Jane Orton came to the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne in 1989 as Senior Project Officer for the Asian Languages in Teacher Education Project. From 1992-2008 she co-ordinated Modern Languages Education in the Faculty, during which time she taught language and culture, nonverbal communication in second language learning, and research methodology to postgraduates, and language teaching methodology to pre-service teacher candidates.
During much of that time Jane was also an Executive member of the Australia-China Business Council (Vic), including five years as a Vice President.
Jane has supervised more than forty theses on language and culture education and for over two decades she has presented and published widely on communication between Chinese and Australians. She has also designed and published a number of innovative electronic language teaching resources for Chinese.
In 2008, she produced a report, Chinese Language Education in Australian Schools, which suggested remedial action to improve the quality of teaching and learning outcomes, including the establishment of an Australian centre for Chinese language teaching. In 2009 she became Director of the Chinese Teacher Training Centre, established by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in collaboration with China’s Hanban Office. The Department did not continue funding after 2015 and Jane retired. She is now an Honorary Fellow at the university and writes, consults to immersion Chinese language programs and is a frequent guest speaker at national and international conferences.
In 2016 the Australia China Relations Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney published Building Chinese Language Proficiency in Australia, a comprehensive report on the current state of Chinese language education written by Jane Orton. Among other recent publications in 2019, with co-author Andrew Scrimgeour, she published Teaching Chinese as a Second Language - The Way of the Learner.
Prior to joining the University of Melbourne Jane had completed a BA at the University of Melbourne with major studies in French and Philosophy and minor studies in German and Politics, and taught English for two years at the Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris, then spent three years working in New York with Caleb Gattegno, creator of The Silent Way. While there she taught Silent Way French daily to three classes of boy sopranos at the Choir School of St Thomas' Church Fifth Avenue, developed The Silent Way materials for a number of languages and gave regular seminars and intensive French language courses.
On her return to Melbourne she completed her Diploma of Education at SCV Hawthorn, an Honours degree in Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Melbourne, and a Postgrad. Dip. in Education (TEFL/TESL) at La Trobe University. During this time she was a frequent guest lecturer in the teaching of languages at Victorian universities and was employed at Richmond Technical School and the Adult Migrant English section of the Dept of Education. She was a curriculum designer and teacher on the first 9-month English Course for Immigrants with Overseas Professional Qualifications.
Jane went to China to teach English and English Teaching Methodology in the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing Teachers College (now Capital Normal University) in 1981. In her second year there she took the Chinese Pedagogy and Psychology courses [in Chinese] compulsory for her students, and thereby cemented relationships with students and teachers still vibrant today. Back in Melbourne she returned to La Trobe University where she taught ESL Methodology and wrote an award-winning PhD thesis, Educating The Reflective Practitioner in China, which was completed in 1990.
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Projects
Displaying the 7 most recent projects by Jane Orton.
Project Types
6
Research Contracts
1
Internal Research Grant
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 59 most recent scholarly works by Jane Orton.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
AFMLTA MEDAL For Outstanding Service to Language Teaching
Credentials
Positions
Honorary
Melbourne Graduate School Of Education
Member
Chinese as a Second Language Research Association (Board)
Member
American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Member
Modern Language Teachers Association of Victoria
Member
American Educational Research Association
Member
Applied Linguistics Association of Australia
Education
Graduate Diploma in Education
State College of Victoria
Doctor of Philosophy
La Trobe University
Bachelor of Arts (H1)
University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Education (old title)
La Trobe University