Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System:
Online intensive training course
Continuing your ILFTS journey with Indigenous Fluency Now and First Languages Australia
Congratulations on all the progress you’ve made in your ILFTS development. This is a meaningful step towards creating a reliable path towards language fluency for your community.
As you continue towards completing and implementing Book 1 of your ILFTS, the Level 1 Development Manual is your go to document to help you navigate the steps. We encourage you to lean on us, and the rest of the cohort, for support at all stages.
The below checklists have been created to help you stay on track through the next steps of development. This has been broken into two stages- development and delivery.
Support available
You are welcome to reach out any time for support, however we would love to hear from you when you reach any of the following milestones:
Completion of your first 30 lessons to discuss getting access to the online development tool, which can help you to format your book and recordings.
Completion of your full 45 lessons in the online tool - this is a chance to get feedback on your lessons and book format.
When you commence delivery - please let us celebrate with you and share your success with the ILFTS network.
When you would like feedback on your delivery- send a recording of yourself delivering a lesson to Sonja for feedback. IFN Now are working on an accreditation program for communities using the ILFTS which will rely on them providing feedback.
When you are ready to commence development of Book 2.
All course materials will remain available on this page indefinitely. FLA is also happy to help in other ways, including the provision of Letters of Support for funding opportunities or to use in building partnerships with local stakeholder for your program. We will continue our advocacy for the ILFTS including raising awareness within the languages community and with our government and institutional partners.
Please follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with all FLA programs and projects.
Resources and tools
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Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System™- Level 1 language Development Manual
L1 Language Template
Indigenous Fluency Now! - YouTube- Watch video demonstrations of the teaching practices used to deliver the ILFTS.
ILFTS Scope and sequence- overview of the full development scope of the ILFTS. Includes an estimation of the hours and human resourcing required to complete development. A useful tool in advocating for funding and support for your ILFTS development.
Development checklists- we have created two checklists that can help you stay on track with development and then implementation of your ILFTS module 1.
ILFTS Module 1 development project plan template- an editable template you can use to help plan your development
ILFTS Classroom Setup Manual- a guide to preparing to teach Module 1
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Audacity ® | Free Audio editor, recorder, music making and more!
These two video links are great ‘how to install’ guides, one for Mac, one for PC).
Microphones
USB Microphones | RØDE Microphones (AU)-
Rode mics are good and readily available. They have a USB range with variety of prices $200-400. Rode also have lapel mics that plug into smartphones. They are handy for language documentation without full studio setups.
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Arlkeny map-akert, archived as ‘AILIB’ - Australian Indigenous Languages Image Bank
Canva- www.canva.com
Note: You can apply for a free non-for-profit profile here.
Procreate — Creative apps designed for iPad- Many people have used this program to create lovely graphics themselves with no prior training.
Graphics library - NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub - NESP symbols are free for download once you make a free registration and have heaps of images of animals, plants, ranger-stuff and Indigenous people depicted.
The Noun Project - catalogue of icons that can be used freely - 10M Free Icons & Stock Photos | SVG & PNG | Download Today
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Community agreement- Statement of Intent- adaptable template for use with participating community members. A statement of shared intent sets out why you are doing the project, how the members of the Language Team will make decisions and contribute, how any resources or materials developed during the Project can be used by the community going forward.
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All communities adapting and implementing the ILFTS for their language need to enter into an agreement with the creators of the ILFTS. The agreement covers ownership and copyright and conditions of use of the ILFTS.
A draft copy of this agreement template can be downloaded here.
You may nominate whomever you wish to have noted as a party to the agreement. This could include, for example, just yourself as the licensed party, a specific group or family, or your language community broadly. If you would like help making this decision, please get in touch.
Tutorials
AILIB Tutorial
This short video guides you through accessing, browsing and using the AILIB Image Bank.
Session recordings
Session 1- 13 November 2025
Resources (Click to download)
Session 2- 27 November 2025
Resources (Click to download)
Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System™- Level 1 language Development Manual
*See ‘Recording software and equipment’ drop down above for audacity and microphone info
Session 3 - 11/12/2025
Resources (Click to download)
Level 1 Language Delivery and Teachers’ Manual
*Also see Agreement Templates and Guidance in the resources drop down for a copy of the template to use with your community participants.
Session 4 - 8/01/2026
Resources (Click to download)
N/A
Session 5 - 22/01/2026
Resources (Click to download)
Session slides- includes Box of Knowledge lists (what physical resources you’ll need to deliver your lessons and how to store them).
Session 6 - 05/02/2026
Resources (Click to download)
Lesson ideas whiteboard- group workshop of ideas for lessons and communicative phrases.
Session 7 19/02/2026
Resources (Click to download)
Lesson ideas whiteboard- group workshop of ideas for lessons and communicative phrases.
ILFTS Online Course- Session 3 - 11/12/2025
Session 8 19/03/2026
Resources (Click to download)
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Contacts
Facilitator - Indigenous Fluency Now
Sonja Thoma
Email: sonja@indigenousfluency.org
First Languages Australia
Ella Woods
Email: ella@firstlanguages.org.au or fnl@firstlanguages.org.au
Phone: 0431 127 519
First Languages Australia would like to acknowledge the curriculum model and its organization are provided by Christopher Parkin and LaRae Wiley.
The Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System online intensive training course has been funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education as part of the First Nations Languages Education Program. You can find out more at www.firstlanguages.org.au/fnl.