Australia is falling behind in the proficiency of second-language education at a time when it's needed the most, one expert says following the release of new census data on languages.
Languages expert Tim Mayfield is calling for greater emphasis to be placed on bilingualism for secondary school students.
The executive director of the Asia Education Foundation said Australia had "significantly fallen behind" other countries in language education, and that there was a need to cultivate an informed push involving state and federal governments.
He said the push was important to ensure Australia was able to meet increasing demand from Asia in several business sectors.
His comments followed the release of Census 2016 data which showed the number of people who only spoke English at home has risen by more than 500,000, compared with the 2011 data.
While the raw number of English households increased, the share of this group declined from 77 per cent in 2011 to 73 per cent in 2016.
