The other day, I was priveleged in attending a TESOL symposium about 'Keeping Language Diversity Alive'. One of the speakers, Joseph Lo Bianco was excellent and discussed Language Policy. He gave a handout at one of his sessions that I'm going to type out in full here, because it was a real eye-opener. It's from the Official Hansard of the Federal Parliament from a debate that happened on 10/12/98. Here's how it went: Mr SNOWDON: My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of the decision by the Northern Territory government to phase out bilingual education in Aboriginal schools? Is the Prime Minister also aware that his government funds bilingual education programs in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam? Prime Minister, given that article 26(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children, will you take a direct approach to the Norther...
Non-Indigenous (i.e. munanga) linguist doing a bunch of stuff in the Katherine Region with languages (and more) occasionally sharing his thoughts...
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Language Centre Mob, you rock.
main dubala baba en main ngayali ai bin oldei jingabata olabat ( I miss you).
melabat bin jingabat yu wanim bin happin bla yu. melabat worry blanga yu.
yu jidan seif wei na.
all our love simone and det lawyer mob en la katherrein