Education Minister Simon Birmingham has hinted that a language app trialled in 40 preschools around Australia could be rolled out across the country next year.
Senator Birmingham said teaching children languages was important for the country.
"It's essential to Australia's place in the world to give them the best foundation of language skills, especially the languages of the region including Indonesian and Chinese," he said.
But the opposition says it has only reached a fraction of the number of children the government had estimated would receive the app.
"At this rate it will take 250 years to meet the target outlined in the government's election policy," shadow families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said.
The app costs taxpayers $27,000 per day, she added.
The minister believes it's concerning that fewer students are studying another language than they did decades ago.
Language rates
The proportion of year 12 students studying a language has dropped from 40 per cent in the 1960s to 12 per cent today.
Professor Nalini Joshi, of the University of Sydney, said the situation was worrying.
"What we are losing is this quantitative, analytical, intuition," she said.
The government wants to use the language app trial as the foundation for another app to help kids learn science and maths, at a cost of $6 million.
"When you see preschoolers using a language that isn't their native tongue to bake cakes, to count and even to sing songs, it's easy to understand why the feedback has been so positive from preschools, children, educators and parents," Senator Birmingham said.
Senator Birmingham says any existing resources at preschools will be utilised to ensure costs remain low.
"I am confident we can find an effective, low-cost way to make this accessible to every single preschool in the country," he said.
