Jane Orton is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the Language and Literacy Education Cluster, and a member of the strategic research program Knowledge Economies in the Asia-Pacific Region. She is a member of the Asia Education Foundation Board and a founding member of the Gesture Studies Network Australia.
Jane's academic interest is in intercultural learning: the opportunities for human education through intercultural interaction, especially through learning to use a new language.

Jane Orton is a member of the
American Educational Research Association
International Society for Gesture Studies
Asia TEFL Association
Modern Language Teachers Association of Victoria
Applied Linguistics Association of Australia

BA (Hons), Dip Ed, BEd, PhD

Supervision
Jane is currently supervising the following doctoral theses:
• Malcolm Pritchard - Short Term Experiential Learning Programs for Australian Secondary Students: a comparison of theory with practice
• Amanda Bayliss - Impression formation of Chinese advanced EFL adult learners
• Lydia (Jingyan) Li – Pedagogical Principles and Motivational Force in 'Crazy English'.
• Le Bach Truong - Vietnamese Learners and Western culture: the affordance of 'Million Dollar Baby'.
• Xia, Chinese-Australian Social Interactions at Work

Since 1991 Jane has researched and consulted on aspects of intercultural communication between Australians and Chinese working together in Australian companies in China. Most recent among her work in this field is the report Australian Professional and Business Area Knowledge for Working in China, undertaken for the International Centre for Excellence in Asia Pacific Studies and the Australia China Business Council (Vic). http://www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/

The findings of this report led to Jane undertaking research in 2008 into the teaching and learning of school Chinese in Australia. Her report, Chinese Language Education in Australian Schools, has been published by the University of Melbourne http://www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/ In October 2008, the report was the subject of an Australia China Council and Asia Education Foundation co-funded National Forum for senior Australian educational administrators, which resulted in endorsement of its recommendations for deep and far-reaching changes in the field.

2. In 2001 Jane began research into Australian and Chinese concepts of appropriateness in spoken interaction, an ever-present issue in intercultural communication at work. A first study, published in 2004 by CELEA, the journal of the Chinese English Language Education Association, examined the responses of Chinese and Australians to Chinese advanced learners of English recounting a story. A second study, comparing the responses of similar groups to monologue presentations and informal conversations by similar speakers was published in the International Review of Applied Linguistics in 2006. A third study, to be presented as part of a Gesture Studies Network Australia Panel at the International Pragmatics Conference in July 2009, examines the views and perspectives on the teaching of appropriate interactive behaviour, of Chinese university teachers of advanced English and Australian teachers of Chinese in postgraduate preparation courses. These studies have been undertaken in collaboration with Prof. Gao Yihong of the English Department at Peking University. All the studies have involved strong consideration of nonverbal channels of communication, especially the kinesic.

3. In 2008, with her Melbourne Graduate School of Education colleague, Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, and Prof. Gao Yihong, Jane has edited a book, China and English: Globalisation and Dilemmas of Identity, which will be published by Multilingual Matters (UK) in 2009. The chapters are based on a series of conference papers given by the editors and their colleagues at the University of Melbourne sponsored Round Table Conference at Peking University in October 2005; the National Conference of the Association of Chinese Sociolinguistics at Peking University in December 2006; and at China's 5th International Conference on English Language Teaching, in May 2007.

Jane's work in this area has been researching the identity of English itself in China, especially in education and in its relation to native speakers of the language. Her three chapters examine the construct of English in the Chinese quest to modernise, in the high school textbooks over the past 25 years, and in the current attitudes of tertiary English teachers.

Selected Publications
Monographs
Lo Bianco, J., Orton, J. & Gao, Y. (Eds 45-35-20%) [in press] Globalization, English and Identity in China, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Orton, Jane. 2000 Keys to Successful Intercultural Communication in Australian-Chinese Joint Ventures. The Australia China Business Council (Vic. Branch).
70 pp.

Chapters in Books
Orton, Jane. [in press]. English and the Chinese Quest. Chapter 3, Globalization, English and Identity in China, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Orton, Jane. [in press]. 'Just a tool": the role of English in the curriculum. Chapter 7. Globalization, English and Identity in China, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Orton, Jane. [in press]. East Goes West. Chapter 15, Globalization, English and Identity in China, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Orton, Jane. 2004. Australia-China Relations in Business – an intercultural perspective. N. Thomas (Ed.) Re-Orienting Australia-China Relations, pp. 110-125. London: Ashgate.
Orton, Jane. 2001 Building "Bridges" - design issues for a Web-based Chinese course. Uschi Felix (ed). Beyond Babel , pp. 137-162 . Melbourne: Language Australia.
Orton, Jane. 2000 Mutuality — An Action Perspective. pp. 135-176. A. Welch (ed.) Third World Education Quality and Equality. New York: Garland.
Orton, Jane. 1996a Perceiving Education. Anthony Milner (ed) Australia in Asia Comparing Cultures [author of 8 pages on China , and co-editor of Education chapter], pp. 69-103. Melbourne: Oxford University Press,


Refereed Journal Articles
'Just a Tool'? The Identity of English in the Textbooks of Chinese Secondary Schools. Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics, Vol. 4, No. 1 (May 2008).
Gesture in Modern Language Teaching and Learning. Babel,Vol. 43, No. 2, 2007, 13-18, 38.
Responses to Chinese Speakers of English. IRAL, Vol. 44, No. 3, 2006, 287-308.
English and identity in China - an engaged native speaker's perspective. Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics, Vol. 2, No. 5, 2005, 41-59.
Bi-cultural Responses to Chinese Learners’ Spoken English. China English Language Education Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1, February 2004, 85-94.
CALL of the Real World. Papers from the 3rd International Symposium on ELT in China. Beijing Foreign Studies University, 2004, 939-958.
Maintaining the Dialogue - joint involvement in a stand-alone CD-ROM Chinese Course. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, Series S, No 17, 2003, 25-44,.

Editor
Orton, Jane. 2006-2008. 8 issues of Babel, fully peer-reviewed journal of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations. Volumes/issues 41-2,3; 42-1, 2, 3; 43-1.
Orton, Jane. 2006-2008. Asian Studies Association of Australia annual issue of fully peer reviewed e-Foreign Language Teaching Journal, co-published with the Centre for Language Studies, National University of Singapore.

Recent Conference Papers & Seminars
The Roles of Gesture in Modern Language Teaching and Learning. 6th Biennial Conference of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations. Perth, Western Australia, 11-14 July, 2007.
The Identity of English in today's China – teachers' perspectives. Paper presented as part of the 'Symposium on English and Identity', 5th International Conference on English Language Teaching in China & 1st Congress of Chinese Sociolinguistics. Peking University, 19-23 May, 2007.
Still 'just a tool'? The construct of English in Chinese high school textbooks 1981 and 2006. Featured paper, National Conference of the Association of Chinese Sociolinguistics, Beijing, 8-10 December 2006.
Textbooks – the silent partners in EFL. Keynote address to the 54th TEFLIN. Satya Wacana Christian University Salatiga, Indonesia. 5-7 December, 2006.
English and Identity in China – A Non-Chinese Perception. Paper presented at the [invitation] Roundtable Conference on Globalisation, Identity and English in China, Peking University, Beijing, October 27-30, 2005.
Bi

Jane has worked on a number of multimedia projects to enhance the teaching of modern languages.
LILT (lessons in language teaching), a CD ROM, is available through Melbourne University Publishing.
The Rhythm of Language, now on DVD, is available from Bullwinkle's Stationery at the University of Melbourne.

After completing a BA at the University of Melbourne with major studies in French and Philosophy and minor studies in German and Politics, Jane Orton taught English for two years at the Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris, and spent three years working in New York with Caleb Gattegno, creator of The Silent Way. While there she taught Silent Way French daily to three classes of boy sopranos at the Choir School of St Thomas' Church Fifth Avenue, developed The Silent Way materials for a number of languages and gave regular seminars and intensive French language courses.

On her return to Melbourne she completed her Diploma of Education at SCV Hawthorn, an Honours degree in Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Education (TEFL/TESL) at La Trobe University. During this time she was a frequent guest lecturer in the teaching of languages at Victorian universities and was employed at Richmond Technical School and the Adult Migrant English section of the Dept of Education. She was a curriculum designer and teacher on the first 9-month English Course for Immigrants with Overseas Professsional Qualifications.

Jane went to China to teach English and English Teaching Methodology in the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing Teachers College (now Capital Normal University) in 1981. In her second year there she took the Chinese Pedagogy and Psychology courses [in Chinese] also compulsory for her students, and thereby cemented relationships with students and teachers still vibrant today. Back in Melbourne she returned to La Trobe University where she taught ESL Methodology and wrote an award-winning PhD thesis, “Educating The Reflective Practitioner in China”, which was completed in 1990.

In 1992 she obtained the continuing position of co-ordinator of Modern Languages Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, where she remained until she retired at the end of 2008. During much of that time Jane was also an Executive member of the Australia-China Business Council (Vic), including five years as a Vice President.