Students develop intercultural communication skills through examining relationships between language, culture, and identity and reflecting on the ways in which culture is created, expressed, and communicated through language.

Students clarify, extend, and develop their ideas and opinions on the prescribed themes and contemporary issues, and develop their capability to communicate, interact, and negotiate meanings within and across languages and cultures.

The background speakers level languages are designed for students who have a background in the language and who have had more than 1 year's education in a country where the language is spoken.

Advice is available for schools about eligibility for students enrolling in Stage 1 or Stage 2 languages subjects at continuers level where there is also a program at background speakers level for that language (i.e. Stage 1 or Stage 2 Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and  Vietnamese).