English In Australia Research Articles

Invisible Immigrants: The English in Canada since 1945 par Marilyn Barber and Murray Watson

Reviewed by: Invisible Immigrants: The English in Canada since 1945 par Marilyn Barber and Murray Watson Michael Akladios Barber, Marilyn and Murray Watson–Invisible Immigrants: The English in Canada since 1945. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2015. Pp. 288. Invisible Immigrants' greatest strength lies in its recounting of the multifaceted life experiences of the last major movement of English immigrants to Canada between 1945 and the mid-1970s. The English formed the largest national group—over half a million people—of the approximately four million immigrants who entered Canada in this period. From the decision to leave England to the struggles of settlement and adaptation to life, work, and community in Canada, the memories of over seventy English immigrants take centre stage. The authors deserve praise for not letting the "confused and contested state of theory" overwhelm or obscure immigrants' stories (p. 16). With their life-story approach, Barber and Watson build on, and offer comparisons with, Jim Hammerton and Al Thomson's Ten Pound Poms (a study [End Page 450] of the English in Australia) and Murray Watson's Being English in Scotland. The authors challenge the invisibility of English immigrants in Canadian historiography and suggest rather that "in many respects the English are invisible, though audible" (p. 153). Their analysis sheds light on the range of factors motivating English emigrants and on the ways in which they experienced Canada's newly adopted role as a civic nation. The writers ground these narratives in a wealth of secondary literature, select periodicals, and archival documents, and consider them in relation to "contextual issues related to family and gender, social class, welfare, race and ethnicity, sensory perception, technology, and popular culture" (p. 28). However, one should read their conclusions with caution, since about one-third of English immigrants returned to England or moved elsewhere, and the authors interviewed none of these people. The first half of the book is chronological. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the harsh realities of postwar austerity measures in England, Cold War tensions, and the competitive promotional activities of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Throughout, English immigrants appear as active transnationals who moved pragmatically where there was demand for their expertise and mobilized transatlantic connections. Ontario attracted the highest proportion, with British Columbia and Quebec next. After the 1960s, Alberta's developing oil industry attracted more immigrants, and growing emphasis on French language and culture after the Quiet Revolution made Quebec lass attractive. Taking us beyond the typical push-and-pull factors, Barber and Watson show that economic frustrations did not always motivate emigration. For some people, particularly single émigrés, "working as part of travelling was a product of changing attitudes toward leisure, an evolving youth culture, and greater mobility in the postwar decades" (p. 59). After decisions to leave, chapter 3 follows immigrants' touching stories of preparation, departure, and the journey to Canada. Technological advances figure heavily, as ship travel gives way to propeller-driven aircraft and then passenger jets. Chapter 4 offers an engrossing transition from chronological to thematic. In accounts of adjustment to life in Canada and reactions to anglophone--francophone divides, Barber and Watson's analysis of sensory perception and the "audible immigrant" is the book's most compelling contribution. Following the lead of their interviewees, they forgo theories of one-way assimilation or two-way acculturation in favour of adaptation, "a flexible concept that implies change but not necessarily complete conformity" (p. 100). For immigrants audible in their accent and manner of speech, in Montreal this marker of difference could become a point of discrimination; especially for women active in family and community life who felt as "second-class citizens" (p. 108). In addition, we read stories of adaptation to a different monetary system, shopping, cooking, the absence of the English pub, and the power of the "$1,000-cure"—a return visit to England. Chapters 5 and 6 then turn to paid and unpaid work to assess the newcomers' integration into Canadian society. Case studies introduce us to entrepreneurs, professionals, public-sector workers, and working wives. Throughout, English immigrants appear as professional and skilled workers who encountered few [End Page 451] barriers to jobs. Single immigrants accepted accommodations in...

Review of selected research in applied linguistics published in Australia (2008–2014)

This article reviews the significant and diverse range of research in applied linguistics published in Australia in the period 2008–2014. Whilst acknowledging that a great deal of research by Australian scholars has been published internationally during these seven years, this review is based on books, journal articles, and conference proceedings published in Australia. Many of these sources will be unfamiliar to an international audience, and the purpose of this article is to highlight this body of research and the themes emerging from it. The journals selected in this review includeAustralian Journal of Language and Literacy, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL), BABEL, English in Australia, English Australia, Papers in Language Testing and Assessment, Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, TESOL in Context, andUniversity of Sydney Papers in TESOL. Selected refereed proceedings are from key national conferences including: ALAA (Applied Linguistics Association of Australia), ACTA (Australian Council of TESOL Association), ASFLA (Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association), and ALS (Australian Linguistics Society). Our review of selected applied linguistics work revolves around the following themes: the responses to the needs of government planning and policy; the complexity of Australia's multicultural, multilingual society; the concern for recognizing context and culture as key factors in language and language learning; social activism in supporting language pedagogy and literacy programmes at all levels of education; and acknowledgement of the unique place held by Indigenous languages and Aboriginal English in the national linguistic landscape.

Lingue e migrazione. Un caso di studio: l’Australia

Abstract – This chapter focuses upon two contrasting features of the linguistic situation in Australia. On the one hand, together with nationhood, the past hundred or so years have seen the evolution of a distinct national variety of English in Australia recognizable also outside Australia. On the other, Australia, though a young nation, has been continuously inhabited by the various Aborigine and Torre Strait Islander communities for thousands of years. These have traditionally spoken a wide variety of different languages, some of which of great interest to linguists due to their peculiarity. Increasingly, although the use of Aborigine languages has until very recently been in steady decline, since the 1950s in particular, diverse ethnic groups speaking a variety of languages, both European and Asian, have settled in Australia. The National Policy on Languages (1987) formally directed Australia towards multilingualism and the teaching of English as a first and second language is promoted together with that of Aborigine and community languages. Consequently, Australia has been one of the first nations to try to capitalise on its own linguistic diversity, both as a means of strengthening links with the outside world and as a way of promoting a multiethnic and multicultural society at home. Australia presents then an interesting case study for those working with discourse in immigration domains who are concerned with the way that language policy (or the lack of one) may effect social harmony and serve not only as an indicator of the way that migrants are received and treated, but also a catalyst in itself for greater mutual respect.

Explanations of Request Formulations by Vietnamese Learners of English in Australia

Explanations of Request Formulations by Vietnamese Learners of English in Australia

Introduction to the Issue on English in Australia: Variation and Change in Diverse Speech Communities

The studies in this special issue of Australian Journal of Linguistics explore linguistic variation across varieties of English spoken in Australia. First presented at the Conference of the Austral...

The ownership of Aboriginal English in Australia

ABSTRACTA widely‐observed postcolonial phenomenon is the indigenization of English by communities into which it was formerly involuntarily introduced. When this takes place, the community which has appropriated English to serve its own purposes regards the language as their own. The question of the ownership of English has been extensively discussed by applied linguists against the background of globalization and the need for TESOL teachers to agree on what they can legitimately claim to teach. Aboriginal English is non‐standard and has a long history in Australia of marginalization. This paper argues, on the basis of Australian and international evidence, that claims of ownership of a dialect of English entail questions of identity, authenticity, group membership and language rights. In particular, it investigates the bidialectal tension affecting Aboriginal Australians, involving ambivalence to Standard English, potential misinterpretation of the unqualified term ‘English’ and the cross‐cultural use of schemas in interpreting speakers of the other dialect. The paper concludes by addressing the question of under what conditions, in view of the assertion of ownership of English by Aboriginal English speakers, education may successfully equip them to operate in a world which requires Standard English.

Joy Damousi. Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia 1840–1940.

Joy Damousi. Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia 1840–1940.

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issueA History of Australia. By Mark Peel and Christina TwomeyThe Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia. By Bill GammageIn Her Own Words: The Writings of Elizabeth Macquarie. By Robin WalshOutside Country: Histories of Inland Australia. Edited by Alan Mayne and Stephen AtkinsonA Wild History: Life and Death on the Victoria River Frontier. By Darrell LewisGlobal Industry, Local Innovation: The History of Cane Sugar Production in Australia, 1820–1995. By Peter D. GriggsThe Paper War: Morality, Print Culture, and Power in Colonial New South Wales. By Anna JohnstonColonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia 1840 – 1940. By Joy DamousiA Decent Provision: Australian Welfare Policy, 1870–1949. By John MurphyFarewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia's Lost Generation. By Ross McMullinAustralia and Appeasement: Imperial Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War II. By Christopher WatersNeither Power Nor Glory: 100 Years of Political Labor in Victoria, 1856–1956. By Paul StrangioFrom New Left to Factional Left: Fifty Years of Student Activism at Sydney University. By Alan BarcanRupert Murdoch: An Investigation of Political Power. By David McKnightThe Information Battlefield: Representing Australians at War. Edited by Kevin FosterBeyond White Guilt: The Real Challenge for Black‐White Relations in Australia. By Sarah MaddisonJulia 2010: The Caretaker Election. Edited by Marian Simms and John WannaTransmigration and the New Chinese: Theories and Practices from the New Zealand Experience. Edited by Manying IpGender and the English Revolution. By Ann HughesPeoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth‐Century Britain. By Sadiah QureshiTelling Tales about Men. Conceptions of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service during the First World War. By Lois S. BibbingsThe Passing of Protestant England: Secularisation and Social Change, c.1920–1960. By S.J.D. GreenAn American Witness in Nazi Frankfurt: The Diaries of Robert W. Heingartner, 1928–1937. Edited by Andrew G. BonnellLetters to Hitler. Edited by Henrik Eberle. English edition edited by Victoria Harris. Translated by Steven RendallHow to Change the World. Tales of Marx and Marxism. By Eric HobsbawmA Republic of Europeans. By Kostas Lavdas and Dimitris ChryssochoouLittle Soldiers: How Soviet Children Went to War, 1941 – 1945. By Olga KucherenkoThe Arab‐Israeli Conflict: A Guide for the Perplexed. By Ian BickertonGrafton Elliot Smith, Egyptology and the Diffusion of Culture: A Biographical Perspective. By Paul Crook

Why School English Needs a ‘Good Enough’ Grammatics (and Not More Grammar)

At the dawn of a national curriculum for English in Australia, grammar has appeared without any serious interrogation of the terms of its re-entry and against ambiguous evidence about its value for teaching writing. What kinds of knowledge about language do teachers need in rhetorically productive teaching? This article investigates the potential of Halliday’s notion of grammatics for understanding students’ writing as acts of meaning in context. Drawing on systemic-functional linguistics, I show how teachers can assess writing achievement using ‘big picture’ tools like genre, register and ‘small picture’ tools like Expansion. I apply these tools to two student texts that call for attention to creative uses of language and to excursions and to difficulties with logic and coherence. The paper concludes that a ‘good enough’ grammatics will enable teachers to recognize playful developments in students’ texts and also to foster their control of literate discourse.

Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia 1840-1940, by Joy Damousi

Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia 1840-1940, by Joy Damousi

Challenges of learning English in Australia towards students coming from selected Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia

The paper will explore the challenges students from selected South East Asian countries (Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia) face while studying English in Australia before entering into Australian University courses. These students must contend not only with different styles of teaching and learning, but also with the challenge of adapting to a new culture. The study was conducted at one of the largest language institutions in Melbourne (affiliated with a major University), and the results collected draw on the English learning experiences of nine students (three Vietnamese, three Thai and three Indonesian) and two language teachers. Semi-structured interviews were adopted as the primary data collection method, and this allowed the major problems that these students experience while studying English for University entry to be identified. The findings of this paper include reasons why Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian students find it difficult to study in Australia, and possible solutions for overcoming these difficulties and improving the English proficiency of students from these countries.

Structuring the New English in Australia: James Moffett and English Teaching in New South Wales

James Moffett's influence in Australia is shown here manifested in a particular Syllabus for Years 7–10 from the 1970s. Moffett is discussed in terms of the totalising nature of the theory presented in Teaching the Universe of Discourse and it is argued that not only the details of Moffett's theory, but also its totalising nature were both reflected in that Syllabus. This approach to curriculum is briefly contrasted with the current draft National Curriculum for English (K–10) in Australia, which presents a model of the subject effectively disintegrated into separate strands of language, literature and literacy. Finally, the author's own experience with Moffett's Active Voice in schools is discussed as an example of operationalising theories of language development and rhetoric within a longitudinal curriculum.

Belonging and Attitudes towards Ethnic Languages among African Migrants in Australia

Based on data from a research project on African identities in Melbourne, this paper assesses the attitudes of non-refugee African-Australians towards their ethnic languages in the context of the utility and prestige of English in Australia. The paper explores the tensions between discourses on rights to language(s) of choice and discourses on conforming to prescribed languages. It opens new questions about ethnic language loyalty and language maintenance among African-Australians. The following questions are addressed: how do African communities in Australia perceive their ethnic languages? What is the state of ethnic language maintenance among African-Australians? How do dominant monolingual discourses influence the attitude of African migrants towards their ethnic languages? How are African-Australian identities shaped and mediated by competing attitudes towards English on the one hand and migrant ethnic languages on the other?

Clemens W.A. Fritz: From English in Australia to Australian English

C.W.A.Frotz describes in his book From English in Australia to Australian English the numerous phenomena that contributed to the development of a distinctive variety of Australian English.

Pragmatic radicalism: An autoethnographic perspective on pre-service teaching

How might a pre-service teacher ‘teach against the grain’ and challenge their pre-existing assumptions about the profession? By deconstructing and reconstructing my schooling experiences and the social and cultural discourses and practices that have shaped and defined me, I hope to interrupt my conditioning and avoid revisiting my unhappy school experiences upon future students [Miller, A. (2006). The teaching urge: and seeking amnesia. English in Australia, 41(1), 18–24., p. 18]. I am trying to break the cycle of social reproduction and domination and become the type of teacher who liberates rather than domesticates. In this article I use ‘autoethnography’ and ‘mystoriography’ to analyse my professional development and to imagine and enact a teaching identity based on Garth Boomer's ‘pragmatic–radical’ educator. Pragmatic radicalism provides a strategic means of surviving and undermining hegemonic school systems while revolutionising the politics of the classroom. Pre-service teachers can challenge the socialisation process and build teaching identities that break the traditional ‘authoritarian–transmission’ model. Critical reflection on identity construction and past school experiences is essential to this endeavour.

Questions of Classroom Identity: What Can Be Learned From Codeswitching in Classroom Peer Group Talk?

The article discusses relationships between codeswitching and identities in classroom peer group talk among students from a variety of Asian and European backgrounds who were studying English in Australia.1 The article focusses on talk that, in being concealed from the teacher through codeswitching, allows expression of identities that are not normally acknowledged in the classroom. Three main acts of identity were in evidence in the codeswitching data. In the first, students expressed frustration with their own ignorance and demonstrated a desire to align or realign with the task. The second occurred when students were critical of the teacher's methods, choice of topics, or knowledge. The third was related to the desire to become a global, international person. Other, more idiosyncratic identities were also in evidence. Awareness of the variety of uses of codeswitching can draw teachers' attention to the relevance of student identity concerns in contemporary classrooms.

Review of Fritz (2007/1788-1900): From English in Australia to Australian English

Review of Fritz (2007/1788-1900): From English in Australia to Australian English

English Teaching in New South Wales since 1971: Versions of Growth?

This article presents the case of the state of New South Wales (NSW) since the 1970s, as a particular account of English in Australia. I set out to address the question, ‘How has English, in partic...

Advice to speak English in Australia

This article addresses the issue of advice given to immigrant parents to speak English only with their children in Australia, as reflected in the Spanish-speaking community. The article shows that something that appears to be down to chance, i.e. whether this advice is given or not, has a social explanation. This social explanation is based on understanding several social variables such as the ethnic identity of the adviser and the year in which the advice was given, as well as social variables that define the individual who received the advice, notably, his/her physical appearance in the sense of how `Caucasian' the migrant looks. Such analysis sheds light on the changing perception of migrants in Australia. It was found that, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, when there was an Australian government-sponsored policy of multiculturalism, there was an increase in the number of people being advised to speak English only. It is hypothesized that such increase is linked to the conflict and contest that any recognition of linguistic and social rights for minorities precipitates.

Convergence and Attrition: Serbian in Contact with English in Australia

The aim of this paper is to examine features resulting from language contact under conditions of language shift in a variety of Serbian spoken in a migrant community in Melbourne, Australia. Three categories of change are proposed: (i) change that makes Serbian more similar to English without simplifying it, exemplified by the resetting of the pro -drop parameter; (ii) change that simplifies the structures of Serbian without making them more similar to English, exemplified by leveling within the verbal inflectional paradigm and dropping of the 3sg auxiliary clitic je; and (iii) change that both simplifies the structures of Serbian and makes them more like English, exemplified by leveling within the nominal inflectional paradigm, use of full pronominal forms following the verb rather than clitic pronominal forms in second position, and placement of verbal auxiliary clitics and the reflexive clitic se.