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Showing posts from December, 2008

A few more links

It's my last day at work before my Christmas break and I feel slack. If you want something to procrastinate, here are some things to look at (thanks to Claire for these links): AIATSIS has launched 'AUSTLANG' - a comprehensive database with every Aboriginal and TSI Language. You can find out basic stuff like where each language is, how many speakers there are, how well it's been documented and by who etc. You can also update the info if you're a clever chicken with more info to add. Have a look at AUSTLANG . Jangari is another clever chicken who has been involved in developing Aboriginal language applications for mobile phones. Having already starred on SBS news, he's now in the Sydney Morning Herald . Good work. Speaking of good work, the lobbying and awareness-raising about the effects of the awful four-hours-of-English-instruction-in-NT-schools policy is beginning to pay. The Education Minister has softened a little and is giving schools a year to 

Bilingual Education debate hots up

The NT Stateline program on ABC did a segment on the bilingual education debate that is just getting hotter and hotter. The transcript is good reading. I'm pleased to say that me and others who are supporting and raising awareness about bilingual education are being heard and maybe even making minor progress. However the Education Minister Marion Scrymgour is still being stubborn and choosing to ignore national and international research that supports bilingual education programs and choosing to deny the rights of remote Indigenous people to determine or influence their own education delivery in their own communities. Shame on her. She doesn't seem to like me and fellow bilingual education supporters one bit. She's gone on the record saying we are misrepresenting her and off the record she calls us the 'bilingual mafia'. I prefer the term 'people that actually know something about bilingual education (even education in general?)'.