Speaking English – Understanding the Aboriginal Learner’s Problems

Abstract

In areas where children’s first language is an Aboriginal language, the very nature of the Aboriginal language itself poses complex problems, not only for the child learning English but also for the teacher whose basic first step in solving these problems is to understand what the problems are. Except for a few fortunate teachers who were given some linguistics in college, (a rather recent innovation) and a few conscientious people who have taken courses later, most of us who teach in Aboriginal schools know far too little about linguistics. We therefore don’t know how to approach some language problems in the classroom or, even worse, we don’t recognize that the problems exist. Some teachers who have tried to do something about their lack of knowledge have been put off by technical linguistic terminology, phonetic script and so on.This small article is an attempt by a teacher who is NOT a linguist, to show his fellow teachers who are NOT linguists, that we can still understand the linguistic problems in our classrooms, and have therefore a reasonable chance of coming to grips with them.