Editorial

Welcome to a special double issue of 'Babel' on the 'Australian Curriculum: Languages'. The issue is timely, because, as we go to press, and after several years in planning, consultation and development, the Board of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has finally approved for public release the first two language-specific curricula, for Chinese and Italian. Chinese has been developed in three learner pathways (first, second and background language learners), with a curriculum F-10 for background and second language learners, and Years 7-10 for first language learners. Italian has been developed for second language learners F-10. I would urge all teachers of languages, teacher educators, languages consultants, administrators and others interested in the teaching and learning of languages to engage with these new materials, as we eagerly await the further development of the second round of draft language-specific curricula, in Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish and Vietnamese, with more to follow in the third round of curriculum development.