Abstract
In this chapter we report on a project concerning the nature and use of language in classes in a Queensland Indigenous school. Language differences between Indigenous students and non-Indigenous teachers are a potential factor in the poor education outcomes of Indigenous children compared with non-Indigenous children. As part of a 3-year project based in a remote school, we have begun will be audio and video-recording Prep and Year 1 classes during lessons in which the focus is on literacy and numeracy. Relevant phases of the lessons are being transcribed in fine detail and subjected to microanalysis using Conversation Analysis. We will examine sequences in which to focus in on knowledge transmission, and focus on evidence of understanding between teachers and students, and displays of newly acquired and old knowledge. Results of the project will be used in developing teacher professional development materials.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adger, C. T. (1997). Issues and implications of English dialects for teaching English as a second language. TESOL professional paper #3.
Angelo, D., & Frazer, B. (2008). The language gap. QTU Professional Magazine.
Ball, J., Bernhardt, B., & Deby, J. (2006). First nations English dialects: Exploratory project proceedings. Vancouver, BC: University of British Colombia.
Björk-Willén, P., & Cromdal, J. (2009). When education seeps into ‘free play’. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(8), 1493–1518.
Butler, C. (2008). Talk and social interaction in the playground. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.
Blythe, J. (2009). Prosodic person reference in Murriny Patha reported interaction. In D. Barth-Weingarten, O. N. Dehe, & A. Wichmann (Eds.), Where prosody meets pragmatics (pp. 23–52). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Blythe, J. (2010). Self-association in Murriny Patha talk-in-interaction. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 30(4), 447–469.
Christie, M., & Harris, S. (1985). Communication breakdown in the Aboriginal classroom. In J. B. Pride (Ed.), Cross-cultural encounters: Communication and miscommunication (pp. 81–90). Melbourne, Australia: River Seine.
Couper-Kuhlen, E. (2010). Commentary on Stivers and Rossano: “Mobilizing response”. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 43, 32–37.
Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (Eds.). (1992). Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Eades, D. (1991). Communicative strategies in Aboriginal English. In S. Romaine (Ed.), Language in Australia (pp. 84–93). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. London: Sage.
Epstein, R. I., & Xu, L. (2003). Roots and wings: Teaching English as a second dialect to Aboriginal students. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/0a/ec.pdf. Accessed 10 Feb 2010.
Freiberg, K., Homel, R., Batchelor, S., Carr, A., Hay, I., Elias, G., & Teague, R. (2005). Creating pathways to participation: A community-based developmental prevention project in Australia. Children & Society, 19, 144–157.
Galloway, A. (2002). Classroom work with Indigenous students. Paper presented at the National Australian Indigenous Education Conference, Townsville, Australia, July 2002.
Galloway, A. (2003). Questions: Help or hindrance? Teachers’ use of questions with Indigenous children with conductive hearing loss. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 27(2), 25–38.
Gardner, R. (1998). Between listening and speaking: The vocalisation of understandings. Applied Linguistics, 19(2), 204–224.
Gardner, R. (2012). Conversation analysis in the classroom context. In T. Stivers & J. Sidnell (Eds.). The handbook of conversation analysis. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Gardner, R., Fitzgerald, R., & Mushin, I. (2009). The underlying orderliness in turn-taking: Examples from Australian talk. Australian Journal of Communication, 36(3), 65–90.
Gardner, R., & Mushin, I. (2007). Post-start-up overlap and disattentiveness in talk. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 3(3), 35.1–35.14.
Goodwin, C. (1986). Between and within: Alternative sequential treatments of continuers and assessments. Human Studies, 9, 205–217.
Hamilton, A. (1981). Nature and nurture: Aboriginal child-rearing in North-Central Arnhem Land. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Harris, S. (1980). Culture and learning: Tradition and education in Northeast Arnhem Land. Darwin, Australia: Northern Territory Department of Education.
Hazlehurst, B., & Hutchins, E. (1998). The emergence of propositions from the coordination of talk and action in a shared world. Language & Cognitive Processes, 13(2–3), 373–424.
Hellermann, J. (2008). Social actions for classroom language learning. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Heritage, J. (1984). A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In J. Maxwell Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action (pp. 299–347). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 219–248). New York: Academic.
Jefferson, G. (1984). Notes on a systematic deployment of the acknowledgement tokens ‘yeah’ and ‘mm hm’. Papers in Linguistics, 17(2), 197–216.
Kasper, G. (2009). Locating cognition in second language interaction and learning: Inside the skull or in public view? International Journal of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 47, 11–36.
Koole, T. (2010). Displays of epistemic access: Student responses to teacher explanations. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 43(2), 183–209.
Koshik, I. (2002). Designedly incomplete utterances: A pedagogical practice for eliciting knowledge displays in error correction sequences. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 35, 277–309.
Malcolm, I. (1982). Communicative dysfunction in Aboriginal classrooms. In J. Sherwood (Ed.), Aboriginal education: Issues and innovations. Creative research (pp. 153–172). Perth, Australia: Alpha Print Pty Ltd.
Malcolm, I., & Grote, E. (2007). Aboriginal English: Restructured variety for cultural maintenance. In G. Leitner & I. Malcolm (Eds.), The habitat of Australia’s aboriginal languages: Past, present and future (pp. 1153–1179). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Malcolm, I., & Königsberg, P. (2007). Bridging the language gap in education. In G. Leitner & I. Malcolm (Eds.), The habitat of Australia’s aboriginal languages: Past, present and future (pp. 267–297). Berlin: Mouton DeGruyter.
Malcolm, I., & Sharifian, F. (2002). Aspects of Aboriginal English discourse. Discourse Studies, 4, 169–181.
Malcolm, I., Haig, Y., Königsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Collard, G., Hill, A., & Cahill, R. (1999). Two-way English. Mount Lawley, Australia: Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research, Edith Cowan University and Education Department of W.A.
Masters, G. (2009). A shared challenge: Improving literacy, numeracy and science learning in Queensland primary schools. Camberwell, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research.
MCEECDYA. (2009). National report: Achievement in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy. Retrieved from http://www.naplan.edu.au/reports/national_report.html
MCEETYA. (2004). Australian Directions in Indigenous Education, 2005–2008. DEETYA. Retrieved from http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/mceecdya/publications,11582.html#Cultural%20inclusion%20and%20indigenous%20education
Moses, K. (2009). How do dinosaurs hug in the Kimberley? The use of questions by Aboriginal caregivers and children in a Walmajarri Community. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Moses, K., & Wigglesworth, G. (2008). The silence of the frogs. In J. Simpson & G. Wigglesworth (Eds.), Children’s language and multilingualism: Indigenous language use at home and school (pp. 129–153). London: Continuum.
Moses, K., & Yallop, C. (2008). Questions about questions. In J. Simpson & G. Wigglesworth (Eds.), Children’s language and multilingualism: Indigenous language use at home and school (pp. 30–55). London: Continuum.
Mushin, I., & Gardner, R. (2009). Silence is talk: Conversational silence in Australian Aboriginal talk-in-interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(10), 2033–2052.
Mushin, I., & Gardner, R. (2011). Turn management in Garrwa mixed-language conversations. In B. Baker, I. Mushin, M. Harvey, & R. Gardner (Eds.), Indigenous language and social identity: Papers in honour of Michael Walsh. Canberra, Australia: Pacific Linguistics.
Nero, S. (Ed.). (2006). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Queensland Department of Education and Training. (2008). Indigenous education: Strategic directions 2008–2011. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/strategic/planning/pdfs/indig-strat-directions.pdf
Reeders, E. (2008). The collaborative construction of knowledge in a traditional context. In J. Simpson & G. Wigglesworth (Eds.), Children’s language and multilingualism: Indigenous language use at home and school (pp. 103–128). London: Continuum.
Rendle-Short, J., & Moses, K. (2010). Taking an interactional perspective: Examining children’s talk in the Australian Aboriginal community of Yakanarra. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 30(4), 397–421.
Rickford, J. (2001). Ebonics and education. In C. Crawford (Ed.), Ebonics and language education (pp. 263–284). New York: Sankofa.
Robinson, P. (2003). Attention and memory during SLA. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 631–678). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129–158.
Schweinhart, L. (1993). Success by empowerment. Young Children, 49(1), 54–58.
Seedhouse, P. (2005). State-of-the-art article: Conversation analysis and language learning. Language Teaching, 38, 165–187.
Simpson, J., & Wigglesworth, G. (Eds.). (2008). Children’s language and multilingualism. London: Continuum.
Smitherman, G. (1999). Talkin’ that talk: Language, education, and culture in African America. New York: Routledge.
Stivers, T., & Rossano, F. (2010). Mobilizing response. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 43, 3–31.
te Molder, H., & Potter, J. (2005). Conversation and cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Thelen, E., & Smith, L. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. In Mind and Society, (pp. 79–91). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press..
Wawrykow, R. C. (2011). Standard English difficulties and helpful intervention strategies for Aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, 35(2), 199–205.
Wolfram, W., Adger, C. T., & Christian, D. (2007). Dialects in schools and communities. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gardner, R., Mushin, I. (2013). Language for Learning in Indigenous Classrooms: Foundations for Literacy and Numeracy. In: Jorgensen, R., Sullivan, P., Grootenboer, P. (eds) Pedagogies to Enhance Learning for Indigenous Students. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4021-84-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4021-84-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-4021-83-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-4021-84-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)