The Department of Education has announced that Queensland kids will start learning a language earlier in a bid to improve early student development.

All Year 5 students will learn a language, previously mandatory only for Year 6-8 students. 

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said learning a language helped students in aother areas. 

“Everything we do in education is directed towards better student results and it’s widely acknowledged that learning a language has a positive impact on a student's overall literacy, enhancing their learning in other areas,” Mr Langbroek said.

“While this announcement ensures students can receive an extra year of language education from 2015, schools are still strongly encouraged to offer languages from Prep to Year 12.

“State schools decide which languages to offer in consultation with their school community."

The change to the Queensland Government’s languages policy coincides with a new phase anguages education in state schools.

Mr Langbroek said the 'Global Schools – Creating successful Global Citizens' proposal would see all state primary schools offer languages from Prep by 2025 and all state schools commence implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Languages in 2016.

“This proposal, that we will consult the community about, envisages a system in which all state primary schools will offer education in a language or languages other than English right from Prep,” he said.

“This is part of preparing our young people to thrive in a global society.

“Learning another language provides students with communication skills, opens their minds to new ideas and builds social and cultural understanding.”

Mr Langbroek said Queensland state schools should become familiar with the Australian Curriculum: Languages in 2015 ahead of its implementation in 2016.

“The teaching of languages in Queensland schools is already well established and widespread,” he said.

“Ultimately we want to see an increase in the number of students leaving Year 12 with high levels of language proficiency.

“This will require a strong workforce, quality school programs and strong leadership.”

One of the findings from the Queensland Plan was support for students having Asian language skills, with the majority of Queenslanders seeing this as an indicator of a flexible, future-focused curriculum in the state’s schools.

Currently more than 950 Queensland state schools are teaching a Language Other Than English (LOTE) to primary students, with around half of those, some 490, teaching Japanese.

In 2013, around 135,500 Prep to Year 12 state school students learned a language.