Bilingual Education: comparing the Territories

Hadn’t even stopped to think of it quite like that Granny.

That’s very strong and I am a little surprised no one stopped to listen to that yet, basically what Djuwalpi Marika said and what you have been saying in other words that is.

I’m glad it worked out so well for you and your family, Fishbat. However, the story highlights the fact that not everybody feels this way:

Yirrkala is a community in north east Arnhem Land with a long cultural tradition and a strong view about preserving its language. The community has produced some of the country’s best known Aboriginal leaders, including well known musician Mandawuy Yunupingu who oversaw bilingual education as a former principal at the school. There the community simply told Four Corners they wouldn’t be taking any notice of the minister’s directive.

“They want to westernise Yolngu people, they want to leave us in the mainstream culture like a whiteman. We don’t want to live like that.” Djuwalpi Marika

I simply think it should be up to the community, that’s all, and that ideally at least some of the teachers would come from within the community itself.

My second language was learnt at home despite attending an all english speaking public school. Allthough I have no relatives here, I was fortunate enough to have a family unit that cared about our heritage and maintained an integrated approach of our historical culture to that of mainstram english Australia.
To have done otherwise would have been neglect to my siblings and I. had there been greater focus on tangental cultural learning, we would not have been allowed to integrate and participate in the broader Australian community as there is no real application for this knowledge to the general public. We all have jobs, homes and pay our taxes and are raising the future taxpayers as well.
My second language continues to be passed on by my parents, siblings and I outside of school time – its fun learning our culture of times past and if they want to get serious about it they can take intesive study later in life on their own bat.
Our family heritage is assured without sanitised intervention.

From my understanding of the show, it didn’t seem a problem in getting teachers into the community – it was keeping them. Apparently the average stint at the particular community in question was anywhere from 1 term – 8months. The one teacher that had been there for a few years, said that the teachers (for whatever reason) do not stay long enought to develop relationships between both the children and the community itself (leading to inconsistent education etc). So, more to the point of trying to get teachers to come in, the education department in consultation with the community need to look at ways to have these teachers want to stay and contribute.

Anything is possible if there is a political will for it to happen, Addison.

Nice ideas granny, but I’m not sure of the practicalities in terms of program support and funding.

That said, something needs to be done to break the cycle that some of the kids are born into.

bd84 said :

Did you see all the teachers lining up to teach the students in the indigenous language? I don’t remember seeing any. Sure, it’s great for the children to learn their own language, this is likely to come from the elders who are unlikely to have any teaching qualifications.

Obviously the government should make teaching scholarships available to interested Aboriginal community members. This must also include one on one coaching support and training to remedy any educational gaps that would be a hindrance in their study or the performance of their duties.

The Aboriginal community should also be consulted on the curriculum they wish their children to learn and the most appropriate pedagogies for their children.

Any system should be flexible enough to provide the freedom that Aboriginal people require within a structure that they can integrate and accept.

If the school in question is teaching these kids in their native language then isn’t it english that should be taught as the second language rather than the primary language and the bilingual program structured to reflect the community it is set in?

My kids attend the bilingual stream at Yarralumla public school and until about year 4 there is an understanding that they may be behind non bilingual schools in english. This is probably to be expected as they only have half their subject time in English. However as time progresses it has been shown that kids who learn in a bilingual situation will develop a far stronger grasp of grammer and will be on par with kids who learn only in english.

Now, I want to say right up front that I’m not agreeing with Barking Toad. It’s not in my nature to do so, BUT (yes, it’s a big but), he has made a vaguely reasonable point, even if it is directed at the wrong sector of education.

As a teacher of English, there has been no point since I completed year 8 at which anyone has tested my use of spelling, punctuation or grammar. I am fully qualified, and could walk back into teaching whenever I like, and no one would even think to find out whether I actually knew the differences between “the dog’s leash”, “the dogs’ leash” and “the Doggs Leash”, or even “their”, “there” and “they’re”. Apparently, it doesn’t matter whether our teachers can spell, punctuate or assemble words into a sentence; only whether the kids can. I know a majority (a small majority, but a majority nonetheless) of teachers have excellent literacy, but I am of the opinion that every teacher (yes, even PE teachers) should know their dashes from their hyphens and their parentheses from their subjunctive clauses.

So although Barking Toad is barking up the wrong tree, at least he’s barking. I think it’s atrocious that we expect teachers to teach literacy, but we never test whether they’re literate before we shove thirty kids at them and expect them to develop their literacy.

And to relate this directly back to the original topic, I don’t think it matters whether the language being used for this education is English or the language of the local community. Teachers should be tested to ensure that they’re competent and fluent in the language they use to teach. Then there’ll be hope for student literacy.

Granny said :

That is outrageous. They must let them learn in their own languages – anything else is technically genocide. Haven’t we done enough to these nations?

Did you see all the teachers lining up to teach the students in the indigenous language? I don’t remember seeing any. Sure, it’s great for the children to learn their own language, this is likely to come from the elders who are unlikely to have any teaching qualifications. I think something like should be made available for all children in that community if available, but in conjunction with other more traditional teaching.

Atthe end of the day, this is an english speaking country and to have the same or better opportunities (as opposed to the “disadvantaged tag they’re normally plastered with), the children are going to need to be able to speak, read and write english at a proficient level. English as a second language similar to the courses run in a lot of mainstream schools would be a great course to have available for these children, however finding the teachers is probably a fairly big hurdle.

Anyway, back to Canberra. From my experience most Canberra schools do run a compulsory “LOTE” or choice of in high schools. I learnt a number of different languages in the various schools here and interstate. I scored straight “A”s for 4 years in one language and I’d be lucky to speak more than a few words/sentences in it now. Even so, I think it is beneficial for kids to learn (or attempt to) another language, mostly as it allows them to learn about and understand other cultures.