Talking knowledge, doing learning: the early years. An enduring problem in Indigenous schooling is the discrepancy in outcomes compared to mainstream children, but little is known about one crucial factor: the role of Indigenous ways of speaking and their ways of engaging with knowledge and learning. This ground-breaking project aims to compare preparatory school students in two urban settings: a mainstream school and a school with high Indigenous enrolments. The project also seeks to examine le ....Talking knowledge, doing learning: the early years. An enduring problem in Indigenous schooling is the discrepancy in outcomes compared to mainstream children, but little is known about one crucial factor: the role of Indigenous ways of speaking and their ways of engaging with knowledge and learning. This ground-breaking project aims to compare preparatory school students in two urban settings: a mainstream school and a school with high Indigenous enrolments. The project also seeks to examine learning in children's homes to establish how the flow of knowledge is managed in Indigenous and mainstream families. By investigating these four settings, it is expected to provide important evidence for understanding how language and cultural ways of knowing contribute to the discrepancy in schooling outcomes.Read moreRead less
Clearing the path towards literacy and numeracy: language for learning in Indigenous schooling. The Australian and State Governments are committed to halving the gap between Indigenous and other Australians, notably in education outcomes. This project will provide a platform for a better understanding of how language is used in Indigenous classrooms, and set foundations for improving practices for teaching these students, in particular for literacy and numeracy. The project will investigate how ....Clearing the path towards literacy and numeracy: language for learning in Indigenous schooling. The Australian and State Governments are committed to halving the gap between Indigenous and other Australians, notably in education outcomes. This project will provide a platform for a better understanding of how language is used in Indigenous classrooms, and set foundations for improving practices for teaching these students, in particular for literacy and numeracy. The project will investigate how children's language use differs from Standard Australian English. Where teachers are aware of such differences, and adapt their classroom communication styles, greater engagement from children can be expected. This will ultimately lead to improved retention rates and learning outcomes, giving Indigenous students a better start to life.Read moreRead less
Linguistic analysis of Ngarrindjeri texts. The Ngarrindjeri language of the Lower Murray of South Australia was richly documented in the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The largest body of texts (163 texts in Berndt and Berndt, 1993) is a treasure-trove of language and cultural knowledge from the 1940s, but has received little linguistic attention, because of difficulties in interpreting writing conventions and because of the inadequate translations provided. Through systematic linguisti ....Linguistic analysis of Ngarrindjeri texts. The Ngarrindjeri language of the Lower Murray of South Australia was richly documented in the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The largest body of texts (163 texts in Berndt and Berndt, 1993) is a treasure-trove of language and cultural knowledge from the 1940s, but has received little linguistic attention, because of difficulties in interpreting writing conventions and because of the inadequate translations provided. Through systematic linguistic analysis and reconstructions, this project aims to shed light on how Ngarrindjeri changed over the 100 years since first documentation, how clan languages differed, and how Ngarrindjeri texts and sentences were structured. It is expected to provide important insight into the variation expected in language contact situations.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing Australia’s linguistic past: Are all Australian languages related to one another? This project addresses a central question about Australia’s past. Are all the languages of Australia related, deriving from a common source language: Proto-Australian. The project will examine the implications of a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer for analyses of Australian prehistory, and for general analyses of human prehistory. The project involves extensive documentation of an endangered language Yanyuwa, ....Reconstructing Australia’s linguistic past: Are all Australian languages related to one another? This project addresses a central question about Australia’s past. Are all the languages of Australia related, deriving from a common source language: Proto-Australian. The project will examine the implications of a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer for analyses of Australian prehistory, and for general analyses of human prehistory. The project involves extensive documentation of an endangered language Yanyuwa, because of the significance of Yanyuwa data in deciding between a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer. The project will provide a descriptive grammar of Yanyuwa, a book evaluating the Proto-Australian hypothesis, and articles discussing the significance of the success or failure of the hypothesis for theories of the general human past.Read moreRead less
Trilingual language contact in an Indigenous community. The linguistic cradle of many Aboriginal children in remote Australia is a multilingual setting involving considerable mixing between languages. Children bring this linguistic background to the task of learning English. This project is the first investigation of a trilingual Indigenous community, Elliott (Northern Territory), where children grow up hearing Jingulu, Mudburra and Kriol. It aims to examine how people at Elliott manage multiple ....Trilingual language contact in an Indigenous community. The linguistic cradle of many Aboriginal children in remote Australia is a multilingual setting involving considerable mixing between languages. Children bring this linguistic background to the task of learning English. This project is the first investigation of a trilingual Indigenous community, Elliott (Northern Territory), where children grow up hearing Jingulu, Mudburra and Kriol. It aims to examine how people at Elliott manage multiple languages and how these languages have changed through mixing processes such as creolisation and code-switching. Exploring this dynamic language ecology is crucial to tailoring educational programs to suit the needs of Aboriginal children. It is expected to place Australia at the forefront of studies of complex language change.Read moreRead less
Something old, something new: Indigenous languages since colonisation. This project aims to undertake an extensive survey of colonial language change in Australia. English has changed the linguistic landscape of Indigenous Australia profoundly. Of the 300 languages spoken at first contact, only 18 remain strong. In their place is a complex array of restructured varieties, Kriol dialects and fusions of traditional languages with English. The project aims to develop new methodologies for investiga ....Something old, something new: Indigenous languages since colonisation. This project aims to undertake an extensive survey of colonial language change in Australia. English has changed the linguistic landscape of Indigenous Australia profoundly. Of the 300 languages spoken at first contact, only 18 remain strong. In their place is a complex array of restructured varieties, Kriol dialects and fusions of traditional languages with English. The project aims to develop new methodologies for investigating and predicting the mechanisms of change across languages and generations of speakers. The expected outcomes of the project include recognising new ways of speaking and providing Indigenous communities with guiding principles for language revitalisation. This will place Australia at the forefront of studies of language change.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100854
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,560.00
Summary
Out of the Mouths of Babes: The Role of Indigenous Children in Language Change. Over the last 225 years, English has left an indelible footprint on the linguistic landscape of Australia. Many Indigenous languages now learnt by children have undergone restructuring under the influence of English. One of these languages is Gurindji. This project is the first diachronic investigation of cross-generational language change in an Indigenous language. It examines the linguistic input Gurindji children ....Out of the Mouths of Babes: The Role of Indigenous Children in Language Change. Over the last 225 years, English has left an indelible footprint on the linguistic landscape of Australia. Many Indigenous languages now learnt by children have undergone restructuring under the influence of English. One of these languages is Gurindji. This project is the first diachronic investigation of cross-generational language change in an Indigenous language. It examines the linguistic input Gurindji children received from their caregivers as infants and charts its influence on their subsequent language use. Exploring these changes is crucial to understanding language shift and to tailoring educational programs to suit the needs of Indigenous children. It will place Australia at the forefront of studies of complex language change.Read moreRead less
Structure and meaning of intonation in three Australian languages. Creating a comprehensive record of Australian Indigenous languages is a goal of a number of interest groups including Indigenous language speakers, linguists and the general public. In this project, unique linguistic and pronunciation features will be documented to better understand communicative processes in three endangered languages.
The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials and epistemological expressions. How does a speaker know that what they say is correct? Some languages have obligatory marking for stating 'information source' ('seen', 'inferred', or 'reported'). In others a source is optional - 'the (reported) theft'. This cross-linguistic investigation will advance our understanding of human interaction and the expression of knowledge.
The building blocks of language: Words in Central Australian languages. This project seeks to model the structure of words and phrases in three indigenous languages of of central Australia: Anmatyerr, Kaytetye, and Warumungu. The project will advance our understanding of the different ways that words and phrases function as the building blocks of language: how words vary in complexity, and the different ways that they combine to generate higher levels of linguistc structure. The project will pre ....The building blocks of language: Words in Central Australian languages. This project seeks to model the structure of words and phrases in three indigenous languages of of central Australia: Anmatyerr, Kaytetye, and Warumungu. The project will advance our understanding of the different ways that words and phrases function as the building blocks of language: how words vary in complexity, and the different ways that they combine to generate higher levels of linguistc structure. The project will preserve Indigenous language heritage and contribute to Indigenous cultural maintenance, a significant factor in advancing Indigenous well-being. The project will generate new insights into language structure that will advance linguistic theory, and inform language teaching and speech processing technologies.Read moreRead less