Search Results: bilingualism
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AUSTRALIA
- Sheila Ngoc Pham
- 27 April 2018
4 Comments
As someone who has a language background which will in all likelihood not make it past one more generation in my family here in Australia, I've long understood the way language loss can occur as a result of migration, to say nothing of acts like colonisation. These are great forces that are difficult but, as I've found, not impossible to resist.
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AUSTRALIA
- Sheila Ngoc Pham
- 27 March 2018
7 Comments
On my first day of primary school, I understood very little English and spoke even less. My parents seemed to feel little anxiety and assumed I'd just figure it out at school. Turns out they weren't wrong. However, what they didn't anticipate is what would happen to my Vietnamese.
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AUSTRALIA
- Ann Deslandes
- 15 January 2018
5 Comments
Over 250 languages were spoken across Australia at the time that English arrived with British colonisation. Since then, English has been a strict marker of the contours of Australianness. Were it reframed as a lingua franca rather than the mandatory language, the linguistic diversity in this nation would have more room to breathe.
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AUSTRALIA
Ted didn't need a translator. He spoke Kriol fluently having spent many years working with Aboriginal people across the Territory. The locals smiled and visibly opened to him, clearly honoured by his effort to meet with them in their country on the basis of equality and respect. Learning the vernacular, and learning through the vernacular, establishes in students a sense of pride and power.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Clyne
- 18 November 2008
6 Comments
Bilingualism trains the mind and encourages more flexible problem solving. Such qualities go unnoticed in a society with a strong monolingual mindset. Social inclusion policy must also move beyond the socioeconomic dimension to prevent the exclusion of significant sections of Australian society.
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