School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications

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Type: Chapter × Author: Hajek, John × Author: Slaughter, Yvette ×

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    Mainstreaming of Italian in Australian schools: The paradox of success?
    Slaughter, Y ; Hajek, J ; Hajek, J ; Slaughter, Y (Multilingual Matters, 2015)
    In Chapter 11, Yvette Slaughter and John Hajek examine the unintended outcome of the mainstreaming of migrant languages in schools by focusing on the path of Italian in the Australian education system. Although Australia is an English-dominant country, hundreds of languages are spoken in communities across the nation. The challenge for the Australian education system has been to cultivate the linguistic competence that already exists within Australian society, as well as fostering second language acquisition among all students (Lo Bianco & Slaughter, 2009). Australia’s Italian community has been particularly successful in achieving the widespread introduction of the Italian language as a subject within the nation’s primary and secondary education system. This chapter highlights some of the intricacies and effects of the relationship between language communities, maintenance and transmission, and the mainstreaming of languages in the school system. It points to a concomitant decline in the maintenance and development of bilingualism among Italian background speakers, and the disappointing performance of Italian in the upper years of secondary education. These trends, and the reasons for them, need to be carefully considered and addressed in order for Italian, and other community languages, to properly thrive through the entire school cycle in Australia. They clearly illustrate the need for ongoing advocacy and oversight for both the transmission of Italian as a second language in schools and as a community language.
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    On the relation between linguistic and social factors in migrant language contact
    Clyne, M ; Slaughter, Y ; Hajek, J ; Schupbach, D ; Busser, RD ; LaPolla, RJ (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015-06-15)
    With a rich migration history, the Australian context has provided a fascinating and fertile landscape through which to explore the patterns of linguistic and sociolinguistic variation which arise when languages and cultures are transplanted from earlier, often bilingual, environments to a new English-dominant one. Drawing on extensive research undertaken in the Australian context, this chapter explores a range of linguistic and sociolinguistic features relevant to understanding language contact in a migrant setting, including facilitation of code-switching; pragmatic effects, such as the use of modal particles and discourse markers and address patterns; standardization and codification; pluricentric languages; diglossia and the role of language as a core value. In a number of cases it considers the relative role of and possible interaction between linguistic and social (and cultural) factors in governing language phenomena in Australia. In addition to the possible effect of the linguistic characteristics of specific migrant languages, we also look at the effect of the pre- and post-migration sociolinguistic and cultural contexts and how these might explain patterns of bilingual behaviour and language maintenance in Australia.