The 2016 Report and Issues Identified
Followed by the operation of NALSSP，Asian language studies in Australian schools have been greatly developed.Commissioned by the Australia-China Relations Institute，Orton’s 2016 report is to study the post-NALSSPsituation of Chinese language education in Australian schools，and to look for the potential of further development.As much that is needed for the development of schoollevel Chinese program is already available，the 2016 report studied 24 data from all over Australia on school-level Chinese program，and consulted government officials，schoolteachers，education researchers，state-level education authorities，and community organisations.
The report finds out that thanks to the NALSSP funding since 2008，the number of students learning Chinese in Australian schools has doubled，reaching to 172，832，which is 4.7 percent of total school student numbers.However，the growth is mostly developed by the large presence of L1 learners(international students)，while the number of L2 learners taking Chinese dropped by 20 percent between 2008 and 2016，to around just 400(Orton，2016).
The report discovered the cause of the situation from three aspects，the provision，teachers and administration，and students.All Australian school Chinese programs，including Victorian schools，share most，if not all，of the following weaknesses:
Provision
·The provision of school Chinese program is not occurred uniformly due to the restricted supply of trained teachers and insufficient resources in the remote area.
·There is noticeably missing in provision in Australia for those who would develop superior competence at school as the essential preparation for becoming a specialist Sinologist.
Teachers
·Teachers of Chinese as a L2 and as a L1 to home speakers are lack of solid teacher training，which has a strong negative impact on the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.
·The different educational culture the teachers were raised in may result in difficulties in adapting to local norms in pedagogy and classroom management.
·The insensitivities of teachers when teaching their own language，the lack of research and research-informed resources to tackle the challenges of Chinese，and the lack of training available in teaching the special features of Chinese.
Administration
·Most school sector staffs who recommend and implement decisions about the teaching of Chinese in schools know little of what needs to be considered if their actions are to lead to success.
·Learning resources are not tailored to the Australian context and are often in contradiction to the principles of the Australian Curriculum for Languages.
·There is little or no accountability within school systems or individual schools for the improvement of retention of students especially at the transition points between primary and secondary and Years 9 and 10.
Students
·The presence of large numbers of home speaker learners being assessed as L2，who fill the high score quotas.
·Students who speak Chinese at home usually enrol in the lowest level to get high marks.
·Students who want to learn Chinese often have great difficulty being able to continue an appropriate course of study without interruption and in finding it an intellectually satisfying，well-taught experience(Orton，2016).
Several studies(Moore et al.，1992;Orton，2008;Lo Bianco，2009;Sturak and Naughten，2010;Department of Education and Early Childhood Development，2011)have pointed out the inherently difficult nature of Chinese language，which requires much longer study time for learners of English speaking background to reach the same proficiency level as learning a European language.The 2016 Orton report also summarised students’feedback as below.
·Learning Chinese is different from learning a European language and requires different conditions，and has proven“too hard”;
·L2 learners cannot compete at senior secondary levels with those who speak Chinese from birth.