ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0444-2100
Current Organisation
Charles Darwin University
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-11-2013
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1515/LINGVAN-2020-0009
Abstract: Research into sociocultural factors affecting the use of spatial frames of reference (FoR) has begun to move away from characterizing FoR choice as inherent to each language, instead emphasizing variation within speech communities, but has so far paid little attention to variation in in idual speaker’s FoR use with different addressees. This paper reports on differences in two senior adults’ use of FoRs in Iwaidja when addressing a peer compared to addressing a child. Performing the Man and Tree task, the speakers made frequent use of geocentric descriptions with their peers, and substantially fewer geocentric descriptions with a child. The study was conducted in a complex multilingual speech environment where younger generations’ language use is shifting away from Iwaidja towards English and to other Australian languages. Factors motivating the different FoR choices in child-directed speech may include elements of parentese and accommodation to the children’s incomplete acquisition of Iwaidja. The children’s contact with English, particularly through schooling, may affect the adults’ expectations of the children’s acquisition of frames of reference in English. Drawing attention to the impact of the addressee in spatial speech, this study adds to understanding sociocultural elements of spatial reference in the context of language contact and shift.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S13394-022-00432-Y
Abstract: There are both educational and cultural benefits to first language (L1) instruction, particularly in the early years of school, but in Australia, few Indigenous language–speaking students are taught in their own languages. Teaching mathematics in Indigenous languages requires both linguistically capable Indigenous educators and the identification and development of suitable mathematics terminology. This paper reports on the collaborative development of a program reintroducing mathematics lessons in Mawng language at Warruwi Community School. This project developed the capacity of an Indigenous educator to take on more responsibility for the content of the class teaching. Lessons focussing on spatifal sequencing terminology were developed to extend students’ use of core Mawng grammatical features while also reinforcing important local cultural knowledge. A collaboration between a non-Indigenous researcher and a Mawng educator, the paper concludes with factors contributing to the sustainability of the project.
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 2016
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 19-05-2015
DOI: 10.1017/JIE.2015.9
Abstract: Effective mathematics teaching for Indigenous language speaking students needs to be based on fair expectations of both students and teachers. Concepts of ‘age-appropriate learning’ and ‘school readiness’ structure assessment expectations that entire cohorts of Indigenous language speaking students are unable to meet. This institutionalises both student and teacher failure, as both are exhorted to meet unachievable expectations. The voices of teachers teaching in a very remote school provide insight into teachers’ responses to the mismatch between the system expectations and the teaching context. Teacher interviews in a small Northern Territory school, conducted within an ethnographic study, showed that teachers’ decisions regarding the level of mathematics curriculum taught were informed by students’ prior learning and by the language dynamic in their classrooms. The need and pressure to teach Standard Australian English also affected how mathematics was taught. This leads to a reformulation of the concept of school readiness to ask how schools can be more ready for their Indigenous language speaking students in terms of preparing and supporting teachers.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2016
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 13-11-2019
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-05-2019
No related grants have been discovered for Cris Edmonds-Wathen.