Community language programs in Australian schools: policy at the crossroads

The linguistic situation in Australia today presents an intriguing case for sociolinguistic inquiries. Despite the recent waves of migration from non Anglo-Celtic regions, the majority of Australians today are primarily monolingual with English being the dominant language. More critical, perhaps, is the diminishing appeal of second language learning even among second generation speakers of the large ethnic communities. This is indeed ironic giving that prior to white settlement in Australia, the Aboriginal inhabitants were predominantly multilingual with more than 250 languages (and many of their dialects) spoken by the 300 000 original inhabitants at the time when Captain James Cook's ship reached Botany Bay in Sydney in 1770. Given the size of the post-War migration, it was not until 1987 that the Australian government adopted a formal national policy on languages becoming 'the first English-speaking country to have such a policy and the first in the world to have a multilingual languages policy' (Australian Alliance for Languages 2001: 2). This paper will discuss the historical context for multilingualism in Australia and the current trend in government policy and funding. It will provide insights into community language programs and the challenges of remaining viable and relevant in the current social and political climate. Statistical analyses will be used to highlight emerging trends and future prospects.

Arlathirnda ngurkarnda ityirnda: being-knowing-doing: de-colonising indigenous tertiary education

Veronica Arbon is currently Professor and Chair in Indigenous Knowledge Systems at Deakin University. She has succeeded in delineating and elaborating on the dialects of coloniser- colonised interaction in tertiary education in a way that expands our understanding and opens many new questions and avenues of inquiry.

Higher leptin levels in Asian Indians than Creoles and Europids : a potential explanation for increased metabolic risk

Background and purpose: Leptin predicts cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, diseases to which Asian Indians are highly susceptible. As a risk marker, leptin’s intra-individual and seasonal stability is unstudied and only small studies have compared leptin levels in Asian Indians with other populations. The aim of this study was to explore ethnicity related differences in leptin levels and its intra-individual and seasonal stability.

Methods: Leptin and anthropometric data from the northern Sweden MONICA (3513 Europids) and the Mauritius Non-communicable Disease (2480 Asian Indians and Creoles) studies were used. In both studies men and women, 25- to 74-year old, participated in both an initial population survey and a follow-up after 5–13 years. For the analysis of seasonal leptin variation, a subset of 1780 participants, 30- to 60-year old, in the Vasterbotten Intervention Project was used.

Results: Asian Indian men and women had higher levels of leptin, leptin per body mass index (BMI) unit (leptin/BMI) or per cm in waist circumference (WC; leptin/waist) than Creoles and Europids when adjusted for BMI (all P<0.0005) or WC (all P<0.005). In men, Creoles had higher leptin, leptin/BMI and leptin/waist than Europids when adjusted for BMI or WC (all P<0.0005). In women, Creoles had higher leptin/BMI and leptin/waist than Europids only when adjusted for WC (P<0.0005). Asian Indian ethnicity in both sexes, and Creole ethnicity in men, was independently associated with high leptin levels. The intra-class correlation for leptin was similar (0.6–0.7), independently of sex, ethnicity or follow-up time. No seasonal variation in leptin levels was seen.

Conclusion: Asian Indians have higher levels of leptin, leptin/BMI and leptin/waist than Creoles and Europids. Leptin has a high intra-individual stability and seasonal leptin variation does not appear to explain the ethnic differences observed here.

The dialectic of Bangsa and Minzu and nation-building in Malaysia 1900-1990

Examines the evolution of the terms "bangsa" and "minzu", the reforms and adjustments made to define Malay and Chinese ethnic boundaries and the forms that resistance took in response to real and perceived threats to each community's rights vis-a-vis the other. Linked is the related issue of how these dialectical differences have hindered the process of nation-building in Peninsular Malaysia especially from 1957 until 1990.

Diglossia and its practice in multilingual Fiji

The aim of this paper is to explore the notion of diglossia in the three main languages, Bauan Fijian, Shudh Hindi and English, of Fiji. The discussion focuses on situating the languages both historically and socially in a multilingual context. The linguistic complexity of the country is also described and discussed in relation to the three languages. In this paper Bauan Fijian is that variety of the Fijian language,1 as opposed to the other Fijian dialects, which has been standardised. Shudh Hindi is the name given to the standard Hindi language in Fiji, which follows the syntax and grammar of Hindi, one of the national languages of India. This is contrasted with Fiji Hindi, which is considered to be a koine of the Indian languages in Fiji. English as implemented into schools by the colonial British administration is discussed with its sub-standard variety, Fiji English. The paper is divided into several parts. Background and historical relevance with a lead to the present sociolinguistic environment are discussed. The H and L varieties of the three languages are outlined and an analysis provided as to how the languages function within the framework of diglossia.

Use of reference in the narratives of Kurdish-Persian bilingual children

This study investigates some of the differences and similarities between Kurdish-Persian bilinguals and Persian monolinguals with respect to the use of referring expressions in spoken narratives. The narratives were elicited from 36 participants, consisting of 24 bilinguals (groups 1 and 2) and 12 monolinguals (group 3) in the first four grades of primary school using the Mayer’s (1969) book ‘Frog, where are you?’. The results have revealed that group 1 (bilingual told the story in Kurdish) used definite noun phrases most frequently followed by zero anaphors, indefinite noun phrases and pronouns. Group 2 who narrated the story in Persian produced definite nouns most frequently followed by pronouns, zero anaphors and indefinite noun phrases and group 3 (Persian monolinguals) employed definite noun phrases followed by zero anaphors, pronouns, and indefinite noun phrases. The significant difference between groups 1 and 2 and groups 2 and 3 has been in indefinite noun phrases and between groups 1 and 3 in the use of pronouns. One reason is that children universally apply similar strategies regardless of their first language (Berman, 2001). The conclusion is that some of the differences are due to the difference in the structure between Persian and the dialects of Kurdish.

The value of ethnoecological knowledge of the Minahasans: repositioning traditional biocultural knowledge in Indonesian environmental planning

Indonesian strategic and statutory environmental regimes have drawn directly from conventional Western models of environmental planning and natural resource management. These models are often at odds with, do not connect with, nor appreciate generational traditional biocultural knowledge and information from regionally-specific Indigenous communities in Indonesia. This knowledge, and the voice of the custodians of this knowledge, has been overlooked and circumvented in the name of broadscale nationalistic co-ordinated strategic planning. The problem is that nationalist planning, in a multicultural archipelago full of a diverse set of communities often with their own languages, dialects, cultural relationships to landscape, and mixed connectivity to different cohorts of colonial (European and Asian) and religious affiliations means that a deep understanding of environmental information at local and regional level is negated and denied legitimacy. This paper offers a platform to discuss this issue, the difficulty of nationalistic planning and its failings at the Minahasan regional level in Indonesia, and the wealth of cultural and environmental answers the Minahasan culture can bring to the table to better management its landscape sustainably and culturally. This paper’s purpose is to question conventional and generic environmental planning systems in Indonesia and charts an alternate culturally-attuned agenda that can offer to inform and better manage landscapes sustainably and culturally. The tipping points are deep questions about how to regionally manage landscapes sustainably and culturally in deference to a nationalistic agenda before the latter dooms the former producing a 'one-fits all' or generic Indonesian biogeographical landscape devoid of cultural nuances.