Lesson Ideas for Teachers

Making multicultural Australia

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KLA/Subject: Commerce | Geography

Stage: Stage 4

We Hear You

Outcomes

Commerce
  • 4.4 identifies key factors affecting commercial and legal decisions
  • 4.5 identifies options for solving commercial and legal problems and issues
Geography
  • 4.8 describes the interrelationships between people and environments

Introduction

Australia has a multilingual population. This means that businesses must tailor their products accordingly. Bilingual and multilingual speakers are a great asset for businesses establishing themselves in or expanding into overseas markets. This lesson uses case studies from Making Multicultural Australia to explore this theme. A worksheet is included to support classroom activities.

Material to Download

Worksheet: Multicultural Policy (abridged)

Worksheet: We Hear You - Worksheet

Case Studies: Case studies

Suggested Activities

  1. Brainstorm with the class:
    2. What are different attributes of consumers, e.g. age, gender, socio-economic position, religion, language, occupation, education, etc?

  2. Class Discussion
    3. Lead a class discussion on: What is it important for any business to know about consumer attributes?

  3. Read
    4. Show to the class an overhead transparency of the worksheet, 'Multicultural Policy' and discuss. Note that the ability of many Australians to speak a language other than English is viewed as a potential asset by the Australian Government.

  4. Group Work
    5. Download 'case studies' (see 'Materials to Download') and divide the class into groups of four. Allocate a different case study, of a business using the bilingual skills of workers, to each group. Download and give to each student a copy of the worksheet 'We hear you'. Ask groups to read their case study and then complete the worksheet. Ask groups to prepare to inform other class members about the details of their case study for the next lesson.

  5. Group Sharing
    6. Groups report back to the whole class sharing information about their case study.

  6. Class Discussion
    7. As a class, discuss the findings of the group work in terms of the following:
    • Why did each business employ/utilise bilingual workers?
    • How was a need for utilising bilingual workers established?
    • What impact did their employment have on the business?
    • What factors from these experiences are useful for other businesses?
    • What are the implications for students in terms of future employment?

  7. Conclusion
    8. Australia has a multilingual population. This means that businesses must tailor their products accordingly to develop and increase profits. Bilingual and multilingual speakers are also a great asset for businesses establishing themselves in or expanding into overseas markets.

Preparation Checklist

You will need:

  • to download and make an overhead transparency of the worksheet, 'Multicultural Policy'
  • to download and print 8 case studies for group work, using the link in the section above titled 'Materials to Download'. Include all the case studies other than the one entitled ‘Linking language to productivity’, i.e.:
    • Offering all the comforts of home
    • Talking the language of the markets
    • Backing Australia’s business migrants
    • First past the port in Vietnam
    • Mixing east and west for a recipe for success
    • East meets west down under
    • Serving up quality to Japan
    • Winning new sales with ancient symbols
  • to download and make copies of the worksheet, 'We hear you' for each student

Extension

Ask students to:

  1. Research a business actively using the bilingual skills of workers.
  2. Collect advertisements from newspapers and internet showing a language other than English required or preferred. Examine which industries these appear in. Are there any patterns?

Related Resources

Not applicable

Lesson Notes

Teachers need to be sensitive to the fact that some students do not speak a language other than English. Schools offer Language Other Than English (LOTE) programs to give all students the opportunity to learn a language other than English. Teachers need to ensure that only positive comments are made in the class discussion in relation to languages spoken.

Date Added:

09 December 2004