About Languagewise

Languagewise is an Australian consultancy specialising in innovative strategies for language development and education.

The work of Languagewise integrates insights from community development and educational theory with the findings of linguistic and psycholinguistic research. This perspective values language diversity and multilingualism as assets for individuals and communities and provides a framework from which language development can be designed to facilitate greater expressive capacity in individuals and stronger communities.

Languagewise was established in March 2012 by Dr. Tonya Stebbins, a distinguished academic with a long history of working in partnership with communities on language maintenance and development. Languagewise is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Goals

The goals of Languagewise are:

• to empower people to understand and use language to its full potential;
• to provide support to teachers, community language workers and others who are actively involved in language maintenance, education and development;
• to work in partnership with communities to develop resources that will strengthen their languages; and
• to further research on effective strategies to strengthen language learning and development.

Projects

To pursue these goals, Languagewise undertakes a variety of research, training, product and service development activities. Key projects currently underway include:

• Development of online teaching and learning resources that will deliver language-related activities and support to students and teachers in Australian schools
• Provision of training to teachers of English to assist them in upskilling to meet the demands of the new Australian Curriculum: English
• Development of frameworks for evaluation of community language programs, with a focus on both process and outcomes for individuals and communities as a whole.