The monocultural mindset of English is enough is turning multilingual students into monolingual English speakers, while native English speakers struggle to acquire a second language in the school system.
Year 12 language student numbers have dropped significantly from 40 per cent in the 1960s to just 12 per cent today.
Linguistic anthropologist Dr Juliane Boettger from James Cook University says this is due to a monocultural mindset.
Dr Boettger says Australians can benefit immensely from learning a foreign language, pointing out that it is a window to another culture, a window to another way of thinking.
Bilingualism can also delay dementia in those susceptible to the disease by four and a half years according to a recent study published in the United States Journal of Neurology.
Matthew Timms is a representative of the Young Language Ambassador program run by the university to promote language learning to students in Townsville and the northern region.
He says Australias language education falls behind most OECD* nations.
While Australia aspires to work closely with its neighbours, the number of students studying Asian languages is on the decline.
Recognising a need to revitalise language learning in Australia, the federal government has set a target for 40 per cent of Year 12 students to study a foreign language within a decade.
