Y Is Standard "oostralin English da onlii meens of kommunikashun": Kountaring White Man "privileg in da kurrikulum"

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Autor/in	Hogarth, Melitta
Titel	Y Is Standard "oostralin English da onlii meens of kommunikashun": Kountaring White Man "privileg in da kurrikulum"
Quelle	In: English in Australia, 54 (2019) 1, S.5-11 (7 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0155-2147
Schlagwörter	Standard Spoken Usage; English; Language Variation; Foreign Countries; Official Languages; Language Planning; National Curriculum; Educational Policy; Indigenous Populations; Foreign Policy; Power Structure; Phonetics; Spelling; Punctuation; Teacher Role; Teacher Attitudes; Grammar; Academic Failure; Standards; Language of Instruction; Lifelong Learning; Communication Skills; Disadvantaged; Elementary Secondary Education; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gesprochene Sprache; Umgangssprache; English language; Englisch; Sprachenvielfalt; Ausland; Office language; Amtssprache; Sprachwechsel; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Sinti und Roma; Außenpolitik; Phonetik; Fonetik; Schreibweise; Interpunktion; Lehrerrolle; Lehrerverhalten; Grammatik; Standard; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; Life-long learning; Lebenslanges Lernen; Kommunikationsstil; Australien
Abstract	It came as a surprise to me, after an extensive Google search and reading of numerous policies, that English, and more specifically Standard Australian English, is not the official language of Australia (ACARA, 2016c; Lo Bianco, 1987). There are examples cited by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (1999) that state, 'English is regarded as the national language of Australia' (para. 2), and notably, Lo Bianco's paper was cited as evidence to support the ABS's assertion. However, as Chik and Benson (2018) argue, while English is considered the common language, 'Australia has no policy designating English as an official language' (para. 3). So, why is there such a focus in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2015) and other educational policies such as the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008) on all Australian students excelling in Standard Australian English? In regards to my own position as an Aboriginal educator and researcher whose focus is on how language is used to maintain dominant norms and colonial power, I often include an environmental scan to determine the influencing factors that determine societal attitudes and behaviours. This being said, I was aghast when I recently heard that the former Prime Minister of Australia and newly appointed special envoy on Indigenous issues, Mr Abbott, state to Mr Warren Mundine during a radio interview that his approach to addressing the perceived gaps in Indigenous education 'all starts with learning how to read, to write, to count and to think in the national language' (as cited in Thorpe, 2018, September 10, p. para. 6 (emphasis added)). If a man who once held one of the most powerful positions in Australian society believes in and advocates for the national language, by which we can only assume he meant the English language, this perfectly demonstrates the privileged position of the coloniser and the power they assume. In this paper, the privileging of Standard Australian English is explored and challenged from a position of wanting to play with language and ask the very question: Why is Standard Australian English considered the only official means of communication? The notion of spelling, grammar and punctuation as essential and the need to adhere to the rules to communicate will be pushed, prodded and questioned throughout the paper, where phonetic spelling and other observed common errors as a classroom teacher for almost 20 years will be used explicitly. I do this on purpose. Our role as classroom teachers is to engage students in learning, to introduce the notion of lifelong learning and to develop the students' notions of success. So it broke my heart when as I was encouraging them to continue working on their assessments, one of my Aboriginal students said to me, 'Why bother, Miss? I am a D student! I have failed before I even start so why bother??' How do you argue with that? If graded against his same age cohort and the expectations of the Australian Curriculum, this student would most certainly fail. He was articulate and could most definitely convey his message, but his spelling, punctuation and basic written expression lacked the standards and observable rules of English. So this paper is for him, asking: Why is Standard Australian English the only means of communication advocated in schools? If learning is indeed lifelong, then why do we judge students' capabilities in appropriately using Standard Australian English when our world in which we live today is so very different to the world that education systems and policy makers still cling to? And, more importantly, why do we have an education system that students feel they have already failed in before they begin? (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Australian Association for the Teaching of English. English House, 416 Magill Road, Kensington Gardens, SA 5068 Australia. Tel: +61-8-8332-2845; Fax: +61-8-8333-0394; e-mail: aate@aate.org.au; Web site: http://www.aate.org.au
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01