The Language and Society Centre was established at Monash University in 1989 as part of the National Languages (and Literacy) Institute of Australia, an ARC and Commonwealth Government funded collaborative key centre. It was also successful subsequently in gaining large and small projects from government and non-government organizations.
Today it is a Centre within Monash University's School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics.
The colleagues participating in the Centre are members of several programs in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics: Linguistics, English as an International Language, Chinese Studies, German Studies, Italian Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies and Spanish and Latin American Studies. The Centre collaborates with the Faculty of Education and other sections of the University, including the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences through the MonRAS (Monash Research for an Ageing Society) network.
The Centre has the capacity to run workshops and provide consultancy and assistance on issues such as:
- reviewing a school's bilingual or second language program
- understanding the bilingual/bicultural child
- teaching students with and without a home background in the language
- intercultural communication in the workplace or between professionals and patients/clients
- developing a language policy for a municipality, school, workplace or other institution. This includes needs analysis and action research.
