09.10.23
Teachers of nearly a dozen Indian sub-continent languages met at the weekend to talk about how to prevent the loss of family language in immigrant families in Australia.
Around two hundred voluntary teachers of the languages spoken on the sub-continent and in Australia participated in an all-day conference, organised by the NSW Federation of Community Language Schools, to hear about the latest research on language maintenance in immigrant communities.
The conference was opened by the Vice President of the Federation, Mr Thiru Thirunanthakumar.
The languages represented were Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Nepalese, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
A keynote speaker, Emeritus Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, University of Melbourne School of Education, warned the teachers about what he called language shift which, he argues, happens across generations.
He told the teachers to keep language active and accurate because “loss of language is a worldwide phenomenon”.
“Language needs to be maintained in many different ways – home and family, study, business and public life so that children will become all-round speakers of the language and will maintain their competency.
“Families need some rules and practices to ensure that their children maintain the language and do so enthusiastically. By keeping it up to date they will maintain their enthusiasm and pride in their family language”, he said.
Meanwhile, A/Professor Peter Friedlander of the Australian National University, himself a Hindi speaker, warned about allowing language spoken in Australia to become out-of-date.
“Children should be taught the current form of conversation in their home country so that they stay relevant and are able to talk about their Australian experience to speakers of Hindi or other Subcontinent languages, in an up-to-date manner. Language must keep its vibrancy!
“Children often end up caught between a rock and a hard place. They want to be accepted by their peers and school friends but there is pressure on them to maintain their communication with grandparents who may not have achieved proficiency in English.”
He argued that kids also need to be able to talk to their peers from the same language background in their same age bracket in their common language:
“That will bolster their need for competency and make it something ‘cool or hip’. In other words, opportunities have to be created for children to use their family language where they are comfortable”, he said.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism in NSW Mark Buttigieg, MLC, opening the conference, expressed his deep regret that he did not study his family’s language after they migrated from Malta.
“In those days, we wrongly thought it was more important and sufficient to speak English only”, he said.
The Shadow Minister for Multiculturalism, Mark Coure, told the conference: “We must teach our children second and third languages to give them the best chance of success in a globalised world.
“When they apply for jobs in the future, they will be competing against candidates from around the world who speak several languages including English. That means we must increase the number of hours of language teaching each week.”
The conference was held at the Bankstown complex of Western Sydney University.
Attendees were welcomed to the new campus by Dr Maree Skillen, Director of Academic Programs, School of Education, Western Sydney University.
How to keep community languages alive added by Indian newspaper Sydney on
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