Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
There are a range of dialects of English known collectively as Aboriginal English. Aboriginal English is regarded by linguists as a valid rule-governed language capable of expressing the wide range of human experience. The failure to recognise it as a seperate dialect leads to several problems. Many teachers still treat Aboriginal English as an uneducated or corrupted form of Standard Australian English. Children learn best when the school makes use of their language development prior to school.
while Aboriginal English and Standard Australian English are usually mutually intelligible there are major differences in vocabulary, grammar, meaning, sounding system, gesturing and sociocultural context.
The committee believes that the failure by schools and teachers to identify, accept and take into account the separate features of Aboriginal English is a major factor in Aboriginal children's poor performance in school. In other situations, such as courts or hospitals, the failure to identify and comprehend Aboriginal English significantly limits the effectiveness of those institutions.