This study examined the attitudes of 114 Nyungar Aboriginal school children toward Aboriginal English (AE) and Standard Australian English (SAE), and the attitudes they attributed to their teachers and peers. Students were generally positive about using AE at home and in the playground but negative about using SAE in those contexts. Students did not feel positive about using either AE or SAE in the classroom. Ethnolinguistic Identity Theory is used to explain the significant differences found in attitudes to the two linguistic codes of students, as well as the attitudes students perceived their teachers and peers to have.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bandura, A.
(1996). Self-efficacy in changing societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Chambers, J. K.
(1992). Linguistic correlates of gender and sex. English Worldwide, 13, 173-218.
3.
Cummins, J.
(1993). Bilingualism and second language learning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 51-70.
4.
Eades, D.
(1993). Aboriginal English. Newton, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association.
5.
Education Department of Western Australia
. (1999). Solid English. Perth, Western Australia: Author.
6.
Eisikovits, E.(1981). Inner-Sydney English: An investigation of grammatical variation in adolescent speech. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Sydney.
7.
Escure, G.
(1991). Gender roles and linguistic variation in the Belizean Creole community. In J. Chesire (Ed.), English around the world (pp. 595-608). New York: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Giles, H.
, Bourhis, R. Y., & Taylor, D. M. (1977). Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relations. In H. Giles (Ed.), Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations (pp. 307-348). London: Academic Press.
9.
Giles, H.
, Coupland, N., & Coupland, J. (1991). Accommodation theory: Communication, context, and consequence. In H. Giles, J. Coupland, & N. Coupland (Eds.), Contexts of accommodation: Developments in applied sociolinguistics (pp. 1-68). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
10.
Giles H.
, & Johnson, P. (1987). Ethnolinguistic identity theory: A social psychological approach to language maintenance. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 68, 69-100.
11.
Giles, H.
, Taylor, D. M., & Bourhis, R. Y. (1973). Toward a theory of interpersonal accommodation through language: Some Canadian data. Language in Society, 2, 77-192.
12.
Groome, H.
, & Edwardson, T. (1996). Urban Aboriginal young people and identity. Unpublished manuscript, Faculty of Aboriginal and Islander Studies, University of South Australia.
13.
Imbens-Bailey, A. L.
(1996). Ancestral language acquisition: Implications for aspects of ethnic identity among Armenian American children and adolescents. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 15, 422-443.
14.
Lambert, W. E.
, Hodgson, R., Gardner, R. C., & Fillenbaum, S. (1960). Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60, 44-51.
15.
Malcolm, I. G.
(1992). English in the education of speakers of Aboriginal English. In J. Siegel (Ed.), Pidgins, creoles and non-standard dialects in Education (pp. 14-41). Melbourne: Applied Linguistics Association of Australia.
16.
Malcolm, I.
, Haig, Y., Konigsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Hill, A., Collard, G., et al. (1999a). Two-way English. Perth: Education Department of Western Australia.
17.
Malcolm, I.
, Haig, Y., Konigsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Hill, A., Collard, G., et al. (1999b). Towards a more user-friendly education for speakers of Aboriginal English. Perth: Education Department of Western Australia.
18.
Masters, G. N.
(1997). Literacy standards in Australia. Canberra, Australia: Department of Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs.
19.
Mendelberg, H. E.
(1984). Split and continuity in language use of Mexican-American adolescents of migrant origin. Adolescence, 19, 170-182.
20.
Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA)
. (1998). National report on schooling in Australia: 1998. Canberra, Australia: Author.
21.
Morgan, H. W. (1983). An analysis of the attitudes of Jamaican principals toward Creole usage in secondary schools. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas Southern University.
22.
Moses, R. A.
, Daniels, H. A., & Gundlach, R. A. (1976). Teachers’ language attitudes and bidialectalism. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 8, 77-91.
23.
Nakata, M. N.
(1995). Cutting a better deal for Torres Strait Islanders. Youth Studies Australia, 14, 29-34.
24.
Oliver, R.
, & Purdie, N. (1998). The attitude of bilinguals to their languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19, 199-211.
25.
Pauwels, A.
(1991). Dutch in Australia: Perceptions of and attitudes towards transference and other language contact phenomena. In S. Romaine (Ed.), Language in Australia (pp. 228-248). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
26.
Phillips, V.
(1992). Language, cultural identity and empowerment in the dominant culture. Aboriginal Child at School, 20, 25-30.
27.
Purdie, N.
, Boulton-Lewis, G., Fanshawe, J.Tripcony, P., & Gunstone, A. (2000). Positive self-identity for Indigenous students and its relationship to school outcomes. Canberra, Australia: Department of Education, Training, and Youth Affairs.
28.
Rampton, B.
(1995). Crossing: Language and ethnicity among adolescents. London: Longman.
29.
Romero, M.
(1988). Chicano discourse about language use. Language Problems and Language Learning, 12, 110-127.
30.
Stern, H. H.
(1985). Learner factors in fundamental concepts in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
31.
Tajfel, H.
, & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour. In S. Worschel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), The psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24). New York: Nelson Hall.
32.
Wassink, A. B.
(1999). Historic low prestige and seeds of change: Attitudes toward Jamaican Creole. Language in Society, 28, 57-92.
