A fair go for all: A contribution to the call for a national languages policy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

2012 marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the report that represented the first attempt to introduce a coherent national languages policy for New Zealand - Aoteareo: Speaking for ourselves (Waite, 1992). Twenty years on from Waite, New Zealand still has no official comprehensive national languages policy that addresses the diverse language needs of our increasingly multilingual and multicultural society. This article considers what a national languages policy might now mean for those foreign languages (FLs) that Waite labeled as 'international'. The article discusses why FLs need to feature in a national languages policy. It rehearses some of the arguments of the early 1990s for the importance of FLs for New Zealand and reflects on how these have influenced the education sector in the intervening twenty years. It concludes with some key issues that must inform thinking in New Zealand around creating an inclusive national languages policy.

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