Introduction: English, language(s) and Australian education

This is the introductory chapter for the co-edited book Multilingualism as Opportunity (2025). It locates current issues and debates regarding multilingualism and education in the specific context of Australia, an acknowledged English-speaking country located in the Global South. It outlines a broad shift from monolingualism to multilingualism as an organising principle and some of the associated controversies and complexities. It points to linguistic diversity as a major challenge in Australian education society at large, but also, at least potentially, a rich resource – an opportunity. In particular, it explores issues surrounding “English” and the question of language(s) and proposes that all language(s) educators need to work together to forge a shared understanding and a settlement regarding how language is understood and its crucial relation to learning. It then provides an overview of the chapters making up the book, comprising a range of accounts of different aspects of language(s) education, and accordingly various views of language itself.