The Early Learning Languages Australia program (ELLA) program is a digital, play-based program which includes a series of interactive applications (apps), aimed at making language learning engaging and interesting to young children in preschool and the early years of school.
Since 2014, the Australian Government has invested over $28.7 million dollars in the Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program, which is delivered by Education Services Australia.
The ELLA program has been developed in consultation with experts in languages, early childhood and technology and is aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum: Foundation. The program introduces young children to languages other than English in an early learning setting, using play-based apps, to encourage language learning in later years. The apps are designed for use in preschool classrooms, for delivery by trained early learning educators.
Research shows that learning languages develops children's overall literacy, strengthening literacy-related capabilities that are transferable across learning areas. A number of independent analyses have demonstrated the success of the ELLA apps in introducing young children to a language other than English.
Since ELLA was first trialled in 2015, the program has been expanding every year. In 2022, over 162,000 children in 4,962 preschool services across Australia took part in the ELLA program, learning one of the thirteen available languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Due to the continued growth and success of ELLA in the early learning sector, ELLA was extended in schools through a three-year trial with children in Foundation to Year 2. Almost 300 schools supporting approximately 21,000 students participated in the ELLA F-2 trial. This enabled more students to access the benefits of language learning through digital technology, including where language teachers are not available.