Mission Impossible for L2 Learners: Teachers’ Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Chinese in Queensland Secondary Schools

This study sheds light on the state of Chinese language teaching in secondary schools in Queensland, Australia, and investigates the challenges that Chinese language teachers face under the current Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) system. Two research instruments—an online Qualtrics survey and a semi-structured interview—were utilised to gauge teachers’ perspectives on the Chinese language programs in 20 schools. Forty teachers completed the survey, and 20 of these voluntarily participated in the interviews. In the survey, the teachers showed a low to moderate degree of satisfaction with the Chinese programs in their schools. The findings reveal manifold challenges to the long-term advancement of the Chinese programs: low retention rates, low ATAR scaling, undifferentiated learner pathways, mixed cohorts within a single classroom, the extremely difficult senior Chinese syllabus, the lack of textbooks, and the shortage of professional training specifically for teaching Chinese in the Queensland secondary school context. The study strongly recommends the implementation of differentiated pathways in Queensland secondary schools—for second language (L2), heritage language (HL), and first language (L1) learners. This critical step necessitates different syllabi, teaching approaches, and assessment types. Only then can we turn the “mission impossible” into a mission possible for L2 learners.