Aboriginal English in the Ciassroom: AnAsset or a Liabiiity?

Farzad SharifianMonash University, School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics,Faculty of Arts, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia

This paper discusses issues surrounding the use of Australian Aboriginal English inthe classroom in the light of a recent survey. Aboriginal English is often correlatedwith low academic performance and poor school attendance. The paper argues thatin any discussion of the school role of students' home talk, a range of factors need tobe examined, including the relationship between language, identity, power, emotionand cultural conceptualisations. Students' home dialect can be viewed as an asset atschool on various grounds.

doi: 10.2167/la436.0

Keywords: non-standard dialects in education. Aboriginal English, second di-alect education, bi-dialectal education.

IntroductionIndigenous Australians have largely been disadvantaged in the education

system for various reasons, including their home dialect (Aboriginal English).A recent survey (Zubrick et al, 2006) has presented confronting evidence of thefailvire of the education system in Western Australia to improve the educationaloutcomes of the vast majority of Aboriginal school children. While the surveyshould, in general, be lauded for presenting a challenge for the education system,I propose caveats relating to how Aboriginal English may be linked to schoolattendance and academic performance.

Zubrick et al. state that '57% of Aboriginal students have low academic perfor-mance compared with 19% of non-Aboriginal students - a disparity of 38 per-centage points' (p. 26 in volume 3, summary booklet). It also maintains that 'noobvious progress has been made over the last thirty years to effectively closethe disparities in academic performance' (p. 2). The survey found relationshipsbetween the academic performance of Aboriginal children and issues, such aspoor school attendance, levels of education of the primary carer, students' levelof risk of clinically sigrüficant emotional or behavioural difficulties and troublegetting enough sleep. One factor included in the survey and correlated with aca-demic performance and school attendance, is the language or language varietyof the Aboriginal children. The survey observes that students speaking Aborig-inal English or an Aboriginal language were more likely than other students tomiss school (p. 113) and show lower levels of academic performance (p. 248).The former also extends to those whose primary carer spoke Aboriginal English

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(p. 132); those whose carers spoke Aboriginal English or an Aboriginal languagewere more likely to be absent from school.

From these observations, the siirvey made the following recommendation:Substantial direction within the education system is now needed to target

'explicit teaching of standard Australian English language features throughoutall years at school', (p. 498)

The observations above imply that Aboriginal English is a problem at school.It seems somehow related to poor school attendance and poor academic perfor-mance. But how? What is the causal link? Various links can be claimed, leadingto different conclusions and recommendations. Statistics, such as correlationsand regressions are one matter, but interpreting them is another. The dangers ofinferring causal relationships from correlations are well documented.

On the one hand, it can be argued that speaking Aboriginal English within theschool hinders the progress of Aboriginal students' literacy skills in standardAustralian English (SAE), which then decreases motivation to attend school.A possible recommendation would then be to discourage or ban AboriginalEnglish at school and focus on the explicit teaching of SAE. This is implied inthe report on the survey in The Australian newspaper (Bank, 2006) : 'English needsto be adequately taught to Aboriginal students to break the cycle of academicfailure, chronic absenteeism and low retention rates'. It continues:

The report identified language as a major barrier to improving education,finding that students who used "Aboriginal English" in the classroom -an adapted language that uses different sentence structures and meaningsand employs some traditional words - were more than twice as likely tobe rated low in academic performance as students who spoke AustralianEnglish. The report urges language programs to be provided for indige-nous students from kindergarten and preschool, and argues for the com-pulsory and explicit teaching of standard Australian English throughoutall years at school.

A second way of linking the use of Aboriginal English to poor academic per-formance and school attendance is to view the school as failing to recogrüse Abo-riginal English as a legitimate English dialect or even dismissing it as 'incorrect'English, which can then threaten the identity of Aboriginal English-speakingstudents, decreasing their motivation to attend school. In other words, studentsspeaking Aboriginal English may believe 'the school is not respecting my homelanguage, which is part of me and my identity, so school is not about me'. Inthis second scenario, a possible recommendation is to encourage the school toacknowledge the home language/dialect of students, while empowering themfurther by teaching them SAE. This does not mean simply saying to students,'Your language/dialect is fine and I respect it, but keep it for outside the school',but that they be given opportunities to use their dialect appropriately at school,at least initially, for example, in developing bi-dialectal materials. This wouldhelp them understand and notice the differences and similarities between theirfirst dialect and SAE. Research in second language acquisition suggests thatconscious 'noticing' of the features of the language to be learned facilitates theprocess of acquisition (e.g. Schmidt, 1990). In second dialect learning, as Siegel

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(2006: 60) maintains, making comparisons between learners' first and seconddialect is likely to help students notice features of the second dialect that aredifferent from those of the first.

Elbow (2006: x) refers to the position above as build on strength, maintainingthat 'when teachers want to help students get control of the prestige mainstreamvariety of English, they will do best by building on the sophisticated linguisticcommand of their home language that all students bring to the classroom'. Hecontinues that 'it is possible for teachers to build on this rich linguistic strengthin order to help them attain command over the standard variety'.

The above discussion is not to suggest that teachers should learn to speak thestudents' first dialect, but they can help students bring the knowledge of theirfirst dialect into conscious focus and make comparisons with features of the sec-ond dialect. The training for teachers likely to be teaching Aboriginal Englishspeakers should include raising their awareness of the students' home dialect.Teachers can facilitate students' learning of SAE, if they know which areas ofSAE are significantly different from Aboriginal English. Aboriginal English em-ploys a large number of words that exist in SAE, but with different meaningsand connotations. Teachers would need to be able to bring at least, some oftivem to their students' attention as a precaution against miscommunication.Eor example, the reference and deixis system in Aboriginal English is signifi-cantly different from that of SAE. In Aboriginal English, the use of referentialand deictic devices assumes a great deal of shared knowledge on the part ofparticipants in a conversation (see Sharifian, 2001). Teachers would need to beaware of such differences and place emphasis on them in their teaching, to avoidthe assumption that the two dialects operate similarly in such areas.

Schools need to acknowledge and highlight that the Aboriginal children'shome dialect and SAE would be used for different purposes. Aboriginal Englishmainly serves the purpose of intra-cultural comnwmication, while SAE wouldpriniarily be used for inter-cultural communication with other non-AboriginalAustralians. Students would need to develop this kind of awareness, ratherthan being urged not to speak Aboriginal English at school. Otherwise, studentsmight ask themselves, why they should learn another English when they alreadyspeak it, and further question their own English usage, especially if they feelthey do not 'possess' the new dialect.

The existence of Aboriginal English at school, then, should be considered anasset. Depending on the level of the students, teachers can draw on the rela-tionship between Aboriginal English and SAE to teach issues of language andpower, or take examples from Aboriginal English to teach language variation.

ESL versus SAESDLearning English as a Second Language (ESL) is different from learning SAE

as a Second Dialect (SAESD) in many respects, including motivation and iden-tity. In the former, learners do not usually feel any threat to their LI, unless theL2 is meant to replace their LI. In learriing SAE as a second dialect, however,students are likely to feel that their first dialect (their mother tongue and asymbol of their cultural identity) is under threat. Aboriginal students need af-firmadon of their existing linguistic identities as a preamble to learning SAE for

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the exploration and development of further multiple identities. Those who havedeveloped bi-dialectal competence feel empowered by the ways in which theycan project various identities depending on the context in which they speak.Developing a mono-dialectal competence in SAE may disempower or alienateAboriginal people in socio-cvdtural contexts where interactions are predomi-nantly conducted in Aboriginal English, or in Kriol, such as in their extendedfamily.

Learning SAE as a second dialect implies power relationships between stu-dents' home talk and SAE, the latter being 'othered' by the former. It is alarmingthat in many instances, the survey uses 'students who speak English' as opposedto 'those who speak Aboriginal English'. This, perhaps unintentionally, raisesthe status of SAE to a 'language' and Aboriginal English to a 'dialect'. This mightsuggest that the former is a complete form, but not the latter. Already many peo-ple think of Aboriginal English as 'lacking a grammar'. Studies of AboriginalEnglish, however, have shown not only the systematicity of its grammar, butalso its rich cultural-conceptual basis, at least from a Western perspective (e.g.Eades, 1982; Hearkins, 1994; Malcolm & Sharifian, 2002, 2005; Sharifian, 2002a,2006; Sharifian et al., 2004; Zubrick et al, 2006, voltime 3, summary booklet, p. 16).

The privilege that one variety gains over others is not based on linguisticconsiderations, but how it is socio-politically construed across various layers ofthe society. It is not 'dropping a sound' or 'not using an auxiliary verb' whichmakes a dialect regarded as inferior, it is how their speakers are viewed in thesociety that determines whether or not the dialect is 'standard' or acceptable.Siegel (2006: 41), writing for the American reader, makes the following remarksin relation to this:

The standard dialect of British English, for example, also has features thatare unacceptable or incorrect in standard American English. It uses wordssuch as rubber instead of eraser, and it has expressions such as J haven'ta book. Just as those broken vernaculars leave out sounds in words andwords in sentences - like saying toi instead of told and He sick instead ofHe is sick - British English has no r sounds in words like park and leavesout words, as in My father is in Hospital (instead of in the hospital). But incontrast to what many people say about vernaculars, they would not saythat British English is bad or incorrect English - just that they speak adifferent kind of English.

It is to be noted that many employers of ESL teachers around the worldconsider SAE as 'non-standard' and they only employ speakers of American orBritish English. Some employers regard American English as the only 'standard'English, no matter which dialect of American English one speaks.

Aboriginal Engiish, Academic Performance and AssessmentAlso relevant here is the survey's observation that, 'Students who spoke Abo-

riginal English in the classroom were over twice as likely to be rated at lowacademic performance than students who spoke English in the classroom' (Sum-mary booklet, p. 16). This again may be interpreted as, either that AboriginalEnglish hinders academic performance or that assessment tools do not recognise

Aboriginal English in ttie Classraom 135

literacy in Aboriginal English as relevant and valid. That is, the evaluative toolscurrently used in schools, such as the West Australian Literacy and NumeracyAssessment (WALNA)̂ test, do not recognise literacy in Aboriginal English. Infact, these tests do not even acknowledge inter-dialectal development. For ex-ample, when learning SAE, students may initially learn the text structure of SAE,but use Aboriginal English to express the content, and this is not acknowledgedas 'progress' by tests, such as WALNA. The following email from a teacher (tothe author) is testimony to this.

When I got back I was handed a whole series of stories that the Yr 3/4'shad been working on that are great examples of SAE story structure butAE language. They were super stoked with their efforts as was I. If onlyWALNA accepted AE!

According to the teacher, then, students have made progress towards learn-ing SAE by learning its structure, an effort which is not acknowledged by tests,such as WALNA. In this context, Nero (2006:13) maintains that 'ultimately, ap-propriate placement and assessment for linguistically diverse students requiresfamiliarity with their actual language use, acceptance of students' self-ascribedlinguistic identities, and alternative assessments that go beyond standardizedtesting'.

In addition, no research to date has shown a negative effect of the use ofvernacular in the classroom, in contexts where the vernacular is accepted andused as a resource in the classroom. Siegel (2006:49) refers to the studies carriedout in this area so far and observes that

None of these evaluations or experimental studies show any negativeeffects resulting from the use of the vernacular in the classroom, clearlyillustrating that the concern about interference is not justified. In fact,these evaluations and studies show positive effects in increased ability instandard English and general academic performance.

Moreover, literacy is not just about language, but about developing the con-ceptual knowledge that the school promotes. Thus, some Aboriginal studentsmay have made some degree of progress in acquiring the school's conceptualsystem, but they might be expressing it in Aboriginal English, which is notrecognised by the current assessment devices. Aboriginal students also bringalternative literacies to the school, which are unlikely to be recognised as rel-evant to the school. For example. Aboriginal students develop a conceptualsystem based on their cultural experiences and knowledge that has been passedon to them, which may be at odds with the school system. Aboriginal Englishand Aboriginal languages are not simply a matter of grammar and sound, butlargely, clothing Aboriginal worldviews that embody Aboriginal taxonomies ofpeople, animals and the environment (e.g. Mark & Turk, 2003).

Aboriginal English and Culturally Sensitive EducationIn the recommendations made for improving culturally inclusive schooling,

the survey includes the following suggestion:

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- setting the educational agenda for the development of a tolerant andinclusive society that is knowledgeable about, and respectful of, culturaldifference.

However, language is an integral aspect of students' culture, since it is asymbol of their cultural identity and also expresses their cultural conceptualisa-tions. Thus, the development of a culturally sensitive schooling would requireacknowledging and respecting students' linguistic repertoire. An interestingand relevant observation included in the survey is part of its preface written byJill Milroy and Helen Milroy:

Aboriginal children learnt and used 'Aboriginal English' in their familiesand communities, but in schools it was treated as 'bad English' that neededto be corrected. Aboriginal children were made to feel ashamed of howthey and their families spoke. They were forced to use Standard AustralianEnglish and then marked poorly when they did so. In Western Australia,Aboriginal people have fought a long battle to have Aboriginal English,and the worldview that accompanies it, accepted and valued by the Edu-cation Department. Aboriginal English speakers can now be recognised asbi-dialectical [sic] with linguistic competencies in different but not inferiorforms of English.

This appears to have direct implications for the findings and recommen-dations in the survey. The preface seems to support bi-dialecticism at school,whereas the rest of the survey does not appear to suggest or promote this, atleast explicitly. In fact, many observations in the preface have significant impli-cations for the report's findings, but remain unexplored. For example, contrastsare drawn between 'Aboriginal knowledge systems' and 'western knowledgeand education system'. Consider the following:

Aboriginal knowledge systems are based on intimate relationships not fo-cused on what things are as much as who they are and how they are related.Everything has spirit, feeling and law. This applies equally to all things- rocks, wind, land, plants, animals or people. Trees, arümals, rocks arerelated to us as brothers, sisters, aunties. In contrast, western knowledgesystems appear to have limited definitions of what is 'living', classify abroad set of objects as inanimate and place living 'things' in a hierarchyof complexity and therefore, 'value'. For Aboriginal people, spiritual andphysical worlds are continuous and interactive, our ancestors still speakto us in daily life. In western knowledge and education systems spiritualand physical worlds are separate, consigned to their respective secularand religious (or occasionally perhaps paranormal) realms. (Zubrick et al.,2006: xxii)

In fact, the contrast in the above quote is very much embodied in Aboriginallanguages and Aboriginal English. Thus, developing bi-dialectal competencemay open two sets of windows on the world for speakers.

Aboriginal Englist) in the Classroom 137

The Emotional Aspect of Second-Dialect LearningOne important and largely neglected issue in research on second lan-

guage/dialect acquisition is the emotional aspect. Classical paradigms in sec-ond language acquisition have largely viewed language learning from a cog-nitive perspective, although more recent approaches focus on its emotionalas well as socio-cultural foundation. Recent research on emotional experiencein second language acquisition (e.g. Dewaele & Pavlenko, 2002; Pavlenko &Dewaele, 2004) suggests that 'the LI is preferred to express emotional involve-ment whereas the L2 is experienced as colder, more distant, and more detachedfrom the L2 user and less appropriate for the expression of emotions' (Dewaele,2005: 374). Second-dialect learners are likely to experience similar degrees ofdistance between their first and second dialect in terms of the expression ofemotions. Thus, teachers would need to work with learners to develop com-petence and confidence in using their second dialect to express emotions, iflearning SAE is to become part of the person as a whole, rather than simply atool for societal mobility.

Who Speaks Aboriginal English?Another important question is how teachers would make svire that their stu-

dents do not speak Aboriginal English in the classroom, by identifying a changein the grammar and sounds of their speech. In fact, Sharifian (2002b, 2005) hasprovided sigrüficant evidence that in metropolitan schools, where some Aborig-inal students do not sound as if they speak Aboriginal English, the conceptualbasis of their speech is largely the one associated with Aboriginal English. Thus,identification of whether students are speaking Aboriginal English requires cau-tion, especially if there are implications for educational policies.

Finally, though, the survey should nevertheless receive credit for its recogni-tion of Aboriginal English, since many educators do not even acknowledge itsexistence. This author has encountered a number of educators who dismiss thenotion of Aboriginal English as a dialect of English and who simply describedifferences that they observe in the speech of Aboriginal students as 'laziness' intalk, 'bad grammar', 'lack of grammar', etc. (see Malcolm et al, 1999). Some evenbecome concerned to the point where they refer Aboriginal English speakers tospeech pathologists and school psychologists. All in the name of 'education'!

CorrespondenceAny correspondence should be directed to Dr. Farzad Sharafian, Monash

University, School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts,Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia (farzad.sharifian@arts.monash.edu.au).

Note1. http://www,eddept.wa.edu,au/walna/

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