School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 32
-
ItemLanguage Education in Australian Primary Schools: Policy, Practice, Perceptions(Springer International Publishing, 2021)Despite considerable policy attention to language education in schools over several decades, the rate of students who continue studying a language in Australia post any compulsory period has remained low in comparison with other nations. Most language programmes begin during students’ primary school years, and as this is often the first experience of language learning for many monolingual Australian students, it is an important sector for investigation, particularly as most attention is placed on the secondary sector. This chapter provides an illustration and analysis of the state and nature of language education in Australian primary schools from three interconnected perspectives. First, we provide a detailed overview of the policies and programmes that have impacted primary school education in Australia. Next, we discuss the implementation of language teaching and learning at the classroom level, also drawing on research in the field to elicit the main challenges faced by students and teachers in modern classrooms. Finally, we discuss the public perceptions of the role and state of language education in the sector, particularly drawing on our recent studies of the representation of the discipline in the Australian press.
-
ItemLanguage education in Australian primary schools: Policy, perceptions, practice(Palgrave Macmillan, 2021-01-18)This edited book focuses on the state of language learning in Anglophone countries and brings together international research from a wide range of educational settings.
-
ItemRemembering Language Studies in Australian Universities: An Italian Case Study(Springer Nature, 2020-11-01)Language studies in Australian universities have a long and complex history—that differs according to such things as language, institution, national imperative, etc… One essential but often overlooked part of the discipline of languages and cultures in our universities is recording and understanding precisely that history. Recording how and why specific language programs were established, for instance, is important for establishing a permanent record of historical continuity and for understanding the past and the present of language programs in the Australian tertiary sector, as well as their possible interconnections and differences. In this chapter we describe a pilot study exploring the beginnings of Italian language teaching and programs in tertiary institutions in Melbourne—and especially their somewhat inorganic expansion across the city from the late 1950s, into the 1980s and beyond. We are specifically interested in trying to understand how and why Italian language (and Italian Studies more generally) came to be taught in different universities in that city. While we present some of our early findings, including: (a) the effect of institutional type; and (b) the useful assistance of colleagues in other languages, at the same time we also have an interest in mapping out and reflecting on the methodology adopted and the challenges faced. It is hoped that our pilot study might in this way assist and encourage colleagues at other institutions to record the history of language studies in their individual institutions or cities, but who might wonder how to approach the issue in terms of possible data collection and analysis.
-
ItemDouble agent, double cross? Or how a suffix changes nature in an isolating language: dór in Tetun Dili(Benjamins - John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2020-12-15)This volume should be of interest not only to Austronesianists and historians of Insular Southeast Asia, but also to grammarians, typologists, historical linguists, creolists, and specialists in language contact.
-
ItemLessons Learned: Teaching European Studies in full Eurovision(Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)
-
ItemIntroductions at international academic conferences: Address and naming in three national varieties of English(John Benjamins Publishing, 2019)This chapter investigates preferred introduction routines in first encounters in the context of international academic conferences where English is used as the conference language. We focus on reported use of first and last names as well as titles in introductions in American, Australian and British English based on a large-scale survey of reported introduction in three scenarios: introduction of self, of others and expected introduction of self by others. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data the results demonstrate that while use of first and last name is the unmarked choice, there is also significant variation among speakers of different national varieties, different scenarios and age groups. The results also show the importance of situational factors, seniority and hierarchy for introductions.
-
ItemTransition from V to T address among restaurant customers and waiters in Italy(John Benjamins Publishing, 2019)Drawing on a large-scale study on reported address practices in restaurant encounters in Italy, this chapter examines transition from formal V to informal T singular address pronouns in Italian, focusing on five geographically dispersed regions. Quantitative data suggest that the customer/waiter interaction provides opportunity for frequent V to T transition, with restaurants of a more modest type and those in small towns facilitating such a shift. The region where respondents live also seems to play a role and may be indicative of the effect of local dialects on regional varieties of Italian. Qualitative data indicate that the issue of who initiates the switch is revealing of power dynamics, sometimes involving imposition and resistance. Morphological aspects, such as the complex management of the V form lei, may also be involved.
-
ItemNow you Sie me, now you don’t: the history and remnants of the 3pl V address pronoun calque in Slovak (onikanie) and in Czech (onikání)(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2019-11-15)Among the neighbouring languages that calqued the third person plural (3pl) address pronoun Sie from German in the 18th century, the closely related languages Czech and Slovak offer contrasting diachronic and synchronic uses of their respective Sie-calques. In Czech, onikání (literally ‘addressing with the 3pl masculine pronoun oni’) was among the German linguistic influences hotly fought against by linguistic purists in the Czech National Revival of the 19th century, and, as a consequence, its use today is restricted to jocular or ironic use only. In Slovakia, the national revival came later, and purist proponents of Slovak as a national language did not just have German as a linguistic adversary, but also Hungarian, and to a certain degree, even Czech. Therefore, there was less pressure for onikanie, the Slovak version of onikání, to be ousted so clearly. As a result, the subsequent history and development of 3pl address differs somewhat in Slovak from Czech, something which is confirmed by the status we can still find today of remnants of Slovak onikanie. The diachronic development of Slovak onikanie shows some differences to that of Czech onikání, due, we argue, to the different social and political histories of both languages and of their respective national states. We conducted a pilot study (including data drawn from online discussions by native speakers) into the extent, varieties, and domains where Slovak onikanie is still used. Results show its present usage to be different from that of its Czech counterpart.
-
ItemImproving access to and participation in medical research for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background patients: A bilingual, digital communication approach.(Routledge Studies in Empirical Translation and Multilingual Communication, 2019)Chapters in this book aim to fill in a persistent knowledge gap in current multicultural health research, that is, culturally effective and user-oriented healthcare translation.
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableAfrican Linguistics in Asia and Australia(Cambridge University Press, 2019)Asian and Australian institutions with a research focus on African languages are of fairly recent vintage. Japan has a strong academic infrastructure devoted to African linguistics, based in several universities and research centres. China looks back more than 50 years of interest in teaching Swahili and other major African languages, recently broadening the scope to encompass other issues of linguistic interest. In South Korea, teaching Swahili was also the precursor of more general African linguistics, allowing for regional specializations of researchers. In Australia, academic interest emerges with the increasing presence of experts on African languages and linguistics in the country.