School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications

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    Linguistic diversity in first language acquisition research: moving beyond the challenges
    NORDLINGER, R ; Kelly, B ; Forshaw, W ; Wigglesworth, G (SAGE Publications (UK and US), 2015)
    The field of first language acquisition (FLA) needs to take into account data from the broadest typological array of languages and language-learning environments if it is to identify potential universals in child language development, and how these interact with socio-cultural mechanisms of acquisition. Yet undertaking FLA research in remote field-based situations, where the majority of the world’s languages are spoken and acquired, poses challenges for best-practice methodologies assumed in lab-based FLA research. This article discusses the challenges of child language acquisition research in fieldwork contexts with lesser-known, under-described languages with small communities of speakers. The authors suggest some modified approaches to methodology for child language research appropriate to challenging fieldwork situations, in the hope of encouraging more cross-linguistic acquisition research.
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    The impact of national standardized literacy and numeracy testing on children and teaching staff in remote Australian Indigenous communities
    Macqueen, S ; Knoch, U ; Wigglesworth, G ; Nordlinger, R ; Singer, R ; McNamara, T ; Brickle, R (Sage Publications, 2019)
    All educational testing is intended to have consequences, which are assumed to be beneficial, but tests may also have unintended, negative consequences (Messick, 1989). The issue is particularly important in the case of large-scale standardized tests, such as Australia’s National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the intended benefits of which are increased accountability and improved educational outcomes. The NAPLAN purpose is comparable to that of other state and national ‘core skills’ testing programs, which evaluate cross-sections of populations in order to compare results between population sub-groupings. Such comparisons underpin ‘accountability’ in the era of population-level testing. This study investigates the impact of NAPLAN testing on one population grouping that is prominent in the NAPLAN results’ comparisons and public reporting: children in remote Indigenous communities. A series of interviews with principals and teachers documents informants’ first-hand experiences of the use and effects of NAPLAN in schools. In the views of most participants, the language and content of the test instruments, the nature of the test engagement, and the test washback have negative impacts on students and staff, with little benefit in terms of the usefulness of the test data. The primary issue is the fact that meaningful participation in the tests depends critically on proficiency in Standard Australian English (SAE) as a first language. This study contributes to the broader discussion of how reform-targeted standardized testing for national populations affects sub-groups who are not treated equitably by the test instrument or reporting for accountability purposes. It highlights a conflict between consequential validity and the notion of accountability that drives reform-targeted testing.
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    The acquisition of Murrinhpatha (Northern Australia)
    Forshaw, W ; Davidson, L ; Kelly, B ; Nordlinger, R ; Wigglesworth, G ; Blythe, J ; Fortescue, M ; Mithun, M ; Evans, N (Oxford University Press, 2017)
    This handbook offers an extensive crosslinguistic and cross-theoretical survey of polysynthetic languages, in which single multi-morpheme verb forms can express what would be whole sentences in English.
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    The acquisition of polysynthetic languages
    Kelly, B ; Wigglesworth, G ; Nordlinger, R ; Blythe, J (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014-01-01)
    One of the major challenges in acquiring a language is being able to use morphology as an adult would, and thus, a considerable amount of acquisition research has focused on morphological production and comprehension. Most of this research, however, has focused on the acquisition of morphology in isolating languages, or languages (such as English) with limited inflectional morphology. The nature of the learning task is different, and potentially more challenging, when the child is learning a polysynthetic language - a language in which words are highly morphologically complex, expressing in a single word what in English takes a multi-word clause. To date, there has been no cross-linguistic survey of how children approach this puzzle and learn polysynthetic languages. This paper aims to provide such a survey, including a discussion of some of the general findings in the literature regarding the acquisition of polysynthetic systems.
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    Indigenous Perspectives on the Vitality of Murrinh-Patha
    KELLY, B ; NORDLINGER, R ; WIGGLESWORTH, G (Australian Linguistics Society, 2010)