Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 34, Issue 1, 2011

Changes in the political climate in the home country have resulted in the emigration of South Africans to English speaking countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Despite the scale of movement of the South African population, language maintenance in these diasporic contexts has received little consideration. This paper presents a description of an Australian Afrikaans-speaking community in the small Queensland city of Toowoomba. The study shows a high degree of bilingualism amongst the first generation Afrikaans community but also shows incipient signs of language shift within the home and a weak connection between language and identity.

This paper reports on a study of Malay learners of English in Malaysia as they attempt to extend their use of English outside the classroom and thus participate in new linguistic practices. Using a multiple case study approach, the study examines the narrative accounts of learners generated through student journals and focus group discussions. These are stories of conflict, tension, negotiation, and renewal as these aspiring bilinguals use English to contest language boundaries, transform social and linguistic resources, and express new identities. The analysis offers insights into how the norms of language choice and use are generated, preserved and changed, how language ideologies lend value to particular linguistic practices and stigmatise others, and what the consequences are of these practices in the lives and identities of people and the community as a whole.

The study reported here investigates the predictive validity of language assessments by ‘Direct Entry’ programs at an Australian University – programs developed on site for Non English Speaking Background international students, principally to provide (i) pre-entry academic and language preparation and (ii) language assessment for university admissions purposes. All 138 students in the sample had entered degree studies via one of the three programs that made up the locally-developed Direct Entry pathway. Inferential statistics (correlation and regression) showed the assessments awarded by two programs to satisfactorily predict academic outcomes, while predictive validity for one was not demonstrated. Descriptive statistics (mean pass rates and academic averages) then revealed a pattern of relatively poor academic performance in certain university disciplines to which particular Direct Entry programs were dedicated. Informed by principles of language program evaluation, the study’s outcomes were seen as both summative and formative: remedial strategies are accordingly recommended. While the specific relevance of the study’s findings is to the particular institutional context in which the study was conducted, the study instantiates a perspective on language assessment validation of broader relevance in an Australian context where locally-developed Direct Entry programs – about which the research literature is largely silent – are increasingly widespread.

Repeated assessments of literacy skills have shown that Aboriginal students do not achieve at the same level as their non-Aboriginal peers. Many Aboriginal students speak Aboriginal English, a dialect different from the Standard Australian English used in schools. Research shows that it is crucial for educators in bidialectal contexts to be aware of students’ home language and to adopt appropriate educational responses. For over a decade, the ABC of Two-Way Literacy and Learning Professional Development Program has sought to improve outcomes for Aboriginal students in Western Australia. By promoting a two-way bidialectal approach to learning, Aboriginal English is valued, accommodated and used to bridge to learning in Standard Australian English. This paper draws on a large research project, which used qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the impact of the on-going professional development for teachers. It reports on the attitudes and understandings of teachers, with and without professional development and working in different contexts.

Research article introductions (RAIs) play a significant role in gaining publication, and therefore have been studied by many applied linguists. Research into RAIs published in Indonesia has begun to be developed (Adnan, 2009; Mirahayuni, 2001; Safnil, 2000), and generally conclude that Indonesian Humanities RAIs were structured differently from English RAIs. However, as these are early studies, their findings still awaits scrutiny, and little information on Indonesian RAIs especially in Education has been published. Several models describing discourse structure of research article introductions have been proposed, but they have been problematic when applied to analyse RAIs. This paper reports an examination of the applicability of two important models, the CARS (Swales, 1990) and the PJP model claimed to be an Indonesian model of Humanities RAIs (Safnil, 2000), using a selection of 21 Indonesian research article Introductions (RAIs) written by Indonesian academics in Education. It concentrates on the following questions: To what extent do these models fit the data and why? The examination found that none of the RAIs fit the CARS, and only less than half fit the PJP model for various reasons. Therefore a new model is proposed. This model fits most of the data. The paper claims that apart from national concerns, discourse patterns of RAIs are also affected by writing guides provided by the discipline.