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Bilingual Education in Australia

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Bilingual and Multilingual Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

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Abstract

The Australian experience of bilingual education is composed of three separate audiences: Indigenous groups and their languages, immigrant groups and their languages (both of these groups seeking language maintenance and intergenerational vitality), and mainstream English speakers seeking additive language study. All these interests share a common aim of lobbying for more serious and substantial language education programs, but differ significantly in the purposes and context of their promotion of bilingual education. This chapter provides an overview of historical, political, and educational influences on forms of bilingual education that have emerged, in the context of state and national language policy and practices, to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians, migrant communities, and Anglophones.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term “Indigenous” refers to both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.

  2. 2.

    In Australia, the use of dialect for Aboriginal English is non-pejorative and widely used. The term English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) has replaced the term English as a second language (ESL) in the Australian curriculum.

  3. 3.

    Many Indigenous languages did not survive the colonization of Australia. Languages that are not used in everyday communication are considered to be “sleeping” by Indigenous Australians. While linguistically, languages can be categorized as “extinct” and “dormant,” these categorizations are challenged by that of another – “reawakening,” as demonstrated by L2 speakers of Daungwurrung and Kaurna. (see http://www.ethnologue.com/country/AU/status; also based on reviewer comments).

  4. 4.

    It should be noted that two-way learning has been adopted and valued differently in Western Australia (Truscott 2016; Sharifian et al. 2012).

  5. 5.

    See Mills (1982) for a full overview of language programs and models at this time.

  6. 6.

    See https://www.coag.gov.au/closing_the_gap_in_indigenous_disadvantage for an overview of the closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage program.

  7. 7.

    For example, the Northern Territory Education Minister’s visit in August 2014 to Shepherdson College to celebrate 40 years of bilingual education at the school: https://www.facebook.com/PeterChandlerMLA/photos/a.386004441525050.1073741826.133717516753745/559368827521943/?type=1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Joseph Lo Bianco & Yvette Slaughter

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  1. Joseph Lo Bianco
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  2. Yvette Slaughter
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Correspondence to Joseph Lo Bianco .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. City University of New York The Graduate Center, New York, New York, USA

    Ofelia Garcia

  2. Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Angel Lin

  3. Faculty of Education, University of Auckland Faculty of Education, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Lo Bianco, J., Slaughter, Y. (2016). Bilingual Education in Australia. In: Garcia, O., Lin, A., May, S. (eds) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_22-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_22-2

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  1. Latest

    Bilingual Education in Australia
    Published:
    25 August 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_22-2

  2. Original

    Bilingual Education in Australia
    Published:
    19 April 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_22-1

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