Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
2.42 Aboriginal English is a continuum of dialects ranging from close to Standard Australian English through to being close to Kriol. In the 1986 Census 76% of people identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander said they spoke only English and only 3.4% said they spoke no English at all. It is impossible to quantify precisely but many of the 76% speak dialects of English known as Aboriginal English. Aboriginal English is spoken throughout Australia, as either a first or second language by the great majority of Aboriginal people. These dialects, considerable exposure, are mutually intelligible with Standard Australian English but differ in systematic ways. 38 Those dialects closest to Kriol are much more difficult for Standard Australian English speakers to comprehend. These dialects have derived from pidgins (through depiginisation), creoles (through decreolisation) and in some instances from the Aboriginalisation of the language by Aboriginal Standard Australian English speakers. 39 These dialects serve as a marker of Aboriginal identity and for many, Aboriginal English is their first and only language.
2.43 While some speakers are b/lingual or bidialectical and can switch quickly between one dialect and another, young children with Aboriginal English coming to school for the first time, usually have it as their only language. Aboriginal English is now widely 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 separate dialect leads to several problems. It is often looked upon as bad English with both the language and the speaker being devalued. Speakers often undervalue their dialect as a result of years of disparagement.
2.44 The traditional educational approach to non-standard dialects such as Aboriginal English is outlined by one observer:
In the past, any 'mismatch' which occurred between the language of education systems and the language of children from minority or socially underprivileged groups was 'remedied' in a rather simple manner. It was the speech habits of children which were attempted to be changed to bring about a better 'match'. Such attempts were carried out by 'eradication' procedures, aimed at 'stamping out' the non-standard dialect, in a kind of process akin to weeding a garden. It is now a well-known fact that such 'weeding' programmes were mostly unsuccessful: the 'precious plant' of standard English did not often grow 'naturally' on the silenced lips of non-standard speakers 40
2.45 Many teachers still fail to see Aboriginal English as a different dialect of English. They treat it instead as an uneducated or corrupted form of Standard Australian English. These misconceptions in the wider community do considerable damage but in the classroom the damage is much greater. This approach is beginning to change. The rejection by teachers of children's home language as corrupted or substandard gives these children a bad start in an education system which contains a number of other cultural barriers. These teacher attitudes are perceived by children as devaluing them, their family and friends. Children faced with the choice of loyalty to family, friends and their way of life or of accepting the authority of a comparatively foreign institution such as the school, not surprisingly, frequently reject the school.
2.46 The committee believes that 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 these those institutions.
2.47 While Aboriginal English and Standard Australian English are usually mutually intelligible there are important differences which need to be better understood. Major differences occur in the vocabulary, grammar, meaning, sounding system, gesturing and sociocultural context. If these major structural differences are not understood and addressed in teaching Aboriginal English speakers the level of misunderstanding between teachers and students will remain high. Some English words have a different or more specific meaning than in Standard Australian English. Some examples are: "Him finish" meaning "He is dead," "Jar" as a verb meaning scold and "dust" as a verb meaning to overtake a car on a dusty road. 41 Other differences include the lack of the possessive" 's" and the lack of the initial h sound in words beginning with "h."
2.48 However one of the most significant differences between Aboriginal English and Standard Australian English is in the sociocultural context. This context is established in early childhood. Of Aboriginal child rearing Irruluma Guruluwini Enemburu comments:
Children brought up within Koori families in urban areas are still likely to be affected by child rearing practices which maintain many of the characteristics of the traditional patterns...
Certain aspects of child rearing are not the same as those of the non Koori society. This point is stressed, as within the patterns of child rearing the foundations are established for the use of language within varying contexts, thus affecting the manner in which knowledge is conceptualised and regarded, and so shaping the learning style of the child. These parameters will in later life affect the manner in which the child communicates and so distinguish an important aspect of Koori English. 42
2.49 Some of these differences include the way information is usually sought of another person, the use of silences in conversation, eye contact and gestures.
Speakers of Standard Australian English are used to asking direct questions to elicit information, but as Dr Diana Eades points out:
where Aboriginal people want to find out significant or personal information they do not use direct questions. It is important for Aboriginal people not to embarrass someone by putting them 'on the spot'. So people volunteer some of their own information, hinting about what they are trying to find out about. Information is sought as part of a two-way exchange. Silence and waiting till people are ready to give information are also central to Aboriginal ways of seeking any substantial information...
Although people in mainstream Australian society can recognise these ways of seeking information they use them only in sensitive situations. In Aboriginal interactions these are the everyday strategies used to seek substantial information. 43
2.50 Enemburu differentiates two important perspectives when looking at Aboriginal English. One is their evolution which can be described from a historical and linguistic perspective and the second is the sociopolitical perspective through which identity is expressed. He says of its sociopolitical significance:
... the growing importance of the social role of Koori English is becoming increasingly obvious with the emergence of strong feelings of in-group solidarity, the re-establishment of Koori identity, the growing awareness of Koori culture and the drive of Koori people to maintain levels of education within their cultural framework. 44
2.51 In the past non-standard dialects such as Aboriginal English were seen by schools as aberrant and were to be eradicated. However eradication procedures have been largely unsuccessful in that the stifled speakers have failed to gain in Standard Australian English skills and only learnt that their language, which is also the language of their family and friends, is a poor one. Instead of being language nurturing institutions schools have been instruments of language suppression. Aboriginal English speakers are often unaware of the full extent of the differences from Standard Australian English. Teachers frequently do not understand what students are saying because the teachers have not learnt to understand the dialect. As many children have shown in traditional language situations it is possible to understand a language as a listener without being able to speak the language.
2.52 Where children come to school with Aboriginal English as their mother tongue, it represents strongly ingrained language habits and embodies the speaker's early life experiences and learning. It is also the language that the child will continue to use at home and with same-language friends.
2.53 Children learn best when the school makes use of their language development prior to school. When their mother tongue is suppressed or even denigrated and they are taught in a language which seems very similar to them but without the differences being clearly identified, they quite understandably become confused, hurt and withdrawn. These difficulties usually form an overlay to other social difficulties encountered by children from a different cultural background to that of the school.
2.54 The committee believes that while attitudes to Aboriginal English may be changing, the change is far from complete and basic teacher training still does not adequately prepare teachers for teaching such children. Curriculum material to support teachers in the classroom teaching English as a second dialect is still extremely meagre.
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