Jane Simpson

Developing Tests for the Assessment of Traditional Language Skill: A Case Study in an Indigenous Australian Community.

This article reports on the development and piloting of a vocabulary recognition test designed for Indigenous Australian children. The research is both application oriented and development oriented. The aims of the article are to determine how well the test is used as a test instrument and the extent to which children recognize vocabulary items in Walmajarri (a local Indigenous language still spoken mainly by the older generation). The test was developed in collaboration with one community and extended to three neighboring communities where the same Indigenous language is spoken. Childrens receptive knowledge of vocabulary items (nouns) in Walmajarri was tested, with 80 child participants across all communities. The usability of the test is discussed, as well as results of this language test, and recommendations are offered for future research in this area.

What's done and what's said: language attitudes, public language activities and everyday talk in the Northern Territory of Australia

Abstract This paper discusses some of the reasons why in the Northern Territory of Australia speakers of indigenous languages shift from using indigenous languages to using creoles and standard or non-standard English. Language attitudes of speakers are discussed in terms of what people say about languages, what public activities they engage in with respect to language maintenance, and how they talk in informal settings. The divergence between peoples positive attitudes towards a language (as indicated by public language activities) and their everyday talk is discussed in the light of linguistic vitality indicators, including the socio-structural features of political, social, economic and cultural control, institutional control and status, and demographic factors as well as interactional possibilities.

Early language contact varieties in South Australia

Abstract This paper discusses contact languages used in the colony of South Australia up until about 1850. The jargon English probably derived in the first place from South Seas Jargon and the pidgin English developing in Tasmania and New South Wales (NSW). In the second place it would have been influenced by the colonists’ ideas of how to talk to foreigners (which were in turn influenced by pidgin Englishes and South Seas Jargon). The jargon Kaurna is mostly broken Kaurna, perhaps influenced by English foreigner talk, but there is some suggestion of conventions of Kaurna ‘foreigner‐talk’. Neither the jargon Kaurna nor the Kaurna language itself lasted very long after the invasion, due to the death of many of the speakers, the movement of other groups into the country, and the impact of English and the culture of monolingualism.

Language diversity in Indigenous Australia in the 21st century

ABSTRACT The diversity of language in Australia in pre-invasion times is well attested, with at least 300 distinct languages being spoken along with many dialects. At that time, many Indigenous people were multilingual, often speaking at least four languages. Today many of these languages have been lost, with fewer than 15 being learned by children as a first language. However, despite this, much diversity remains. This diversity includes the remaining traditional Indigenous languages (TILs) spoken in more remote areas, largely in the north of Australia, as well as the new varieties that have developed since the invasion, and the dialects of Aboriginal English spoken across Australia. In remote communities where TILs are spoken, individuals and in some cases communities often maintain a high level of multilingualism. However, diaspora populations of TIL speakers are emerging in cities such as Darwin, Katherine, Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie. In some communities, new varieties are emerging as speakers change the way they talk. These include ‘new’ mixed languages such as Light Warlpiri or Gurindji Kriol, as well as a wide variety of creoles, including, for example, Roper River Kriol, Fitzroy Valley Kriol and Yumplatok in the Torres Strait) and the various dialects of Aboriginal English spoken across the country. In this article, we explore this language diversity, examining its historical underpinnings and development, its implications for education and engagement in the wider community, and how Aboriginal people are using the new varieties to forge group identities.

Fictive Motion Down Under: The Locative-Allative Case Alternation in Some Australian Indigenous Languages

This paper describes the predication of location of participants in Indigenous languages of northern Central Australia. Two main strategies are discussed: the use of double case-marking, and the co-opting of particular local cases to express scope of predication as well as location. The coopting case in question involves the Allative Nominal Construction (AN). This is the use of an allative case instead of a locative case in the meaning of ‘static location’ in a secondary predication where the subject of that predication has the same reference as an object or oblique in the main predication.

Language Practices of Indigenous Children and Youth

This book explores the experiences of Indigenous children and young adults around the world as they navigate the formal education system and wider society.

Going to School in a Different World

School is a turning point for most children—a time when they leave their preschool years and embark on several years of schooling. While this challenges most children, the challenge is greater for children who enter the school system without previous access to the language of education. This is particularly the case for a proportion of Indigenous children across the world. This chapter explores and contextualises the complex range of challenges these children face, discusses solutions and relates them to the chapters which follow.

The habitat of Australia's Aboriginal languages: past, present and future

Such an analysis goes a long way towards explaining why expectations that African leaders will start to exhibit Nordic styles of personal probity any time soon are likely to be disappointed. Culture troubles makes an invaluable contribution to comparative social science (not just comparative politics) and to anyone who is concerned with the methodological integrity of cultural analysis. While the outline of the argument has been familiar to sociologists since Charles Taylor’s castigation of ‘brute data’, and the early Geertz, most interpretative studies have involved only one or two cases. It is Chabal and Daloz’s considerable achievement to suggest avenues for comparative political analysis on a broader scale, to demonstrate how it could be done and what the payoff could be.