Australian English Research Articles

Interrogating Racialized “Cultural Authenticity” Discourses Among Language-Learner Tourists in Australia

This study considers cultural adaptation through tourism, focusing on language-travelers: hybrid education-tourism consumers whose voices remain relatively silent in tourism studies. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with students, teachers, and managers in Australian English language schools to understand what language-travelers expect from their Australian experiences and the implications for language schools. The findings propose that sojourners’ experiences are framed by pre-visit imaginaries of object authenticity, wherein the “object” is both Australian culture and the wider Anglophone “West.” Such imaginaries are found to be validated by language schools, which face pressure to balance letting students glimpse the “backstage” and staging out-group imagined “authenticities,” such as by hiring fun, approachable, and above all White teachers. We identify opportunities for language centers to understand their role within tourism as cultural mediators and suggest ways forward in promoting and inculcating critical intercultural competence among language-traveler sojourners.

Stability and change in (ing)

Abstract Work on variable (ing) has highlighted its long-term stability and shared conditioning across English varieties. Here, we ask whether similar stability and conditioning holds in Australian English over time and across ethnicity. The data come from sociolinguistic interviews with 204 Australians stratified according to age, gender, social class and ethnicity, drawn from the Sydney Speaks project. Analyses of 13,000 (ing) tokens reveal very low alveolar rates, but generally similar conditioning to that of other English varieties, with the exception of word class, for which variability was initially largely limited to verbal tokens before extending to include the pronouns something and nothing. Ethnic differences are evident in rates of use: Italian Australians evince higher, and Greek and Chinese Australians lower, rates of [n]. These differences are accounted for by class affiliations, suggesting that (ing) may be an ideal variable for considering the interplay between social class and ethnicity.

Motion events in English textbooks: a cross-linguistic analysis of Path

Understanding how motion events are encoded and retrieved across languages has significant implications for language teaching, learning, and cognitive linguistics. However, there is hardly any research in this area comparing the motion-related lexical patterning of English textbooks. To this end, this research was conducted to fill this gap. Primarily, we investigated the motion-related patterns in three textbooks taught in countries with different language classes according to motion typology. They were verb-framed (Turkish), satellite-framed (Australian English), and equipollently-framed (Persian). Three novels in each source language were analyzed to discover the effect of these languages on the development of teaching materials. This provided the research with deep insights into Talmy’s categorization. The results from the corpus displayed a weak modification of English in EFL textbooks in Iran and Turkey that might have stemmed from their source language cognitive styles. The results also indicated that the degree of emphasis onPathwas close in these three languages, which demands a revisit of Talmy’s classification.

Quotation in earlier and contemporary Australian Aboriginal English

AbstractWe examine constructed dialogue in a longitudinal corpus of Australian Aboriginal English (AE) spoken in Perth, Australia. We conduct a variationist analysis of naturalistic data from forty-six L1 speakers of AE born 1907–2005. We ask, regarding the use of quotative frames, whether AE has changed in line with settler colonial Englishes. We examine whether a division of labor exists in the use of quotative frames, and whether the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting attested in settler colonial Englishes is present in AE.Our statistical modeling shows functional partitioning in how quotative frames are used, with AE speakers strongly encoding direct speech across time. We find that the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting has not been systemic in AE. Despite be like's incursion after 1983, the underlying system of AE has not changed. The cultural prerogative to encode speech remains strong despite sustained contact with non-First Nations Australia.

Gestural characterisation of vowel length contrasts in Australian English

Many languages contrast long and short vowels, but the phonetic implementation of vowel length contrasts is not fully understood. We examine articulation of long and short vowels in Australian English to investigate whether duration contrasts involve intrinsic differences in the underlying gestures, or differences in their timing relationships with flanking consonants. We used electromagnetic articulography to track tongue dorsum and lip movement in two long-short vowel pairs /iː-ɪ/ (bead – bid) and /ɐː-ɐ/ (bard – bud) produced in /pVp/ syllables by nine speakers of Australian English. For short vowels, lingual movement towards the vowel target (formation interval) is shorter and smaller, but not stiffer, than that of long vowels. Syllables containing the short vowel /ɐ/ also exhibited more vowel-coda overlap than those containing /ɐː/. These data suggest that both vowel-intrinsic and syllable-level mechanisms are involved in the realisation of vowel length contrasts in Australian English.

Artificial intelligence: Friend or foe?

Artificial intelligence: Friend or foe?

Functional connectivity reveals different brain networks underlying the idiopathic foreign accent syndrome.

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is characterized by new onset speech that is perceived as foreign. Available data from acquired cases suggests focal brain damage in language and sensorimotor brain networks, but little remains known about abnormal functional connectivity in idiopathic cases of FAS without structural damage. Here, connectomic analyses were completed on three patients with idiopathic FAS to investigate unique functional connectivity abnormalities underlying accent change for the first time. Machine learning (ML)-based algorithms generated personalized brain connectomes based on a validated parcellation scheme from theHuman Connectome Project (HCP). Diffusion tractography was performed on each patient to rule out structural fiber damage to the language system. Resting-state-fMRI was assessed with ML-based software to examine functional connectivity between individual parcellations within language and sensorimotor networks and subcortical structures. Functional connectivity matrices were created and compared against a dataset of 200 healthy subjects to identify abnormally connected parcellations. Three female patients (28-42 years) who presented with accent changes from Australian English to Irish (n = 2) or American English to British English (n = 1) demonstrated fully intact language system structural connectivity. All patients demonstrated functional connectivity anomalies within language and sensorimotor networks in numerous left frontal regions and between subcortical structures in one patient. Few commonalities in functional connectivity anomalies were identified between all three patients, specifically 3 internal-network parcellation pairs. No common inter-network functional connectivity anomalies were identified between all patients. The current study demonstrates specific language, and sensorimotor functional connectivity abnormalities can exist and be quantitatively shown in the absence of structural damage for future study.

From a bit of processed cheese to a bit of a car accident and a little bit of “oh really” — The journey of Australian English a bit (of)

This is a corpus-based study of the behaviour of a bit (of) in modern Australian English, as spoken by mainstream Anglo-Australian speakers; examples are drawn from the UWA Corpus of English in Australia (Rodríguez Louro, 2011–2020). We start by briefly tracking the phrase as it makes its way along the well-trodden road from propositional to expressive meaning: a bit of milk (propositional) > a bit cold (propositional) > a bit of a babe yeah (textual) > a bit of a car accident (expressive). We also describe the recent appearance of a quite different function, that of a quotative (as in a bit of “oh really”). This use we argue (like Fleischman and Yaguello, 2004 for like) is the natural extension of both the focus and hedging functions.The grammaticalization processes we outline here take place in the context of regional, social, and cultural factors, and current Australian English a bit (of), like other discourse-pragmatic markers, is a powerful expression of cultural values and ideas. Our examination of the texts reveals that the hedging uses are by far the most frequent and these we place, together with quotative a bit (of), under the general umbrella of “loose talk” (Andersen, 1998). Like other vague expressions, it performs a number of in-group solidarity functions, including informality and politeness (underplaying ill-health, softening complaints and criticisms, indicating tentativeness in requests and questions, and minimizing distance between speakers). The corpus also has many examples of tongue-in-cheek a bit, reflecting the self-deprecating humour and laconic understatement so often described for Australians (Manns, 2020).

Production and perception of English consonants by Yemeni EFL learners

Many previous studies on the perception-production correlation focused mainly on transcriptions and native English speaker evaluations for production accuracy assessments; only a few included acoustic measurements. The purpose of this study is to examine the production and perception of six English consonants by Yemeni EFL learners of English using an acoustic measurement of L2 production in order to better understand the link between production and perception. It has three objectives: (1) To investigate the extent to which word position influences the accuracy of Yemeni EFL learners’ production of the target consonants, (2) to examine the extent to which word position affects their perception, and (3) to examine the relationship between the overall production and perception of the investigated sounds. A quantitative research method was employed to collect data from six Yemeni EFL postgraduate students from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). In the production tasks, the speakers were asked to produce seventy-two words with the target consonants three times in isolation (Experiment 1) and the other three times in a carrier sentence (Experiment 2). The researchers recorded the speakers’ productions with an iPhone and later evaluated them acoustically via Praat. In the perception test, an AXB experiment was conducted. The stimuli were read by a native male speaker of Australian English. The findings showed that word position significantly affected the production, yet not the perception of the target sounds. Moreover, an insignificant positive moderate correlation was revealed between the overall production and perception of the target consonants. Results have implications for L2 speech and pronunciation instruction and learning. Teachers may focus more on specific sound environments that lead learners to struggle while producing/perceiving particular English sounds.

The Analysis of Influence and Cause of British English on American English and New Zealand English

English originated in Britain. Since the 17th century, with the colonial expansion of Britain, English has been brought to all parts of the world, forming many varieties of English such as British English, American English, Australian English and New Zealand English. As the population of the United States and its political and economic strength continue to increase, American English has greatly influenced other variants of English. This paper analyzes the influence of British English on various English variants in the fields of vocabulary pronunciations spellings and grammar, and at the same time explores British English influence on American English, New Zealand English, other regional variants and its effects on our learning of English.

Comparative Study of Word Stress in Australian and New Zealand English in the Socio-Historical Context of Formation

Comparative Study of Word Stress in Australian and New Zealand English in the Socio-Historical Context of Formation

Aspects of Current Australian English: Consonants and Vowels

Aspects of Current Australian English: Consonants and Vowels

Prosodic Rhythm and Gender Differentiation (on the material of Australian English)

Prosodic Rhythm and Gender Differentiation (on the material of Australian English)

Attitudes of Slovene L2 Speakers of English to Six Native Varieties of English

The paper presents the results of an experiment whose purpose was to study the attitudes towards six L1 varieties of English by Slovene students of English. Using the verbal guise test, the participants were exposed to audio clips of Received Pronunciation (RP), General American (GA), Scottish English (ScE), Irish English (IrE), Australian English (AusE) and New Zealand English (NZE). They were required to complete a two-part questionnaire. In part one, they were asked to rate, on four-point Likert scale, statements about the cognitive, affective and aesthetic traits of the speakers, as well as the linguistic traits which they believed contributed most to their attitudes to a particular variety. In part two, they had to rank the six tested varieties indicating their general order of preference, their relative familiarity with the varieties and the appropriateness of the varieties for teaching to Slovene learners of English. The results of the study confirm the findings of numerous other similar studies in giving preference to the two best-known global standard varieties (RP and GA) over the other varieties.

Assessment equity for remote multilingual Australian Aboriginal students through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals

Purpose The Foundations of Early Literacy Assessment – Northern Territory (FELA-NT) was funded, developed, and implemented as part of a strategy designed to address the English literacy learning needs of the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal student population. In this paper we question whether the FELA-NT English literacy learning benchmarks are representative of remote and very remote Aboriginal students since many speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) or Dialect (EAD). Result Using a new data set of scores from 72 Aboriginal students from remote, very remote, and outer-regional communities on the FELA-NT, we demonstrate that it is the student’s experience with Standard Australian English, not their remoteness, that impacts their early literacy development. Conclusion We use this example to illustrate how current practices and policies homogenise the Australian Aboriginal student population, silencing linguistic diversity in the process. We call for clinical practitioners and educators to shift their practices to assessments and tools that recognise children and youths’ diverse linguistic skills and pathways. We talk about what empowerment, participation, and inclusion might really mean in current Australian educational and clinical contexts. We argue here that we need to fundamentally rethink how we work with children with diverse language and literacy knowledge, skills, and backgrounds if we are to reduce inequalities (SDG 10), honour quality education (SDG 4), and support sustainable communities (SDG 11).

The acoustic realization of contrastive focus by 6-year-old Australian English-speaking children.

Children as young as five have some ability to produce contrastive focus [Wells et al. (2004) J. Child Lang. 31, 749-778]. However, adult listeners' ability to identify the location of contrastive focus depends on whether the speech came from a 4-, 7-, or 11-year-old [Patel and Brayton (2009) J. Speech. Lang. Hear. Res. 52, 790-801]. Recent acoustic studies have also reported the use of F0 vs duration in contrastive focus productions by American English-speaking 2-year-olds [Thorson and Morgan (2021) J. Child Lang. 48, 541-568] and 4-year-olds [Wonnacott and Watson (2008) Cognition 107, 1093-1101], respectively. This study, therefore, evaluated the extent to which older 6-year-olds, with more language experience, used F0 and/or duration when producing contrastive focus, and compared this to adult speech. Monosyllabic and disyllabic adjective + noun targets (e.g., green ball) in utterance medial and final position were elicited from 20 Australian English-speaking 6-year-olds and 14 adults in adjective focus and noun focus conditions. Although both adults and children used high F0, only adults consistently used word and stressed syllable duration as well. This suggests that children may master the different acoustic cues to contrastive focus at different stages of development, with late cue integration.

Native Danish listeners’ evaluation of English accents

This paper examines native Danish listeners' attitudes towards five native English accents and some of the factors which are likely to influence listeners' evaluations. Forty-seven native Danish listeners participated in a verbal guise test in which they rated samples from five English varieties on status/competence (the power dimension), solidarity and voice quality dimensions, and had to guess the speaker's origin: Standard Southern British English (SSBE), General American (GA), Australian English (AUS), Scottish English (SCO), and Southern US English (SUS). Additionally, the listeners stated their accent preference and responded to questions regarding their English media consumption. The standard varieties SSBE and GA were rated highly on the power dimension, but downgraded on solidarity. The varieties AUS, SCO, and SUS were rated more positively on solidarity, but downgraded on power. SUS was correctly identified most frequently, followed by SSBE and GA, while the listeners had problems identifying SCO and AUS correctly. Accent preference and English media consumption were related to some of the individual traits, and the listeners' ability to identify GA correctly was related to their English media consumption. Overall, the present results suggest that future studies should examine the influence of media consumption on attitudes towards accents in greater detail.

Reconsidering lateral vocalisation: Evidence from perception and production of Australian English /l/.

Lateral vocalisation is assumed to arise from changes in coronal articulation but is typically characterised perceptually without linking the vocalised percept to a coronal articulation. Therefore, we examined how listeners' perception of coda /l/ as vocalised relates to coronal closure. Perceptual stimuli were acquired by recording laterals produced by six speakers of Australian English using electromagnetic articulography (EMA). Tongue tip closure was monitored for each lateral in the EMA data. Increased incidence of incomplete coronal closure was found in coda /l/ relative to onset /l/. Having verified that the dataset included /l/ tokens produced with incomplete coronal closure-a primary articulatory cue of vocalised /l/-we conducted a perception study in which four highly experienced auditors rated each coda /l/ token from vocalised (3) to non-vocalised (0). An ordinal mixed model showed that increased tongue tip (TT) aperture and delay correlated with vocalised percept, but auditors ratings were characterised by a lack of inter-rater reliability. While the correlation between increased TT aperture, delay, and vocalised percept shows that there is some reliability in auditory classification, variation between auditors suggests that listeners may be sensitive to different sets of cues associated with lateral vocalisation that are not yet entirely understood.

Functions of dialogue in (television) drama: A case study of Indigenous-authored television narratives

While stylistics has successfully integrated the study of language use in film and television, relatively little research has tried to systematically classify the functions of television or film dialogue – i.e. to taxonomise its range of potential stylistic functions such as characterisation or the creation of consistency. Most stylistic research has also focussed on traditional US (Hollywood) or European narrative mass media, rather than culturally-diverse or Indigenous-authored film and television. This article aims to make a contribution to both of these under-examined fields by offering a case study of the stylistic functions of Australian Aboriginal English lexis in three successful Indigenous-authored television series. The three series ( Redfern Now, Cleverman and Mystery Road) are all important for the television canon and were broadcast in Australia as well as exported internationally. Using an existing corpus with dialogue from these series as repository, this article illustrates the different functions of Australian Aboriginal English lexis in its surrounding text by critically examining multiple dialogue extracts from the three narratives. Quotations from Indigenous screen creatives are interwoven with the analysis where relevant. We argue that such lexis fulfils many functions beyond characterisation and demonstrate the significance of communicating culture and identity in Indigenous-authored drama. The study has implications both for the stylistic analysis of the multiple functions of television/film dialogue and for the study of narratives that feature significant creative involvement by marginalised, subjugated, colonised, or otherwise historically excluded communities – including but not limited to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait islander people(s) in Australia.

Looking towards plurilingual futures for literacy assessment

This paper furthers the understanding of literacy being developed through this Special Issue by bringing a pluralistic, complex account of literacy into conversation with assessment. The rise of neoliberalism in education—and its related focus on standards, accountability, and efficiency—has seen literacy positioned as the “core business” of contemporary education systems and, accordingly, a construct that must be rendered readily measurable, benchmarked, and accounted for. Through a critique of current literacy assessment practices in Australia relying on standardized testing to achieve such accountability using National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy and Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education as examples, we argue that the resulting dominant account of literacy is both reductive and deficient. On the one hand, we show how standardized literacy testing fails to recognize students’ actual potential, in terms of the diverse and varied plurilingual and cultural meaning-making resources that many students now bring to literacy, beyond using Standard Australian English alone (and as a monolingual speaker would use SAE as an isolated language system). On the other, we show how standardized tests can render the assessment of literacy as effectively meaningless, given difficulties discriminating between test-takers’ full range of literacy skills in meaningful ways. We conclude by considering alternative practices with potential to more accurately assess learners’ literacy capabilities from a plurilingual perspective, and implications for education policy.