Continuing professional development (CPD) is examined, emphasising the importance of maintaining skills and keeping abreast of current research and curriculum developments in the teaching of modern languages. Examples of professional learning are given, as well as advice on how collaborative working with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally can enhance learning and teaching. In addition, links are given to sources of further information and advice on a range of opportunities available to teachers to help them with their career-long professional learning (CLPL). Finally, the chapter discusses the important area of teacher well-being and gives guidance and advice on how student teachers can build emotional resilience that prepares them for a career in the classroom, noting sources of support for their own mental health and well-being.

The environments we create for the infants and toddlers in early childhood education (ECE) settings are critically important because they shape the daily lived experience of children and educators, and create the conditions for children’s interactions, wellbeing, engagement, learning and development. ECE environments are not neutral, nor are they natural. They are constructed in specific ways for specific purposes and are a representation of our philosophy that ‘speaks’ to children, educators and families about our image of the child, about the value we place on family, culture and community, and about our beliefs regarding teaching and learning. ECE environments are political because they influence the possibilities for interactions, relationships, empowerment and agency.

In recent years remote and hybrid approaches to learning, teaching and assessment have risen in prominence. Starting with the strict lockdown measures enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic when schools, colleges and universities had to find alternative ways of providing learning, teaching and assessment quickly, there has been a dramatic expansion of online teaching. This chapter looks at how and when teachers can incorporate remote learning, teaching and assessment approaches in a modern languages class and the practical implications related to doing so.

Phonemic awareness is a subcategory of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness is the more specific ability to recognise and manipulate the speech sounds (phonemes) of spoken language as a developmental pathway to learning to read and write. It is the topic of this second chapter because it is developed alongside a method of teaching called phonics. Phonics is an explicit teaching method that involves learners understanding the relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters or letter patterns used to represent those sounds in written language. It involves learning the connections between individual phonemes and the written code of letters (graphemes).

Chapter 7 examines why it is necessary to differentiate learning and how to plan for and manage differentiation in the language class. A range of strategies is given with practical examples of how both content and skills can be differentiated in terms of reception and production of the foreign language. Areas studied include differentiation by length, presentation and density of text; design of task, graded tasks, parallel tasks, branching tasks; differentiation by outcome, differentiated expectations; organisation of class and appropriate use of teaching modes. The chapter examines how to respond to the needs of all learners, from helping pupils with specific learning difficulties (SLDs) to using appropriate strategies with more able learners, and examples are given. The wide variety of additional support needs (ASN) is discussed, with advice on how to respond to multiple needs within a mixed-ability class setting.

Vital to successful learning and teaching and a necessary pre-stage to lesson planning is constructing a long-term and a mid-term plan. In order to ensure successful progression in pupils’ language learning, careful thought is necessary in terms of deciding what pupils need to learn and in which order. Chapter 5 looks at the fundamentals of syllabus and unit planning, taking account of providing meaningful progression through the foreign language, related directly to appropriate pedagogy, and walks student teachers through the stages needed to create successful unit plans, and mid-term and long-term schemes of works for teaching modern languages.

Our goal in writing this book was to address a notable gap in the availability of essential resources dedicated to this critical content area. Despite its foundational importance, no existing text offers a focused, in-depth exploration of language and literacy knowledge tailored for pre-service and in-service teachers working in Foundation to Year 10. The 2008 Bradley Review highlighted a deficiency in teachers’ language and literacy awareness and proficiency, a concern that was addressed by the introduction of the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE) in 2016. Consequently, initial teacher education programs have initiated courses and support services in English language and literacy to bolster teachers’ personal knowledge and skills, enabling them to pass the LANTITE’s literacy component.

This chapter explores the value of the arts in the lives of very young children in early childhood education settings. It is hard to imagine a more joyful or rich opportunity for connection, expression and learning in early childhood than the arts. Humanity has always created art in a range of forms for a range of purposes and the youngest children are innately attracted to engage in music, dance, drama, and visual arts experiences.

Language use involves the activation of phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexical systems for meaning-making with other people in specific contexts. Therefore, we not only need to acquire and develop these linguistic systems for language use, but we also need to develop an awareness and understanding of these linguistic systems as meaning-making resources for appropriate use in a given context. For this reason, it is necessary to focus on the social use of language as a key aspect of language development.

Technology has become central to both the personal and social aspects of our lives. In the classroom, digital literacy is the pupils’ ability to discern quality sources and evaluate the appropriateness of online content as it relates to the task or activity they are undertaking, while respecting the intellectual property rights of the content owners. The chapter discusses online safety and the use of social media in a considerate and respectful manner, and examines what these issues mean for the student teacher in a modern foreign languages classroom. In addition, it looks at the benefits of technology in modern foreign languages learning and teaching, and highlights important caveats and common pitfalls.

This chapter highlights the knowledge required to work with diverse students who communicate using the different varieties of English that exist in Australia. In line with the ‘Language variation and change’ sub-strand of the Australian Curriculum: English, we discuss linguistic and cultural diversity through the concept of plurilingualism, and the transcultural and sociolinguistic competence and knowledge required by teachers working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) learners. We highlight the challenges and rewards associated with instructing students from varying linguistic and cultural backgrounds. We also stress the crucial role teachers play in nurturing learners of English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) students.

Spoken language consists of a complex system of sounds that infants first learn to perceive and produce through social interaction in their linguistic community. This initial exposure before school is critical in preparing them for school, where they learn to encode their spoken language into written language. Once children can sufficiently speak and understand most language at around the age of five, it becomes the role of educators, and parents/care providers to assist them in the development of their explicit phonological awareness. Phonological awareness, which refers to the broad understanding of the sound structure of language, plays a critical role in the development of reading and writing. For instance, before children can effectively start learning to read, they need to develop an awareness of the sound structure of words, including syllables, rhymes and individual speech sounds called phonemes, as well as the ability to segment and blend phonemes.

In contemporary Australian society, the word ‘quality’ is ever-present in professional and political discussions about early childhood education. Educators and families are told that ‘quality is important’; curriculum documents, such as Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), aim to enhance quality; services are rated for the quality of education and care that they deliver; and governments regulate service conditions and provisions in order to facilitate the provision of high quality practice. Together, these social, professional and political structures communicate a strong message that quality matters for young children’s learning and wellbeing.