Abstract
In spite of ‘globalisation’ and the homogenising trends which accompany it, the vitality of ethnic identity, anchored in linguistic and cultural core values, has become a world phenomenon, with minority languages encountering varying degrees of support or suppression. This paper examines the changing legislation and education policies towards minority languages in Australia. The country' semergence from an assimilationist past to embrace a more multicultural approach is analysed with special reference to young Cambodian-Australians' educational achievements that show the vital importance of school support for minority language literacy and students' subsequent professional advancement. The paper concludes by re-affirming the need for a supportive community milieu to be supplemented by school literacy programs in minority languages, in that either of these two factors on its own may be insufficient to ensure successful language maintenance and development.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Allais, Maurice (1989). Europe's need to be multi-lingual. The Guardian Weekly, 14, July 30.
Amery, Robert (2000). Warrabarna Kaurna!: Reclaiming an Australian language. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Australian Advisory Council on Languages and Multicultural Education (AACLAME) (1990). The national policy on languages, December 1987–March 1990. Report to the Minister of Employment, Education and Training, Canberra.
Ben-Rafael, Eliezer & Sternberg, Yitzhak (Eds) (2001). Identity, culture and globalization. Leiden/Boston/Koln: Brill.
Bourke, Colin, Bourke, Eleanor and Edwards, Bill (Eds) (1994). Aboriginal Australia. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.
Clyne, Michael (1982). Multilingual Australia. Melbourne: River Seine.
Clyne, Michael (1985). Multilingual Melbourne nineteenth century style. Journal of Australian Studies, 17, 69–81.
Clyne, Michael (1991a). Community languages: The Australian experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clyne, Michael (1991b). Bilingual education for all: An Australian pilot study and its implications. In Ofelia Garcia (Ed), Bilingual education: Focusschrift in honor of Joshua A. Fishman. Amsterdam/Philadelpia: John Benjamins.
Clyne, Michael & Kipp, Sandra (1997). Trends and changes in home and language shift in Australia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 18(6), 451–473.
Clyne, Michael & Kipp, Sandra (2002). Australia's changing language demography. People and Place, 10(3), 29–35.
Committee of Review of Migrant Services and Programs (1978). Report of the review of post-arrival programs and services for migrants (Galbally Report). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Committee on the Teaching of Migrant Languages in Schools (1976). Report of the committee on the teaching of migrant languages in schools. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Commonwealth Department of Education (1987). Lo Bianco Report. National policy on languages. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Connor, Walker (1993). Beyond reason: The nature of the ethnonational bond. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 16, 373–389.
Conversi, Daniele (Ed) (2002). Ethnoculturalism in the Contemporary World: Walker Connor and the Study of Nationalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Deane, William (1997). Multiculturalism our Australian way. Multicultural Life, 2, 3.
Department of Education and Children's Services (2002) Aboriginal languages programs 2002: Summary. Adelaide.
Department of Education, Training and Employment (2000). The languages other than English plan 2000–2007. Adelaide: Curriculum Resources Unit.
Dogan, Mattei (1993). Comparing the decline of nationalism in Western Europe: The generational dynamic. International Social Science Journal, 36, 177–198.
Engelink, Anna (2000) Introduction: Belarus – between east and west. International Journal of Sociology, 31(3), 3–10.
Fesl, Eve D. (1988). Language death among Australian languages. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 12–23.
Fishman, Joshua A. (1972). Language in sociocultural change. Ed. Anwar S. Dil. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Fishman, Joshua A. (2001). Can threatened languages be saved? Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters [see also, Lambert, R. (2002). Review of above in Language Policy, 1, 99–104].
Fraser, Malcolm (1981). Inaugural address on multiculturalism. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs.
Hughues, Arthur F. (1994). Welsh migrants in Australia: Language maintenance and cultural transmission. PhD Thesis, Department of Education, University of Adelaide.
Huguet, Angel & Llurda, Enric (2001). Language attitudes of Spanish children in two Catalan/Spanish bilingual communities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 4(4), 267–282.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1996) The clash of civilisations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Jupp, James (Ed) (2001). The Australian people. An encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins. Australia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kirby, Michael (Justice) (1998). The universal declaration for human rights: Fifty years on. Sydney: Australian National Commission for UNESCO.
Lecours, Andre (2001). Regionalism, cultural diversity and the state in Spain. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 22(3), 210–226.
Lo Bianco, Joseph (1990). A hard-nosed multiculturalism: Revitalising multicultural education? Vox, 4, 80–94.
Martin, Jean I. (1978). The migrant presence: Australian responses 1947–1977. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.
Martin, Jean I. (1981). The ethnic dimension: Papers on ethnicity and pluralism. Ed. Sol Encel. Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.
Nical, Iluminado, Smolicz, Jerzy J. & Secombe, Margaret (2003) Rural students and the Philippine bilingual education program on the island of Leyte. In James W. Tollefson & Amy B.M. Tsui (Eds), Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda? Whose agenda? Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum (in press).
Safran,William (1995). Nations, ethnic groups, states and policies: A preface to an agenda. Nationalism and Ethnic Policies, 1, 1–10.
Secombe, Margaret J. (1997). Cultural interaction in the experience of some ‘mainstream’ Australian graduates of Anglo-Celtic background. PhD Thesis, Graduate School of Education, University of Adelaide.
Selleck, Richard 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.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (2000). Linguistic genocide in education, or world wide diversity of human rights? Mahwah, New Jersey/London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Phillipson, Robert (Eds) (1994). Linguistic human rights. Overcoming linguistic discrimination. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Phillipson, Robert (1996). Minority workers or minority human beings? A European Dilemma. International Review of Education 42(4), 291–307.
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove & Phillipson, Robert (1998). Language in human rights. Gazette: The International Journal for Communication Studies, 60(1), 27–46.
Smolicz, Jerzy J. (1995). Language – a bridge or a barrier? languages and education in Australia from an intercultural perspective. Multilingua, 14(2), 151–182.
Smolicz, Jerzy J. (1997). Australia: from ‘migrant country’ to a multicultural nation. International Migration Review, 31(1), 171–186.
Smolicz, Jerzy J. (1998). Nation-states and globalisation from a multicultural perspective. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 4(4), 1–18.
Smolicz, Jerzy J. (2001). Reconciliation and multiculturalism: Towards human rights. In Joseph Zajda (Ed), Education and society (pp. 1–12). Melbourne: James Nicholas Publishers.
Smolicz, Jerzy J. & Nical, Iluminado (1997). Exporting of the European idea of national language: Some educational implications of the use of English and indigenous languages. International Review of Education, 43(5–6), 1–21.
Smolicz Jerzy J. & Radzik, Ryszard L. (2003). Can the mother tongue of an independent nation be made to die? The case of Belarus. International Journal of Education Development (in press).
Smolicz, Jerzy J. & Secombe, Margaret J. (1986). Italian language and culture in South Australia: A memoir approach. In Camilla Bettoni (Ed), Altro Polo: Italians abroad: Studies on language contacts in English speaking countries (pp. 27–60). Sydney: Frederick May Foundation for Italin Studies, University of Sydney.
Smolicz, Jerzy J. & Secombe, Margaret J. (1989). Types of language activation and evaluation in an ethnically plural society. In Ulrich Ammon (Ed), Status and function of languages and language varieties (pp. 478–514). Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Smolicz, Jerzy J., Secombe, Margaret J. & Hudson, Dorothy (2001). Family collectivism and minority languages as core values of culture among ethnic groups in Australia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 22(2), 152–172.
Smolicz, Jerzy J., Yiv, Chenny & Secombe, Margaret J. (2003). Languages education as an empowering experience: Cambodian refugees in multicultural Australia. In Rolana Terborg (Ed), Languages and inequalities. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (in press).
Taylor, Andrew (1989). A champion of Ukrainian language: Dmytro Pavlychko. Lumen, 18(13), 6–7.
Task Force to Investigate Multiculturalism and Education (1984) Eduction for cultural democracy. Adelaide: Report by the Minister of Education.
Tertiary Multicultural Education Committee (1995). Multiculturalism in South Australian universities. Report to the South Australian Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Adelaide.
Trewin, Dennis (Ed) (2001). 2001 year book Australia, No. 83. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smolicz, J.J., Secombe, M.J. Assimilation or Pluralism? Changing Policies for Minority Languages Education in Australia. Language Policy 2, 3–25 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022981528774
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022981528774