A brief historical review of language policies in Australia up to the publication of the Senate Standing Committee's Report on a National Language Policy in 1984 is given. The recommendations of the Report are discussed in the light of the ethno-cultural or core value significance that community languages have for many minority ethnic groups in Australia. Recent research findings on such languages are presented and their implications for a national language policy considered. It is postulated that the linguistic pluralism generated by the presence of community languages needs to be viewed in the context of a framework of values that includes English as the shared language for all Australians. From this perspective, it is argued that the stress that the Senate Committee Report places upon the centrality of English in Australia should be balanced by greater recognition of the linguistic rights of minorities and their implications for bilingual education. It is pointed out that both these aspects of language policy have been given prominence in recent statements and guidelines released by the Ministers of Education in Victoria and South Australia. The paper concludes by pointing to the growing interest in the teaching of languages other than English to all children in Australian schools.
The Honourable ArnoldL. (1984, September). News Release, Minister of Education. Adelaide.
2.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1983). Language survey, Australia. Canberra: AGPS.
3.
Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. (1980). Review of multicultural and migrant education. Melbourne: Author.
4.
Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. (1982). Evaluation of post-arrival programs and services. Melbourne: Author.
5.
ChipmanL. (1985, March). A national languages) policy?Quadrant, pp. 16–17.
6.
ClyneM. (1982). Multilingual Australia: Resources, needs, policies. Melbourne: River Seine Publishers.
7.
ClyneM. (1984). Multilingualism and the building of the Australian nation. Address given to the second conference of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia on a National Language Policy, Melbourne.
8.
ClyneM. (1985). Comments on Senate Committee's Report, A National Language Policy; prepared for the National Advisory and Coordinating Committee on Multicultural Education, Canberra.
9.
Committee of Review of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. (1983). Report of Review of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. Canberra: AGPS.
10.
Committee on the Teaching of Migrant Languages in Schools. (1976). Report of the Committee on the Teaching of Migrant Languages in Schools. Canberra: AGPS.
11.
Commonwealth Advisory Committee on the Teaching of Asian Languages and Cultures. (1970). Report by the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on the Teaching of Asian Languages and Cultures in Australia. Canberra: AGPS.
12.
Department of Education. (1982). Towards a national language policy. Canberra: AGPS.
13.
Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. (1983–1985). Studies in adult migrant education (9 volumes). Canberra: AGPS.
14.
Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia. (1982). National language policy conference report. Canberra: Author.
15.
Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia. (1985). Proposals for Representation and Funding in Relation to Language and Multicultural Education Programs. Presented to Commonwealth Minister of Education.
16.
FeslE. (1983). Policies and programmes for teaching of languages. In FalkB.HarrisJ. (Eds.). Unity in diversity. Melbourne: Australian College of Education.
17.
FishmanJ. A.NahirnyV. C. (1966). Language loyalty in the United States. The Hague: Mouton.
18.
GilesH. A.Saint-JacquesB. (1979). Language and ethnic relations. Oxford: Pergamon.
19.
GordijewI. (1985, April). Survey of the development of the Ukrainian Studies Foundation in Australia and of Ukrainian Studies at Macquarie University. Paper presented at the History of Ukrainian Settlement in Australia (2) Conference, Monash University, Melbourne.
20.
HarrisR. (1978). Anglo-conformism, interactionism and cultural pluralism: A study of Australian attitudes to migrants. In de LaceyP.R.PooleM. E. (Eds.), Mosaic or melting pot. Sydney: Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich.
21.
HaugenE. (1976). Linguistic pluralism as a goal of national policy. In WalkerD. C. (Ed.). Language and society: The Vanier Lectures (pp. 65–82) Ottawa: Ottawa University Press.
22.
HechterM. (1975). Internal colonialism: The Celtic fringe in British national development 1536–1966. Berkeley: University of California Press.
23.
KunderaM. (1984). A kidnapped West or culture bows out. In BurfordB. (Ed.) Granta. (Cambridge, U.K.), 11, 95–118.
24.
LimK. B. (1980). Bilingual education. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
25.
MarjoribanksK. (1980). Ethnic families and children's achievements. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.
26.
MaslenG. (1984, 22 September). Multiculturalism. The Age, p. 3.
27.
Minister of Education. (1984). Curriculum development and planning in Victoria (Ministerial Paper No. 6). Melbourne: Education Department of Victoria.
28.
NorstM. (1983). Ethnic schools: Where are they and what would they like to be?Journal of Intercultural Studies, 3(2), 6–16.
29.
NowickaE. (1979). Africans by choice: Africa in the consciousness of American Blacks. Warsaw: State Scientific Publishers.
30.
Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. Senate Standing Committee on Education and Arts. (1984). A national language policy. Canberra: AGPS.
31.
The Honourable PearceB. (1984, November). News Release, Western Australian Minister of Education, Perth.
32.
PettmanR. (1984). What being ‘Multicultural’ means. Human Rights, Newsletter of the Human Rights Commission, No. 11, pp. 8–9.
33.
PriceC. A. (1983). Multicultural Australia: Demographic background. In FalkB.HarrisJ. (Eds.). Unity in diversity: Multicultural education in Australia. Melbourne: Australian College of Education.
34.
Schools Commission Committee on Multicultural Education. (1979). Education for a multicultural society. Canberra: AGPS. See also: Language as a core value of culture. RELC Journal (Regional Language Centre, Singapore), 1981, 11(1), 1–13.
35.
SelleckR. J. W. (1980). ‘The trouble with my looking glass’: A study of the attitude of Australians to Germans during the Great War. Journal of Australian Studies, 6, 1–25.
36.
SmoliczJ. J. (1981a). Core values and cultural identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 4(1), 75–90.
37.
SmoliczJ. J. (1981b). Multiculturalism: The three phases. Education News, 17(8), 23–27.
38.
SmoliczJ. J. (1983). Linguistic diversity in Australia: Changing attitudes and policies. Polycom, 35, 14–20.
39.
SmoliczJ. J. (1984a). Is the monolingual nation-state out-of-date? A comparative study of language policies in Australia and the Philippines. Comparative Education, 20, 265–86.
40.
SmoliczJ. J. (1984b). Minority languages and the core values of culture: Changing policies and ethnic responses in Australia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 5(1), 23–41.
41.
SmoliczJ. J. (1984c). Multiculturalism and an overarching framework of values: Some educational responses for ethnically plural societies. European Journal of Education, 19(1), 11–23.
42.
SmoliczJ. J.SecombeM. J. (1985a). Community languages, core values and cultural maintenance: The Australian experience with special reference to Greek, Latvian and Polish Groups. In ClyneM. (Ed.). Australia—Meeting place of languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
43.
SmoliczJ. J.SecombeM. J. (1985b). Polish culture in Australia: A review of some recent research and educational developments. In SussexR.ZubrzyckiJ. (Eds.). Polish people and culture in Australia. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
44.
SmoliczJ. J.WisemanR. (1971). European migrants and their children: Interaction, assimilation and education. Quarterly Review of Australian Education. 4(2) and (3).
45.
StefanikH. (1982). Introductory Address delivered to the National Language Policy Conference of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia. Canberra.
46.
StevensonV. (1983). Words: An illustrated history of Western languages. London & Sydney: MacDonald.
47.
The Honourable SumnerC. J. (1984, July). Press release from the office of the Minister of Ethnic Affairs, South Australia.
48.
Task Force to Investigate Multiculturalism and Education. (1984). Education for a cultural democracy and Education for a cultural democracy: A summary. Adelaide: South Australian Government Printer.
49.
Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission. (1984). Language use in Australia (Information Paper 3). East Melbourne: Author.
50.
YapY. (Ed.). (1978). Language education in multilingual societies. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
51.
ZnanieckiF. (1968). The method of sociology. New York: Octagon Press.
