English Language: Australia's Multicultural Society

Since Federation in 1901, Australia was largely monolingual, with a vast majority of the populace of British descent. Decades later, the ‘White Australia Policy’ was implemented, where ‘All newcomers will have to learn to speak Australian.’ (AA Caldwell) was largely due to arising xenophobic sentiment and further escalated the monolingual ideal in Australian culture. European migrants arriving before the reversal of the policy experienced significant social pressure to change, which resulted in significant phonological shifts to integrate with the mainstream society. In her 1985 study, Horvath described this phenomenon as ‘Ethnic Broad’. Similarly, second generation migrants had tried to avoid using ethnolects and instead opting for SAE to integrate into society. Although X did not arrive in Australia in the period of extreme monolinguist ideals, she has adopted a Broad Austrian accent; which is demonstrated by the accentuation of vowels. Even now, ‘monolingual community will generally view the multilingual individual in particular ways that are prejudicial to that

There were three main languages which also consisted of various dialects. Darug was the largest spoken language. The Gadigal people spoke a dialect of Darug. Dharawal was another language spoken which also consists of various dialects based on regions. Many Indigenous Australians could speak more than one of these languages as Central Sydney was where many tribes would come together, so it was quite common that many tribes or clans would be in this same area at the same time, allowing them to learn the languages of each others tribes.

What does it mean to be Australian? Is it our multiculturalism, our wicked sense of humour or is it our recognisable accent? We are unique, we have thousands of species of native animals and we are proud of it. Australia has its own slang, which could be counted as a language in itself and we have neighbours of all different races. Australia is multicultural and is extremely accepting of others, no matter the country from which they have immigrated from, it is an Australian value. Furthermore, we respect and accept others religions and cultures into our society.

According to Ethnologue, there is reportedly ‘7 097 living languages worldwide’ (Simons, 2016) furthermore; Anderson (2012) explains the decline of the number of languages worldwide as being due to the growth of the major languages; a lesser utilised language dies when it ceases to be learnt by children. Standard Australian English (SAE) is the language used by the majority of the Australian population and its Government. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics; with a population of over 21.5 million people less than a quarter of them speak a language other than English in their home and that quarter includes the speaking of about 145 Indigenous Australian languages; a number which has decreased from the 250 or so Indigenous Australian

Multiculturalism in relation to Society and Culture is how persons work corporately in regards to their culture in a society. However, over time the growth of Australia's population has increase their culture in the country, yet the spectrum of persons in the media remains the same. Despite Australia having a multicultural policy that describe the "cultural and ethnic diversity of contemporary Australia". It is inefficient in the media, on a macro level. With the rise of media, there is a common trend with the persons in the industry being all Caucasian according to PWC recent report. This trend has interest me due to 6.7 million of Australians were born oversea. My interest is influenced by persons in the macro world, Osman Faruqi statement

How does ‘I’m Australian Too’ support language and literacy for children from diverse cultural backgrounds and home languages?

This is mainly the language which is being used by the refugee groups. These people are not very fluent with the local standard language (Wardhaugh, 1993). In Australia, the ethnolect could be found among the Anglo and non-Anglo speakers. The most significant feature of the “ethnolect” in Australian language is the pronunciation of word “er”. The Anglo speakers have got their background from Greek speakers and hence their pronunciations vary from non-Anglo speakers. Hence in Australia there are different groups of people with various backgrounds speaking in different English language.

Australia is one of the most culturally diverse counties in the world 47% of Australian’s were either born overseas or their parents

Australia is a multicultural country and welcomes people from varying nationalities into its communities each and every day. As a result, classrooms all over Australia are changing. No matter what location a teacher is contracted to, there will be some element of a variety of cultures within that environment. Diversity of cultures within individual communities will fluctuate from town to town and state to state as people re-settle and create homes for themselves and forge a new identity and sense of place. As a teacher, it is also important to note, that the experiences of migrant students in your class will vary. Some may assimilate very well; others may encounter more hurdles than others. A teacher’s role in a child’s life should be one which is positive. Supporting a child through their education and ensuring they have appropriate care and compassion in relation to their situation is important. This guide has been put together to help teachers with some background knowledge on educating culturally diverse students and some strategies to help foster compassion and understanding within the classroom.

I never considered my real status in Australia until recently. When I was a child, I came to Australia with my family. I lost my Manchurian accent as quickly as possible in order to assimilate.

The majority of these people are of Caucasian descent, although there are many other ethnic groups. There is no dominant religion in Australia. As of July 2002, 26.1% are Anglican, 26% are Roman Catholic, 24.3% are another Christian religion, and 11% are non-Christian. The most used language of Australia is English, however, there are a variety of other native languages that are still used today.

Australia is a settler nation which is now made up of many ethnic groups who share similar cultural traditions, common language, shared history and a shared identity (ABS, 2016). These groups contribute to what is referred to multiculturalism. Australia has a higher proportion of people born overseas than the US, Canada and the UK, with 49% of Australia’s population (or a parent) being born overseas (Census of Population and Housing, 2016). Compared to other Western nations, Australia has one of the most diverse immigration populations (Collins, 2013, p. 145). The meaning of multiculturalism in Australia has changed significantly over time. Today, Australia is a culturally and ethnically diverse country and therefore is a multicultural society. In terms of public policy, multiculturalism can be defined as policies and practices implemented by the Australian government that aim to manage cultural diversity to benefit the whole of society (Department of Social Services, 2014). Although Australia is a multicultural society, there are criticisms of public policy surrounding multiculturalism.

Broad Australian English (BAE) is a language variety unique to Australia. Despite being spoken by a minority of Australian population today, it has

Concentration refers to the number of speakers who live in one place and use their community language in their everyday interaction, as opposed to dispersion where there are not enough people to speak the community language. According to the researcher’s observational notes, the majority of the Arabic speakers in the city of Toowoomba reside between the mosque and the university. They are not as numerically established as in big cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (ABS, 2011), but the size of the Arabic-speaking community is increasing gradually, especially with the coming of new international students and their families. Additionally, most of these students decided to settle down in Australia for many reasons such as building a good

Teaching is a very rewarding career if you learn and understand how to work with the diversity of the classrooms we teach in. As teachers, we need to be more vigilant of where are students come from. Before we can teach we need to know who we are teaching and what background, knowledge, and customs they bring with them to the classroom. We must also be aware of the factors that are relevant to the academic achievement of the students we currently teach. There are many of these factors, but I want to focus on two; teacher quality and low teacher expectations.