Teaching+indigenous+languages+in+primary+schools

__Teaching Indigenous Languages in__ __Australian Primary Schools__ //... The Member States commit themselves to ... // //Encouraging linguistic diversity - while respecting the mother tongue - at all levels of education, wherever possible, and fostering the learning of several languages from the youngest age ... // //- Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by the 31st Session of UNESCO's General Conference, Paris, 2001.//
 * Dr Nola Purdie is Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). This article appeared in Education Review in August 2007
 * James Cook University's final year Bachelor of Education conference, Looking to the Future - Smart Moves in Education

__**Opinions, thoughts and theories:**__ That Indigenous and Islander languages will be acknowledged as a unique and irreplaceable heritage of Australia and energetic efforts will be made to preserve, restore and secure these languages. - Some recommendations of the National Policy on Languages, J. Lo Bianco 1987 Encouraging linguistic diversity - while respecting the mother tongue - at all levels of education, wherever possible, and fostering the learning of several languages from the youngest age...  - Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by the 31st Session of UNESCO's General Conference, Paris, 2001 - Statement on Languages other than English for Australian Schools, 1994 - Qld Dept of Education, 1992
 * 'Languages are precious storehouses of history, experience and culture; a crucial link between the past and the future' - Jeanie Bell, Aboriginal Linguist
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">ThatAustralians achieve bilingualism, either by maintaining languages other than English as they acquire English as a second language, or by adding second languages to their existing English.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The Member States commit themselves to ...
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">.(The statement)...... acknowledges the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to maintain, retrieve, revive, reclaim and preserve their linguistic and cultural heritage.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The community and the school have a joint responsibility for the implementation, development and continuity of any language program'

**__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Key Questions __** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The following questions and answers were sourced form a seminar for James Cook University's final year Bachelor of Education conference 'Looking to the Future - Smart Moves in Education' 31 October, 2003. Some of the information on this page may now be out of date but we have done our best to rectify and check facts. There is currently research in place to update this paper.The paper will apply largely to Queensland, but also quite significantly across all Australian states. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">**//__ What have been the histories of Indigenous languages in Queensland schools? __//**

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Of perhaps over a hundred languages originally spoken in Queensland, only a handful are still spoken across generations today. Part of the reason for this situation is the implementation of successive government policies. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">In the early days of Indigenous education, many children were severely punished for speaking traditional languages. In the 1970s some mission schools turned this around and began to encourage bilingual education (eg. in Aurukun and Pormpuraaw). This was often supported by the work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Other mission and government schools continued with the old policy of assimilation and actively discouraged the use of any language other than Standard English. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">By the late 1980s, most schools had been taken over by the Department of Education and bilingualism was phased out. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">In the early 1990s, under a new Labour government, there was a brief resurgence of enthusiasm and policies for teaching languages, but with limited structural funding. In 1991 the Queensland Minister for Education issued a statement (Braddy, p.2) stipulating that all students in Queensland should have the opportunity to study a language other than English (LOTE). This was taken up by Hope Vale and Bloomfield River State Schools who began to develop LOTE programs for teaching Guugu Yimithirr and Guugu Yalanji respectively, with the help of the Commonwealth funded Coastal School Support Centre. These programs were trialled from 1996 to 1998 but were discontinued as LOTE programs after that time. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The late 1990s saw a further shift in emphasis with recognition and funding given for teaching English as a Second Language to Indigenous students, with initiatives such as the [|Bandscales] project being developed. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">**//__ How are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working to keep languages strong? __//**  <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Understandably, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel strongly that their children should have the right to learn their own language. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Despite limited funding and support, many community organisations around Queensland are currently working on developing resources such as dictionaries, picture books and CD-ROMs that can be used by families to learn traditional languages. A lot of this work is done either by volunteers or with the help of small grants such as those from the federally funded Preservation of Indigenous Language and Recordings ( [|PILR] ) program. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">One such program is that run in Hervey Bay, where community members run weekend classes in Badjala language for children. Approaches to local schools have not yet been successful in getting language programs established in class time. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">In Townsville, a group of Aboriginal people are working with publishing company [|Black Ink] to develop a CD-ROM to teach Warrgamay language. The aim of their project is to develop a template that can be used by other language groups. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> [|Magani Malu Kes] is working on a kit comprising books, videos and CD-ROMs that will be a comprehensive resource for teaching Meriam Mir, Kala Lagaw Ya and Torres Strait Creole. Other organisations such as the [|Indigenous Children's Services Unit] help support language programs in various communities. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Other programs are run through schools as part of their cultural studies curriculum with Elders teaching language on an ad hoc, variously paid, basis. These include Yugambeh language in the Logan area, Gunggari language in Mitchell, Djirrbal language in the Tully area, Kuuk Thaayorre language in Pormpuraaw, Wik Mungkan language in Aurukun, Guugu Yalanji language at Bloomfield Riverand Wujul Wujul, Guugu Yimithirr at Hope Vale, and several Torres Strait Islander languages in the Torres Strait. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">**//__ What are some of the barriers towards developing an Indigenous language curriculum for Queensland? __//**  <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The diversity of languages, the multilingualism and fragmentation of communities, and limited numbers of speakers are all factors that present potential problems in establishing Indigenous language programs in schools. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The high turnover of teachers in many schools also means that continuity of programs is a difficulty. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Any Indigenous language program will only work if it has the strong support of the community that owns the language being taught (Ridley 2002). This has to be a matter of schools and communities developing close partnerships, with the support of government agencies and funding where appropriate, to discuss, plan and deliver language programs. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">**//__ How is the Queensland government developing policy to support Indigenous languages? __//**  <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The Queensland Department of Education (Peninsula Region) worked for several years to develop a kit for schools called ‘//Which language? Your Choice!//’ published in 1992. The Department then worked further at a state level on an //Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Policy//, with the draft published in 1996. The final version of this policy was never released, and work was stopped on its development by 2001 (Toussaint, 2003). <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The [|Partners for Success] initiative encompasses some innovative approaches to teaching English as a second language to Indigenous students, and acknowledges the need for schools to build strong working relationships with Indigenous communities. Other Education Queensland policies emphasise valuing and recognising cultural and linguistic diversity through a socially just curriculum (Murphy, 2003). <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">However, there are no current policies or initiatives to specifically address issues of teaching traditional Indigenous languages in Queensland schools. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy ( [|DATSIP] ) has begun working towards developing a whole of government Languages Policy for Queensland. If successfully implemented, this policy will allow the [|Queensland Studies Authority] (QSA) to develop curriculum services to support Indigenous language programs throughout the state. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Every state in Australia except Tasmania and Queensland now has their own Aboriginal language curriculum. Is it only a matter of time before Queensland catches up?

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">** Please see pages marked "the current situation" for an updated view of Queensland's efforts. **