.

Morgan, Anne-Marie

It is with great pleasure that I provide an editorial to the first issue of Volume 50 of Babel. What an accomplishment for a journal to reach this landmark of 50 years of continuous publication. According to David Ingram, in his recently published personal history of the AFMLTA, in which he draws on Ron Horan's (1990) article from Babel Volume 25, The beginnings of Babel, the first Sabe/Volume 1 was published in 1956, as an extension of the previous newsletters generated by MLTAV (Ingram, 2014). The editor of this volume in 1956 was Hilde Burger, and she remained editor for many years afterwards. The AFMLTA became federated in the early 1960s, and all the state language teaching associations took Babel as their official journal from 1962. It recommenced numbering in 1965, with Volume 1, No 1 published in April of that year to reflect the shift to a national journal. Editors of Volume 1, Number 1 were Keith Horwood and A.K Holland (Ingram 2014). From its roneo-ed newsletter beginnings the journal has grown into the pre-eminent scholarly journal of the teaching and learning of languages in Australia, canvassing research, scholarly opinion and classroom practice in Australia and internationally. Many scores of languages educators and researchers have contributed to the journal in its 50/67-year history, and many eminent scholars have edited the journal. It has certainly been an honour for me to be added to this list. The next issue, to conclude Volume 50, will be a special double issue (Volume 50.2-3) on the 2015 AFMLTA conference, recently held In Melbourne, and will be co-edited by me as outgoing editor, and Matthew Absalom as incoming editor. As I move to my role as President elect of AFMLTA, and President from next July, I look forward to supporting Matthew with the continued publication of critical research and practice in the journal.

In this issue, there is a focus on pedagogical orientations to teaching and learning languages. Rosemary Erlam, from the University of Auckland, provides insights into teachers working with a task-based approach to languages teaching and learning, reporting on a New Zealand study. As New Zealand researchers lead the research in this area, It is pertinent that this latest study updates readers on how teachers work with and make sense of this approach in their classrooms. Erlam considers teachers' responses as the basis of her analysis to generate suggestions as to how this approach might be taken up more widely, and how teachers can be supported in using task-based languages teaching through ongoing and targeted professional learning.

Annamaria Paolino and Geoffrey Lummis of Edith Cowan University provide an alternative perspective on teaching in the languages classroom with their article on using the Orff-Schulwerk music approach in Italian upper primary classes. Paolino's research in this field in pilot studies with teachers across Western Australia provides convincing insights into how music and languages can be integrated, and how this at once goes some way to addressing the 'crowded curriculum' argument, while also offering a reconceptualisation of interculturally sensitive teaching and learning approaches, in a more holistic understanding of how students learn, and how music supports languages learning.

Marinella Caruso and Joshua Brown, of the University of Western Australia, also look at the teaching and learning of Italian, in a tertiary setting. They consider data on changed pedagogical and course structure approaches at their university, informed by the model used at The University of Melbourne, and how the changes are increasing interest in and uptake of Italian at the university. In a context where languages programs have been in decline, nationally, it is heartening to hear good news stories about successful and improving tertiary program numbers and outcomes. This article aligns with work being undertaken by the Languages and Cultures Networks of Australian Universities (LCNAU), and Office of Teaching and Learning projects that also aim to improve visibility, enrolment and retention in such programs. Working together, universities offering languages programs stand an increased chance of reversing decline in enrolments.

Finally, I review a timely book by Michelle Kohler on mediating languages teaching and learning. The book reports the doctoral research of Kohler, in which she conducted action research case studies with three teachers of Indonesian in secondary schools in South Australia. She provides excellent theoretical chapters on the progress of Intercultural language teaching and learning over the past decade, and how mediation matters and plays a role in such a pedagogical orientation; which sit alongside teachers' perspectives and understanding about what they do in classrooms, to mediate learning and understanding. As Kohler is one of the leading Australian researchers who have contributed significantly to international understandings of intercultural language learning, it is pleasing to see this book published. The text progresses understanding of how the intercultural orientation is realised in practice, and will be of interest to teachers In both school and university settings, across Australia and more widely.

Anne-Marie Morgan

University of New England

References

Horan, R. 1990. The beginnings of Babel. Babel, 25:3, 4.

Ingram, D. 2014. A short history of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations. Mt Gravatt, Queensland: ISLPR Language Services.