Languages Curriculum

Recently, one of our members posted on our My Homeschool forum. She wondering if homeschool language lessons were necessary. You see, she hadn’t included a foreign language curriculum for her child’s kindergarten learning plan. Therefore was concerned this would prevent her state homeschool registration approval.

On the forum we gave her a few tips to include in her plan, which she used, and she got her approval just fine.

But it got us thinking! What does the Australian Curriculum and other states actually expect when they ask us to teach languages? And so we did some digging and this is we I learnt – I hope it helps you as well. And FYI, here’s the official Australian Curriculum Languages blurb.

Languages Doesn’t Always Mean Being Fluent in a Second Language.

I think homeschoolers are tripped up with the concept of homeschool language lessons. They think the end goal is fluency. However, this is not the always the case.

The subject Languages in Australia in some respects is cultural geography or learning about the people, the languages and the customs of other countries.

Homeschool language lessons are required but learning a second language in depth is optional. However, in WA their education policy states all children from Year 3 to Year 6 will focus on learning a second language from 2021.

Basic Homeschool Language Lessons Are Really Language Appreciation

We do Art Appreciation to see the complexity and beauty of art. Music Appreciation to understand instruments, melody and musical expression. And  we study languages to understand cultural communication and diversity.

Teaching Languages is Very Doable

In the early years it can be learning greetings, counting, and songs in a second language and studying aspects of different cultures. And it doesn’t have to be one language only – it can be a variety of languages. In fact, the Australian Curriculum encourages you to learn about a few languages, especially indigenous and Asian languages.

At My Homeschool we realised that studying languages at a basic level required by the Australian Curriculum and other states’ curricula was easier to implement than many homeschoolers realised.

With a little bit of research you can create your own language curriculum. Have any of you tried that? What did you use? Leave a comment and let me know

Happy Home School Planning!

Michelle