From the editor.

Orton, Jane

I am delighted to be taking up the Editor's role at Babel, starting with the first issue for 2007. It is my intention to maintain the journal's purpose and help develop it to meet the coming challenges and opportunities in our field. No-one in today's world doubts the need for education which actively aims to develop tolerance from a framework of intercultural understanding, not simply forbearance. At a more practical level, there is a growing call for language proficiency and intercultural competence in the workplace, here and overseas. As a result, in the past year the Australian Government has been undertaking extensive formal inquiries into many aspects of language teaching and learning and teacher preparation. The outcomes will almost certainly include appeals for us to take some new directions. Innovation, research, and the sharing of experience are essential to being a dynamic, professional body able to consider language learning development from fresh perspectives and generate means for successfully grappling with new problems. By maintaining Babel as an engaging, supportive, and rigorously scholarly journal, the AFMLTA provides the unique means for Australia's language teachers to keep developing as just such a body.

In this issue you will find articles about two of the most pressing problems in our work, teaching mixed proficiency levels and the labour of developing an adult vocabulary; others tell of promising avenues opening up through the use of new technology. Articles about translating for the Deaf, perceived problems with New Zealand language exams, and courses for recreational language learners, inform us of issues within each of their specialist frames, but also resonate beyond those narrower confines, providing fresh ways to consider matters of common concern.