Reconciling accountability and development needs in heritage language education: A communication challenge for the evaluation consultant

Abstract

The paper offers a retrospective evaluation of recent evaluative studies of bilingual programs in the Australian state of Victoria, in an attempt to determine how successfully the evaluation process met the dual criteria of external accountability and development. The programs in question were located in primary or secondary government schools and involved partial immersion in a heritage language. Data for the paper are drawn from the following: (a) the consultant's recollections of the evaluation context and process, and (b) the evaluative reports relating to three different programs (Vietnamese—English, Chinese—English and Arabic—English respectively). In hindsight it appears that the effe..