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This book provides a non-technical introduction to the study of language by focusing on questions such as: - Where does language come from? - Why don't we all talk the same? - Who needs grammar? Suitable for students with no experience of linguistics, this lively introduction to language approaches will encourage students to think.
Both general readers and students of language and linguistics at any level. Book jacket.
Australia is host to many languages - English, indigenous, migrant, and contact. Its multilingualism, the sociopolitical changes that have been impacting upon them, and its wide-ranging language policy efforts are well-known. What has been missing so far is a comprehensive, integrative study of the entire 'habitat' of languages - the contacts and interactions that have been taking place from the beginning of colonization to the present day with their linguistic outcomes. This book and its companion, Australia's Many Voices. Australian English - The National Language, develop and apply such an approach. The present book deals with non-mainstream varieties of English, indigenous, migrant, and contact languages. Based on census and other data to 2003, it addresses themes such as language demographics, language shift, and socio-psychological factors that bear upon it. Language change is discussed from the angle of the uprooting of indigenous languages from their original context, of transplantation, and of contact with English. Pidgins and creoles are located inside the Pacific context of the nineteenth century. This study provides an analysis of language and language-education policies to 2003 and connects this theme with the role of Australian English, the national language. It suggests that Australia's habitat is reaching a new stage of plurilingual tolerance. The book is of interest for specialists from a wide range of language and policy disciplines. Its discursive, non-technical style makes it accessible to non-specialists with no background in linguistics.
The Languages and Linguistics of Australia: A Comprehensive Guide is part of the multi-volume reference work on the languages and linguistics of the continents of the world. The volume provides a thorough overview of Australian languages, including their linguistic structures, their genetic relationships, and issues of language maintenance and revitalisation. Australian English, Aboriginal English and other contact varieties are also discussed.
Spanning Indigenous settings in Africa, the Americas, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Central Asia and the Nordic countries, this book examines the multifaceted language reclamation work underway by Indigenous peoples throughout the world. Exploring political, historical, ideological, and pedagogical issues, the book foregrounds the decolonizing aims of contemporary Indigenous language movements inside and outside of schools. Many authors explore language reclamation in their own communities. Together, the authors call for expanded discourses on language planning and policy that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and forefront grassroots language reclamation efforts as a force for Indigenous sovereignty, social justice, and self-determination. This volume will be of interest to scholars, educators and students in applied linguistics, Ethnic/Indigenous Studies, education, second language acquisition, and comparative-international education, and to a broader audience of language educators, revitalizers and policymakers.
This book researches the study of languages other than English, and their place in the Australian tertiary sector. Languages are discussed in the context of the histories of Australian universities, and the series of reports and surveys about languages across the second half of the twentieth century. It demonstrates how changes in the ethnic mix of society are reflected in language offerings, and how policies on languages have changed as a result of societal influences. Also discussed is the extent to which influencing factors changed over time depending on social, cultural, political and economic contexts, and the extent to which governments prioritised the promotion and funding of languages because of their perceived contribution to the national interest. The book will give readers an understanding as to whether languages have mattered to Australia in a national and international sense and how Australia’s attention to languages has been reflected in its identity and its sense of place in the world.
Australia has a reputation for sustained work in language policy and has had over 20 years of experience of language policy development. During these years, language policies have sought to increase and reshape languages education in Australian schools, but have had only limited success in achieving their objectives. This means that Australia’s extensive work in language policy has not yet guaranteed a secure place for languages within education. After a period of comparative neglect of languages and multiculturalism, Australia is now entering a new phase of activity in language policy and it is timely to consider critically what has and has not been achieved to date and the reasons why. The aim of this book is to examine the current state, nature, role and purposes of languages in Australian education as a basis for considering a viable, encompassing language education policy. The book is divided into four specific focus areas for discussion, each of which is based on a core theme in Australian languages education: engaging with diversity; the current state of policy and participation in languages education and languages teacher education; current orientations to languages education, and future possibilities and directions in languages education. Underlying the discussion is the recognition that at this particular juncture in languages education policy in Australia it is necessary to re-examine constructs, research, evidence and practice as the basis for renewal. The book presents a collection of papers dealing with each of the themes and aims to give greater focus to the contemporary debates around languages in education in Australia and more generally.
Develops a comprehensive, descriptive, and sociohistorical view of mainstream Australian English and of the social processes that have made it possible for it to become the national language of Australia reaching out into the Asia-Pacific region.
The languages of Aboriginal Australians have attracted a considerable amount of interest among scholars from such diverse fields as linguistics, political studies, archaeology or social history. As a result, there is a large number of studies on a variety of issues to do with Aboriginal Australian languages and the social contexts in which they are used. There is, however, no integrative reader that is easily accessible to the non-specialist in any of the areas concerned. The collection edited by Leitner and Malcolm fills this gap. Looking at Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and their changing habitats from pre-colonial times to the present, the book covers languages from a structural and functional linguistic perspective, moves on to the issue of cultural maintenance and then turns to language policy, planning and the educational and legal dimensions. Among the many themes discussed are: the social and linguistic history of language contact after 1788 (including the Macassans); the demographic base of indigenous languages; traditional indigenous languages; results of language contact such as the modification of traditional languages and the rise of contact languages (pidgins, creoles, esp. Kriol, Torres Strait Creole, and Aboriginal English); the impact of the Aboriginal languages on mainstream Australian English; maintenance, shift, revival and documentation of indigenous and contact languages; language planning; language in education; language in the media; language in the law courts. The contributors are leading experts in their fields. The book can serve as a reader for university courses but also as a state-of-the-art work and resource for specialists like applied linguists or educational planners.