From the editor.

Orton, Jane

This issue appears amidst the run-up to the Australian Federal elections, in the course of which the significance of languages has been in the public eye in various ways, albeit with mixed appreciation. On the positive side, the Leader of the Opposition's proficiency in Chinese, which he displayed in an address to the visiting President of China, was a first in Australian public life. While we could enjoy language knowledge making headlines in the national press for once, there it was too often treated with an awe so many still seem to reserve for English speakers who have become bilingual.

Supported by the AFMLTA, the MLTAV held a public forum in Melbourne in mid-September to allow representatives from each of the major parties to give their position on continuing support for, and priorities within, the National Statement and Plan for Languages Education, and on compulsory language learning and the policy of multiculturalism. All three speakers asserted continuing support for language learning in Australia, although perspectives varied. (The sound files from the forum are available on http://www.mltav.asn.au/advocacy.)

The importance for language learning of having the National Statement became very apparent when the Australian Primary Principals Association in its new Charter, published on 1 October, named English, mathematics, science, and social education as first-tier subjects, and downgraded languages, music, and physical education, among others, to 'add ons'.

A final public notice of significance was news of Wilga Rivers' death at the age of 88. A true flag bearer in languages education, Rivers went from being a teacher of French in Australian country schools in the 1940s to being a full professor of Romance languages at Harvard in the 1980s, an astonishing achievement, especially for a woman in that era. Her first major publication was Teaching Foreign Language Skills, which appeared in 1968 (University of Chicago Press), and she was known ever after by legions of language teachers around the world for her writing on this theme.

To our own writing now and the contributions in this issue which, as usual, exemplify the wide spread of interests and concerns of language teachers, from the realisation of macrotheories in instances of micropractice--Mackerras using Vygotskian theory to teach Japanese text and my own article on language teaching grounded in kinesic theory--to Curnow and Kohler on learner attitudes to language as a school subject, Ren discussing examiner bias, and Hayes on the matter of professional rewards. There is also an update on a quite remarkable slate of projects under way in the past year into all corners of the language teaching and learning field, and a review from Hajdu of a new series of French resources.