Editorial.

Scrimgeour, Andrew

Teachers of languages the world over appreciate the link between languages and identity, and the processes of discovery and affirmation that occur when people learn languages. Teachers appreciate the importance of understanding form and grammar, of learning language structures as well as learning content through an additional language. However, these elements of language as a system are always better understood, and come alive, when we focus on making meaning, and on learning to understand ourselves and how we and others communicate, through the experience of using language in diverse cultural contexts. The focus should not be on a debate over the importance of form or function; rather, the focus should be on how a learner's understandings and abilities in communication are developed, and how the learning of additional languages and cultures inform a learner's sense of self.

This volume of Babel highlights the important interactions between language, culture and identity, of the teacher and the learner, and of other participants in the learners' language learning and using experiences. The articles draw our attention to the diversity of experiences of language learning and using, and how these may impact on engagement and achievement in the classroom. Your attention will be drawn to the relevance of understanding learners' backgrounds, needs, motivations and future aspirations if teachers of languages are to offer language programs that encompass both communication and understanding at all levels.

In their article on Japanese learning in supplementary school settings, Okumura and Obara alert us to the challenges of meeting the needs of heritage learners (or home/background language learners) where the priority is on content study through language, but not necessarily with sufficient attention given to the learners' language learning needs.

Typically, there is an assumption that learners' home language skills border on native-like proficiency in both oracy and literacy, yet so much evidence exists that they are more like second language learners, where the focus on form is a fundamental part of building their understanding of the language system, irrespective of their oral language skills. In addition, with Japanese, learners with even reasonable oral skills may not be conversant with kanji written characters or how to learn them efficiently.

Okumura and Obara's article reminds us of why we need to have a three-level curriculum for second (additional), background and first language learners, but also draws our attention to the challenges teachers in specialist subject areas face when teaching students with specific language learning needs.

The article by Howard, Ogino, Payne and Dunn, on teacher and learner understandings of why students elect to continue the study of a language into the senior secondary years, draws attention to the fact that teacher assumptions about learners' interests and motivations do not always align with those described by the learners themselves.

One reason may well be that language teachers often teach their own first language and culture, and have assumptions as to why others need to, or should be, learning and becoming proficient in its use. This is significant for teachers, in terms of reflecting their longer-term aspirations and big picture thinking of the utility of language proficiency; additional language learners, however, may have shorter-term aspirations, which at least initially do not involve the 'ideal future self in Dornyei's (2013) terms.

There are also other reasons why this may be the case: senior secondary syllabuses often present the rationale for learning a particular language as a focus on the geopolitical importance and economic relationship of the country to Australia and or New Zealand, and therefore the potential vocational benefits that might accrue later. This focus is on the learner as collective social capital; how they might contribute to or participate in the future economic relationship with the country concerned. However, such distant aspirations are not always the primary reason a student selects a language to study or decides to continue studying a language in the senior secondary years. The student's relationship with the teacher, their pleasure in meeting the challenge of understanding a new code for making meaning, their interest in the contemporary or traditional culture, their desire to engage with peers in social--not vocational--contexts, and, importantly, their belief in the prospect of a good score for tertiary entry, are also important factors in their decision-making.

This article highlights the importance for teachers of all languages to understand student motivations toward language learning and to reflect on how they rationalise their language offerings, and the language and content and activities they provide to their learners, at all levels of education.

Conway and Richard's article on culturally responsive pedagogy draws our attention to another aspect of the identity--language learning issue: that a significant proportion of our learners are neither monolingual English speakers nor monocultural citizens of their country of residence. Textbooks often represent learners as a homogenous mass whose diverse linguistic and cultural identities are ignored as they try to make sense of themselves as learners of a new language. This assumption, naturally, has implications for how we teach, how we use these materials, and subsequently for how learners learn.

While looking at the New Zealand experience, the authors draw our attention to the importance of teachers understanding their learners' linguistic and cultural identities. By exploiting this background, learners are part of the dialogue about how language and culture impact on who they are, how they learn, and how they represent themselves in their own or an additional language.

As immigrant societies, with significant communities of Indigenous peoples with their own rich linguistic and cultural identities, Australia and New Zealand, along with other countries in which English remains the dominant language of educational instruction, need to reflect on how our textbooks and instructional practices in the classroom frame learners, and to seek ways to make teaching and learning of additional languages a more inclusive and representative experience for all learners.

I trust you will find some personal value and useful insights in these articles, as you reflect on your own learning contexts, your students and yourselves as teachers and learners.

Andrew Scrimgeour

Editor

Dornyet, Z. & Chan, L. 2013 Motivation and vision: An analysts of future L2 self images, sensory styles, and imagery capacity across two target languages. Language Learning, 63, 3, 437-462.