Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 19, Issue 1, 1996

This paper offers an analysis of the 1991 Census language data in relation to language maintenance and shift. It draws attention to the increased diversity, the rising importance of certain languages of international and regional significance in our population and the variations in maintenance patterns. It demonstrates the variation in language shift across a number of languages and attempts to identify factors responsible for this variation. Interstate differences are also explored. Language shift is compared between the first and second generation, between communities from different countries speaking the same language, and between the 1986 and 1991 Censuses.

This paper examines the spoken discourse of immigrant professionals problem solving in small groups in order to see how different cultural values both influence, and are reflected in, the way a problem is defined and solutions proposed. It also provides evidence that these values are one of the factors that contribute to miscommunication in this type of communication. Three types of miscommunication are identified: misinterpretation of the message because a cultural filter distorts the message; incomplete comprehension because the underlying values are not explicated and the hearers remain unaware of the full implications of the message; and comprehension but misunderstanding and dissonance because the values of the hearers are at variance with the reality of the message. The extent to which the views of individuals conformed to the value systems general ascribed to their cultural background is discussed and instances of individual variance noted. Finally, the implications for teaching and workplace training suggested by these findings are discussed.

The following paper presents the first stages of acquisition in Japanese as a second language (JSL). After an explanation of the notion of stages of acquisition, the first four stages will be introduced. Examples of two typical kinds of learner errors will be explained in the light of these stages. It will be demonstrated that the notion of acquisitional stages contributes to the teaching of JSL, because it can explain the occurance of errors and suggest which grammatical errors are correctable, and which grammmatical structures are teachable, at which point in time. The findings presented here are based on data from a longitudinal study that is now in its third year. In that study, oral data from university students of Japanese are being collected.

The question of accuracy of interpretation of foreign language court testimonies is one of utmost importance to the court, to the witness and to the interpreter. The adversarial system uses language as its main weapon in the metaphorical battle, and cases are based on the oral evidence of their witnesses. When witnesses do not speak English, the sole responsibility of making that witness understood to the court rests with the interpreter. In the adversarial system, content of testimony is not the only important issue; delivery, style, register are just as important. This is why the idea of ‘literal’ translation has been the preferred option to the legal profession. However, literal translation does not ensure accuracy of interpretation. This paper aims to emphasise that interpreting accurately means interpreting pragmatically. It points out that although different languages may have semantic or literal equivalents, such equivalents may not have the same connotations or may not be appropriate in the same contexts. Interpreting pragmatically means interpreting in a way that the same intention and the same force of the Source Language (SL) utterance is conveyed in the Target Language (TL) utterance, so that the same reaction is achieved in the listeners of both languages. The paper draws on examples from authentic data taken from interpreted proceedings to illustrate the argument.

This paper advocates the promotion of teaching word-attack skills, among other reading skills, in a beginners’ Japanese program. The paper argues that even first-year students with limited knowledge of kanji (Chinese characters) can use such strategies successfully, and that formal training in such skills helps foster autonomous readers who approach reading tasks with a positive attitude. The feasibility of teaching word-attack skills to beginners is supported by the results obtained in an experiment conducted in the introductory Japanese course at the Australian National University (ANU). The paper takes a detailed look at various word-attack skills used by students in this experiment, in the light of universal reading strategies as well as strategies specific to reading in Japanese.

This paper investigates the tutor’s discourse in a university classroom for a business law tutorial. It is argued that the discourse is structured on several levels. On a deeper level, linguistic models of values underpinning the legal system can be discerned. Sinclair and Coulthard’s classroom taxonomy was applied firstly to the discourse, followed by further investigation of the moves in the exchanges along the lines of Halliday’s interpersonal, ideational and metalanguage components. In addition, characteristics of legal language were explored. It was found that, in combination, these form the medium through which the linguistic models of the legal system are presented. It is suggested that these elements of the discourse play an important role in initiating the students into the subject’s discourse community. It is further suggested that students with less facility and flexibility in English may be positioned less advantageously to benefit from these subtle messages.

This paper considers the various environments in which false starts may be found (turn control, same turn repair and other disfluencies). It is argued that false starts represent disfluencies at many different levels of discourse. Furthermore, false starts occur for a number of different reasons, and serve a number of different functions. This leads to a typology of false starts. As there are several distinct kinds of false starts that can be distinguished, a new set of notational devices for these distinct types of false starts is proposed.