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Graphical symbols intended to indicate priority facilities and priority seating for those with limited mobility were tested in Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom using the ISO 9186-1:2007 comprehension test. Screen presentation was used in some circumstances, paper booklet presentation in others. Results from the three countries demonstrate a high level of agreement and also that the two methods of administration had no detectable influence on results. The need to have clear agreement on response scoring to obtain international scoring consistency was shown. The use of testing as an aid to symbol redesign is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interactional pragmatics and membership categorisation analysis, with a focus on (un)accomplished intersubjectivity, categories and social action, this paper explores some new aspects of multimodal joint fantasising in online interaction. The data for this study comes from the public Facebook event page regarding the 'ski field opening' in Brisbane, a sub-tropical city in Australia. The first part of the analysis examines how intersubjectivity is accomplished through joint fantasising co-constructed among the posters, serving entertainment purposes. Invoking their membership in the category 'fantasisers', this is done in two ways: (1) flat co-construction gradient; and (2) upgraded co-construction gradient. The second part focusses on the instances wherein intersubjectivity in relation to the fantasy world is unaccomplished. It is indexed through (1) metapragmatic labels of humour types; (2) treating the event as real; and (3) doubting the authenticity of the event and challenging the joint fantasising posts. As a result, additional categories emerge, thereby constructing category relations, namely, oppositional categories such as 'fantasisers'-'the gullible' and 'fantasisers'-'sceptics'. This in situ change, I argue, creates a shift in the pragmatic function of joint fantasising, moving from a category-implicative action (serving entertainment) to a category-relations-implicative action (serving jocular criticism). This paper adds to the research on joint fantasising, categorial work and social action, and broadly contributes to our understanding of how members of the society orient to contexts and categories in and through talk-in-interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the changing currency of languages in the context of migration and mobility based on case studies of Filipino migrants in Australia. Drawing on two sociolinguistic studies conducted with and for Filipino migrants, I highlight how the "monolingual mindset" (Clyne, 2008) reinforced by the "White-English complex" (Piller, Torsh, & Smith-Khan, 2023) negatively impact on the value and currency of Philippine languages. As an alternative, I offer the concept multilingual mindset as an inclusive framework for valuing multilingual migrants in the diaspora. I first introduce the linguistic ecology and national language policies of both the Philippines and Australia to set the scene for my argument. I then map out the migration trends in both countries and the simultaneous socio-political events that have driven the growth of Filipino migration in Australia and introduce the two sociolinguistic studies with and for (Blackledge, 2006; Tetteh, 2015) Filipino migrants. This is followed by the presentation and critical discussion of three key conceptual arguments of this paper derived from these studies. Employing the "monolingual mindset" (Clyne, 2008) and "White-English complex" (Piller et al., 2023) as lenses, I then critically discuss how these concepts are detrimental to heritage language maintenance and inclusive multilingualism and argue that the maintenance of migrant languages in the diaspora would best be facilitated by an adoption of a multilingual mindset. The paper concludes with a discussion on the significance of the multilingual mindset to sociolinguistic studies and migration linguistics (Borlongan, 2023), in general, and to language attitudes, language practices, and language policies across different sectors, in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the dispute between East Timor and Australia over their maritime boundary as an illustrative context, this article discusses the role of semiotic resources in constructing chronotopes of protest. Reflecting first on language choice in urban protests during East Timor's struggle for independence, the paper goes on to analyse the deployment of material and virtual resources in East Timorese-led demonstrations against the Australian government's stance in the dispute. Using 'entanglement' as a structuring metaphor, and looking at language choice, social and grammatical indexicality, imagery, embodied cultural capital, and the choreography of assembly, the paper explores how protesters constructed a set of chronotopes that drew on the injuries of the colonial past, and re-emplaced and re-framed them in the post-colonial present. The paper looks at the linguistic landscape of protest as a semiotic aggregate in which the periphery claims a voice and 'talks back' to the centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the historical loss of root-initial consonants, using a case study of Middle Paman languages of Cape York Peninsula, in northeastern Australia. Systematic loss of initial consonants is a typologically unusual phenomenon, mainly found in Australia, that has often been regarded as a starting point for far-reaching changes in root structure, phonotactics and even phoneme inventory. So far, the literature has focused mainly on identifying phonetic causes of initial loss. This study focuses on the actual processes and pathways of initial loss, which is an equally important part of the historical puzzle. Specifically, it shows that there are multiple pathways for initial loss: it can be the result of a gradual phonetic process involving intermediate steps like lenition, as is assumed in part of the literature, but it can also be due to more abrupt processes involving borrowing and even morphosyntactic alternations. This adds to a more diversified model of how initial loss actually proceeds, which together with earlier work on the diversity of phonetic causes of initial loss produces a more comprehensive understanding of this typologically and diachronically unusual phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic research with Indigenous communities over several decades has shown that Indigenous contact languages have a large presence in the contemporary Indigenous landscapes of Australia, but this is not reflected in an equitable presence in policy or programs. Policy has not taken up or responded to the available language research and recommendations, nor is policy reliably informed by solid government language data. As a response to such issues, the Indigenous Language Ecologies framework has been developed. It is designed as a tool to assist policy makers to see and include the needs of contact language-speaking communities. The simple framework differentiates the main configurations of multilingualism in Indigenous communities in Australia today, comparing and contrasting the typical repertoires of speakers of contact languages, of Englishes and of traditional languages. It is intended to function as a useful heuristic and, as such, represents an example of translational research where specialist linguistic knowledge has been distilled for a non-specialist policy audience. The paper lays out the rationale for, and design of, this language ecologies approach, and its impact on policy and research to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has been a key tenet of Australian education policy since its launch over a decade ago. Print media coverage of NAPLAN and myschool.edu.au , which displays and compares NAPLAN results across Australia, has played a role in both reporting and shaping this aspect of education policy. This paper uses a corpus-assisted approach to map print media representations of NAPLAN over the first decade of the Program, from 2008 to 2018. Building on previous work on NAPLAN and the print media (Mockler, 2013, 2016), it draws on a corpus of almost 6,000 articles from the Australian national and capital city daily newspapers published between 2008 and 2018. It charts the discursive shifts that have taken place over this period as NAPLAN has transitioned in the public space from a diagnostic tool seen to be useful to educators, to a comparative tool seen to be useful to parents and the general public, and more recently to a contested tool seen to have narrow or limited utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most language-planning and policy (LPP) studies have focussed on language decisions made by government bodies, in recent years there has been an increased interest in micro-level language planning in immigrant contexts. Few studies, however, have used this framework to retrospectively examine the planning decisions of religious institutions, such as "ethnic" churches. This paper explores the language decisions made by the Lutheran church in Australia between 1838 and 1921. The study is based on archival research carried out in the Lutheran Archives in Adelaide, South Australia. The paper draws attention to the complex interrelationships between language, religion and identity in an immigrant context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is commonly implemented as a way to encourage innovation in language teaching. This paper explores how Japanese can also be used to innovate the teaching of content. Qualitative data are drawn from a Year 8 science Japanese CLIL classroom in a secondary school with an opt-in CLIL program. In the class, a monolingual (in English) science teacher was co-teaching with a Japanese language teacher. Findings from observations, after-class reflections, teacher and student interviews, a student survey and work samples revealed that students were highly engaged with the Japanese component of their science lessons. Kanji was further positioned as a way for students to deepen their understanding of scientific concepts. However, there also appeared to be a separation in the way both teachers and students spoke about Japanese language use and learning science. Implications of these findings are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction of Indonesian in the 1950s, the nature and extent of programs for studying the language in Australian schools has varied significantly. A decade on from the national report on the state of Indonesian language education in Australian schools that indicated a substantial decline in provision (Kohler & Mahnken, 2010), it is timely to take stock and consider how Indonesian is faring and why. This paper reports on a mixed methods study exploring the state and nature of Indonesian language provision in government schools in Australia. The findings indicate that while some decline continues overall, patterns of provision vary, particularly at different levels of schooling. The findings highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of the confluence of factors impacting on Indonesian (including contending ideologies), none of which adequately capture the intrinsic value and distinctiveness of studying Indonesian in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the framework of cultural linguistics is employed to examine how older people from two different ethnic backgrounds in Australia conceptualize ageing and their own experience of ageing. The paper employs a qualitative method for the instantiations of interviews from two focus groups of Australian women. The results indicated that women of Anglo-Celtic background had a more self-oriented perception of ageing, aged care and self, while women of Chinese background had a more relational outlook. However, the evidence indicated that changes were taking place in both traditions despite a certain degree of continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech pathology assessment within cross-cultural contexts, where the assessor and client differ in their cultural backgrounds, can create many challenges for assessment usage and implementation. With Australia being home to people from many cultures, this is a particular challenge for speech pathologists working in this country. This paper outlines the development of an assessment specifically for Aboriginal children living in a discrete region of the Kimberley in Western Australia. This assessment was developed in collaboration with local language experts as well as speech pathologists experienced in the area of assessment with Indigenous children. Nearly all parts of the assessment were administered by a local co-worker in the children's first language, Kimberley or Fitzroy Valley Kriol. The paper outlines the specific components of the assessment as well as the approaches taken to ensure fair and accurate assessment of children's communication skills. It highlights the benefits of collaborating with local co-workers and provides those working with Indigenous children in Australia with practical activities to consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its inception in 1977 until its last year of publication by an Australian publisher in 2015, the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics featured over 700 articles related to applied linguistics. This publication history provides a unique resource for tracing the scope and change of the applied linguistics landscape in Australia over the last four decades. While the journal design and format have naturally undergone some changes in this time, in this paper we consider the nature of the articles themselves, whether there have been changes in coverage or emphasis, and what this can tell us about the history of and the changes in applied linguistics in Australia. Our analysis of the articles focuses in particular on two independent dimensions - the sub-field of applied linguistics and the particular language under focus in each article - and the changes in frequencies of each of these over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic debate about the anachronism of national borders is extensive. The general population, however, has been less keen to embrace the idea of a 'postnational' world. This paper offers evidence from focus groups with Australians suggesting that in some quarters talking beyond the nation is occurring. However, the ideology of the nation-state remains strong and such talk is quickly shut down using a particular rhetorical device. This is 'the principle/practical' dichotomy, which insists that dropping national borders is impractical for a range of reasons, despite it perhaps being a valuable idea in principle. The paper explores the ways this occurs, using detailed critical discourse analysis. Practical objections are generally framed in terms of governance rather than cultural issues. However, practical examples of existing 'no borders' situations are used to make the counter-argument that a postnational world is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Australian education context, there are typically two cohorts of language learners at the secondary school level, those who commence their study of the target language early in their primary schooling (early starters), and those who commence their study later, at the beginning of secondary school (late starters). The two groups may have undertaken their language study under quite different program conditions, in particular in relation to "time-on-task"i. There is little empirical evidence about the nature of student achievement in languages at the end of primary and in junior secondary and its relationship to time-on-task. This paper compares the achievements of a sample of early and late start students of Indonesian in Australia using score data gathered from common measures of achievement. In addition, a small sample of student written responses are analysed in order to highlight issues related to eliciting and describing student achievement that may not be evident from the quantitative data alone. The findings of the study reveal the nature of achievement by early and late starters of Indonesian in the SAALE study, as well as the complexity of investigating a single variable such as time-on-task in relation to student achievement. The paper concludes by recommending that assessment of student achievement in language learning take into consideration methodologies that may capture more holistically a constellation of variables that impact on students' language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there have been a number of studies exploring the impact of time-on-task and language background on language achievement for both English and other languages, the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education (SAALE) project constitutes the first systematic attempt to gather empirical evidence of these effects for four Asian languages (Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean) in Australian schools. The paper focuses on the approach adopted to measure and exemplify the diverse nature of learner achievements in the context of concern. This approach involved a) the gathering of information about the language background and prior learning experience of the study's participants in order to establish learner sub-groups for subsequent analysis, b) the use of common assessment procedures at each level of schooling to compare levels of achievement across learner sub-groups and c) the analysis of samples of each sub-group's performance by teams of teacher experts to develop rich descriptions of achievement reflecting the different dimensions of diversity relevant to each language. The paper outlines the methodology adopted for the study, and reports briefly on the overall findings, Particular attention is paid to the challenges encountered in undertaking the research and to the further efforts that are needed to build on the project outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a case study of Japanese exchange students that investigated the ways such students note and evaluate various types of contact between native and host academic cultures while participating in new communities of practice at an Australian university. In this study, language management theory (Jernudd & Neustupný, 1987; Neustupný, 1985, 1994, 2004) was employed in conjunction with Lave and Wenger's (1991) concept of legitimate peripheral participation in order to investigate the sociocultural influence on cognitive processes of language management. The findings illustrate that not only norm deviations but also the phenomena relating to norm universality and compatibility generated processes of noting and evaluation. This study also provides an insight into mechanisms of self- and other-noting, as well as negative evaluations of norm deviations, and sheds light on positive evaluations of common disciplinary knowledge and cross-cultural situational similarities. Based on the findings, this paper indicates that noting and evaluation in language management processes should be considered in relation to students' social positionings, their power relations with other community members, their perceptions of self, and the context where the management occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the language used by Australian Football League (AFL) footballers and Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) journalists in their post-match interviews broadcast on ABC (774 Melbourne) radio. From Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Appraisal is used to investigate the evaluative language expressed by the AFL footballers in their exchanges with ABC journalists. Despite the many applications of linguistics to media discourse, especially within SFL, this research is the first to analyse the language of Australian athletes in their post-match interviews. It is found that irrespective of the result of the game, ABC journalists and AFL footballers maintain a neutral stance by countering expressions of positive Attitude with negative Attitude, as well as employing Graduation and Engagement resources that reduce authorial endorsement. These findings are summarized and discussed, including reference to neutralism from Conversation Analysis. The paper goes on to claim that the tenor between AFL footballers, ABC journalists and the broadcast audience makes it difficult for AFL footballers to express authoritative evaluations. The ultimate aim is to show that AFL footballers do well to negotiate a particularly challenging register. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the linguistic landscapes (LL) literature there is frequent mention of the viewing of public locales by passers-by, owners, and tourists, who necessarily enter and exit locales in different ways, times, and conditions. This paper extends our understanding of the viewing of LL by investigating the discursive constructions of the bathroom of a shared home through the voices of its residents: six Vietnamese international students studying in Australia. When the residents of the home were asked to reflect on their perceptions of language in this locale, the findings show that they attend to the inscriptions on the artifacts, the linguistic activities that take place within the locale, or see no LL whatsoever because of the ways they construct the locale. The findings suggest that linguists need to give more consideration to the types of linguistic activities that occur in a locale in exploration of how individuals view their LL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the patterns of language choice and the construction of L2 learning opportunities in foreign language learners' social networks by focusing on how these patterns and opportunities are socially structured in a Japanese language learner's natural interactions. It is based on a range of data, including a script of on-line chat occurring in natural environments as well interview data. Drawing on Cummins' (1996) concept of interpersonal space, the findings indicate that there were a number of social and contextual factors that seemed to affect the learner's language choice and L2 learning opportunities in complex ways. Most of these factors appeared to be related to the learner's and/or his network interactants' identity as an adequate L2 user and their perception of each other's L2 proficiency and/or role. This paper provides insights into how to create environments that promote the learners' opportunities for L2 use and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper focuses on the role of language and some issues associated with identifying appropriate language of instruction for three foundational Maths ideas in the Early Years of schooling. These are considered in relation to the project: Strong Literacy and Numeracy in Communities -- Numeracy Component. This had two broad goals, firstly to work with paraprofessional Indigenous teachers to determine an effective language of instruction for specific foundational numeracy concepts and secondly, to create a resource to enable this to be shared. Only two of the project sites are considered here. Both are in Yolŋui communities in northeast Arnhem Land, where English is not widely used for interaction. We focus on the use of first language, Djambarrpuyŋu, for the children's concept development. The English language that can be used is determined by what is possible for early second language learners. We will share some samples of the Djambarrpuyŋu identified for teaching early number ideas. We will describe the process by which suitable expressions for the key ideas in Djambarrpuyŋu were identified and some issues that arose regarding the use of language for comparing numbers. The project showed how 'Maths' lessons are a time both for concept development and for language development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how learner background shapes learner performance on discourse features in writing by analysing data produced as part of the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education project (Scarino et al., 2011) by Year 10 (mid-secondary school) students learning Korean as a foreign or heritage language. Five participants were in their second year of learning Korean as a foreign language at an Australian high school, whereas four Korean-speaking participants were learning their mother tongue in Saturday community schools and had varied experience of learning Korean and English, the language of mainstream schooling in Australia. Participants' performance on two writing tasks-one independent and one integrated- is examined in terms of two assessment categories-"forms and structures" (i.e., morphosyntax) and "discourse" (i.e., coherence and cohesion). Results reveal that participants' performance within each group varies according to task types and that the pattern of within-group variation also differs between the two groups. It appears that the two types of learners respond differently to different types of tasks and that their learning is different in nature. It is concluded that this difference needs to be taken into consideration in teaching and assessment in languages education at the secondary school level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates to what extent learners' first language (L1) may have an impact on their writing and speaking performances. While Japanese continues to enjoy a large enrolment across levels in Australian schools and universities, the population of learners has become increasingly diverse creating challenges for teachers. One dimension of this diversity is first language background which is the focus of the present study. The data for the present study includes writing and speaking test task performances from learners of different L1s collected for a larger study (see Scarino et al., 2011, and other papers in this volume). The samples were first scored using the scale developed for the larger study and then further analysed qualitatively. The results show that students from Chinese and Korean language backgrounds received higher scores in both writing and speaking, and showed a richness of content and a variety of forms and structures not evident in the performance of those from English and other L1 backgrounds. These findings are discussed in light of learners' level of familiarity with aspects of Japanese culture. The paper presents some suggestions for pedagogy, assessment and further research based on the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with language management within a transnational business network, with a specific focus on the process of noting. In an analysis of one business encounter involving one Japanese and one Australian business representative, language management is found to occur at the grammatical, (non-grammatical) communicative and also sociocultural/socioeconomic levels. Furthermore, the language management involves not just individual acts but also occurs at the level of the speech event, as seen through an analysis of how the participants perceive the function of the encounter and their respective roles vis-à-vis their own institutional networks. The data consists of a video-tape recording in conjunction with follow-up (stimulated recall) interviews with the two participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a critical overview of Australian research in the area of immigrant languages, arguing that this field of study is a significant component of the wider applied linguistics scene in Australia and has also contributed to enhancing the broad appreciation of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the country. It shows that research into immigrant languages has drawn upon a range of paradigms and evaluates those that have been most productively used. The paper argues that new research developments are needed to take into account the changing linguistic landscape of Australia and the increased fluidity and mobility of current migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's current attempt to develop a process to evaluate the quality of research (Excellence in Research for Australia -- ERA) places a central emphasis on the disciplinary organisation of academic work. This disciplinary focus poses particular problems for Applied Linguistics in Australia. This paper will examine Applied Linguistics in relation to this issue of discipline in no ways. First, it will examine ways in which Applied Linguistics has articulated for itself its disciplinary nature. In most formulations of the focus of Applied Linguistics, the emphasis has not been on identifying a discipline, but rather on identifying an area of focus. Such formulations necessarily cover a very diverse range of research methods, theories, etc. This approach can be seen as one of emphasising diversity and breadth within the field. Other attempts have been made to characterise Applied Linguistics in more discipline-like terms. Such broad characterisations however conceal a high degree of internal diversity. Applied Linguistics does not appear to be a 'discipline' but rather an interdisciplinary field of enquiry. Second, the paper will examine some possible implications of the diversity of Applied Linguistics for how it is positioned through the ERA process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overlap in conversation is a well-established area of conversation analysis research (e.g. Jefferson 1983; Schegloff 2000) which can reveal how participants orient to transition relevance places. This paper presents an analysis of overlap in the mixed (Garrwa, Kriol and English) language conversations of two indigenous Australian women as part of a larger study of turn-taking practices in indigenous conversations. Walsh (Walsh 1995) made some observations about Aboriginal conversational style, for example that they may enter a conversation without attending to the talk of others. His observational claims are empirically examined here in the context of our data. We find that the overlapping talk in our data follows many patterns similar to English speakers' talk, including transition space overlap (cf. Jefferson 1983) and simultaneous starts. The most important difference we found was overlap onset occurring shortly after the closure of the transition space, reflecting disattendance by speakers to the content, but not the timing, of each other's talk. Overall, however, we find that the turn-taking of these two women is overwhelmingly orderly, and deviations from orderliness can mostly be accounted for by their orientation to points of possible completion and rules of turn-taking as described by Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Languages education, or what has been called the study of languages other than English (LOTE), seems to involve a paradox in Australia. It is supposed to promote cultural enrichment and intercultural understanding, and yet the process of becoming a qualified language teacher tends to be intolerant of the cultural differences of overseas born and educated speakers of these languages. This is clear from an increasing body of literature on the difficulties experienced by overseas educated language teachers, which we review in the first half of this paper. Since this raises questions on how such teachers survive in Australia, we then present an introspective study of the experiences of the first author, including the circumstances that brought her to Australia, the difficulties she faced in teacher training and as a newly employed teacher, and the factors that enabled her to cope and eventually succeed. Her experiences highlight the particular importance of supportive supervisors and colleagues, thus suggesting a valuable role for mentoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the validity of the bonus for languages other than English (known as the Language Bonus) established in Australia to boost participation in language education. In subjecting this incentive plan to empirical investigation, we not only address a gap in the literature, but also continue the discussion on how to ensure that the efforts made by governments, schools, education agencies and teachers to support language study in schooling can have long-term success. Using data from a large-scale investigation, we consider the significance of the Language Bonus in influencing students' decisions to study a language at school and at university. While this paper has a local focus - an English-speaking country in which language study is not compulsory - it engages with questions from the broader agenda of providing incentives for learning languages. It will be relevant especially for language policy in English speaking countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings from a study that examines the motivations of adult Australians of non-Italian origin to learn Italian in continuing education contexts in Sydney. The study embraces a view of motivation as a multifaceted phenomenon that is produced in a social environment through the interaction between the second language learners and the context in which they operate. The findings reveal that in the Australian multicultural context, the motivation to learn Italian is influenced by a process of negotiation of identity, triggered by both the presence of a well-established Italian migrant community, and the exposure to Italian cultural elements. Thus, the 'investment' of students in learning Italian may be generated by the desire to acquire some forms of symbolic capital rather than material resources, as in the case of other more 'global' languages (e.g., English). The willingness to invest in the acquisition of elements of symbolic capital indicates learners' desire to achieve goals related to self-growth and identity development, which in turn generates greater gains in wellbeing. Interviews with the participants also reveal that intrinsic factors, such as affiliation (with the target language speaking community, as well as with the community of learners in Sydney), and self-realization (correspondence with the ideal self-image of a competent language speaker), are key motivators for this group of students. The desire to belong to a community, of either speakers of Italian or like-minded people involved in the same learning trajectory, highlights the importance of cultivating meaningful relationships to increase individuals' wellbeing and to nurture a sense of attachment and affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the 'Bridging the Language Gap' project undertaken with 86 State and Catholic schools across Queensland, the language competencies of Indigenous students have been found to be 'invisible' in several key and self-reinforcing ways in school system data. A proliferation of inaccurate, illogical and incomplete data exists about students' home languages and their status as English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) learners in schools. This is strongly suggestive of the fact that 'language' is not perceived by school systems as a significant operative variable in student performance, not even in the current education climate of data-driven improvement. Moreover, the National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the annual standardised testing regime, does not collect relevant information on students' language repertoires and levels of proficiency in Standard Australian English (SAE). Indigenous students who are over-represented in NAPLAN under-performance data are targeted through 'Closing the Gap' for interventions to raise their literacy and numeracy achievements (in SAE). However, Indigenous students who are EAL/D learners cannot be disaggregated by system data from their counterparts already fluent in SAE. Reasons behind such profound language invisibility are discussed, as well as the implications for social inclusion of Indigenous students in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the figurative expression of emotion in Gija, a non-Pama-Nyungan language from the East Kimberley in Western Australia. As in many Australian languages, Gija displays a large number of metaphors of emotion where miscellaneous body parts – frequently, the belly – contribute to the figurative representation of emotions. In addition, in Gija certain verbal constructions describe the experience of emotion via metaphors of physical impact or damage. This second profile of metaphors is far less widespread, in Australia and elsewhere in the world, and has also attracted far fewer descriptions. This article explores both types of metaphors in turn. Body-based metaphors will be discussed first, and we will highlight the specificity of Gija in this respect, so as to offer data that can be compared to other languages, in Australia and elsewhere. The second part of the article will present verbal metaphors. Given that this phenomenon is not yet very well undersood, this account aims to take a first step into documenting a previously unexplored domain in the language thereby contributing to the broader typology that this issue forms a part of. Throughout the text, we also endeavour to connect the discussion of metaphors with local representations and understanding of emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rhetoric around global connectedness and advances in information communication technologies (ICTs) suggests that: Professional life for the marginalised and isolated language teacher should be easier; the experience of language learners in Australian schools should be more meaningful and bring them closer to the languages and communities that they are studying; and collectively this should be empowering for students and teachers and, in turn, empower the languages learning area with respect to its status and place within the curriculum. This paper examines these assumptions through a qualitative multiple case study investigation of the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in secondary school language classes. The study explores the perceptions and experiences of early adolescent language learners and those of their teachers. It also identifies and examines a range of contextual factors that both complicate and nuance the technology and languages learning nexus. The findings of the study question the assumption of 'automaticity' associated with ICTs and an enhanced/improved language learning experience for all those involved. This study finds that experience with technologies can impact negatively on both learners and teachers. This, in turn, can have an adverse influence on perceptions about languages and their status in schools. At a time when schools are investing heavily in information communication technologies, and when they are having to manage the introduction of the Australian Curriculum: Languages, the findings of this study serve to highlight the place of the 'critical' in terms of languages in Australian schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Chinese language learning in Australian schools is characterised by predominantly second language programs for learners who have had no prior exposure to the target language, there is increasing participation by Australian-born children who speak Putonghua (Mandarin) or another dialect at home. Curriculum and assessment frameworks and syllabuses at senior secondary level have responded to the diversity in learner background through the provision of separate curricula and assessment schemes for different learner groups based on country of birth, prior educational experience and languages used at home. However the impact of learner background on learning and achievement as learners progress through Chinese language programs both in primary and secondary school remains under-researched. In particular, evidence of how the performance of second language learners differs from that of learners who a) speak the language at home and b) may have substantial community schooling experience beyond the school classroom, or c) were born and initially educated in Chinese, is very limited. This paper reports on the results of the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education (SAALE) Project (Scarino et al., 2011; Scarino, this issue and Elder, Kim & Knoch, this issue) with regard to student achievement in Chinese. It focuses on the writing performance of Year 10 learners of Chinese and considers specifically the impact of language background by comparing performances between Australian-born students who do and do not speak Chinese at home. Scores assigned to students' writing gathered on common test procedures confirms the expectation that background language learners perform at significantly higher levels and suggests that the two groups also differ in the nature of that performance. The implications of this data for the teaching, learning and assessment of Chinese in schools, and for the appropriate provision of programs for these different groups of learners is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss various reports published within the issue, including one on the diversity of learner achievements in the Australian education system, one on processes followed for the Student Achievements in Asian Languages Education (SAALE) project, and another on the time-on-task factor in relation to the study of Indonesian language in primary and junior secondary schools.

This paper investigates the effect of listener attitudes on the ability to understand a foreign (non-Australian) accent. The research focuses on individual listener characteristics, such as attitude and frequency of contact with accented speakers, rather than speech production. Data was collected through a web-based survey and analysis employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Correlation was found between a negative attitude toward other ethnicities and ability to correctly transcribe foreign-accented speech, with a stronger correlation between a negative attitude and comprehensibility. Qualitative analysis of participant comments highlighted discrepancies in attitude testing methods and indicated that an accent can inspire many assumptions, the most common being that foreign-accented speakers have a lower level of education than Australian-accented speakers. The results suggest that future research in this area should always try to account for individual participant characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the provision of applied linguistics within Australian universities. We focus on how the 'what' of applied linguistics, as captured in scholarly definitions of the discipline, accords with the 'where', as captured in potential contexts of application as these are manifested in provision. In doing so, we examine the extent of any congruence or divergence between how applied linguistics is understood in the abstract and how it is realised in degree programs. Our findings, based an analysis of data collected via a survey of university websites, suggest that while the rhetoric around course offerings may suggest a wider view of the discipline, the content of applied linguistics programs generally reflects a narrower interpretation which aligns closely with observations often made as caveats to scholarly definitions and sees English language teaching as predominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the discourse of interpreter-mediated examinations of Korean-speaking witnesses in an Australian courtroom, this paper explores court interpreters’ renditions of reported speech contained in witnesses’ evidence. Direct reported speech is generally preferred in the courtroom because of the evidentiary rule against the admission of hearsay. However, Korean-speaking witnesses who are not familiar with this rule and with the discursive practices of the court tend to use indirect reported speech. This paper examines how Koreans’ general preference for indirect reported speech is handled by court interpreters. The findings suggest that the tendency among Korean interpreters to convert indirect into direct reported speech in English renditions may have implications for the accuracy of interpreted evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents preliminary findings of a project which investigated whether learner background, in terms of instruction mode (i.e., school or intensive first-year course at university) and first language (i.e., character based or non-character based), has an impact on the development of writing skills in Japanese as a second language (JSL). Many students in second-year Japanese at university are post-secondary (i.e., they completed Year 12 Japanese at school). They are in class with students who started Japanese at university (i.e., are post-beginners). The intensity of instruction that the two groups have received is very different. A large number of the students learning Japanese at tertiary institutions in Australia are also native speakers of character-based languages (e.g., Chinese). Although there is a substantial volume of studies comparing the effects of instruction mode on L2 development, little is known of how instruction mode and L1 background together may affect L2 development in adult 1_2 learning settings. The data for the present study include writing samples collected on two occasions from 34 students from a variety of backgrounds. The samples were analysed in terms of length, grammatical complexity and schematic structures, use of kanji (Chinese characters), and vocabulary. The results were compared in terms of study experience and first language. In general, the performance of post-beginner learners from character-based language backgrounds was higher on kanji use and a few other areas, but their superior performance was derived from the interaction of two background factors (L1 and study background). The results show complexity in how different backgrounds affect L2 writing task performance. The study has strong pedagogical implications for teaching a character-based language to students from diverse study backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the application of professional information design practices that have grown out of research conducted by the Communication Research Institute (CRI), formerly the Communication Research Institute of Australia (CRIA), and others. In particular, it focuses on the role of testing in studio practice.Starting in the mid 1980s, CRI undertook a number of large-scale applied projects funded by government and industry to improve the quality of communication between large organisations and the public. The research focused on discovering the best methods for designing information for public use.The CRI research was able to draw on a substantial body of prior research in design methods (e.g. Jones 1970), document designs (e.g. Felker et al 1980) and specifically in information design (e.g. Easterby & Zwaga 1984). Moreover, a growing number of significant case histories published in this journal have provided an emerging view of professional practice in the field (e.g. Goodwin 1984, Tomaselli & Tomaselli 1984, Waller 1984) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses changing meanings attached to the concept of community in languages education in the school setting in Australia. The change consists of a shift from "community" as a necessary definitional category, created in the mid 1970s to mark the recognition of languages other than English used in the Australian community to a recognition in the current context of increasingly mobility of people and ideas of the need to problematise the concept of "community" towards working with the complexity of the lived dynamic languages and cultures in the repertoires of students. Intercultural language learning is discussed as a way of thinking about communities in languages education in current times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most high-profile and glamorous speech situations to occur in many parliamentary democracies around the world is the spectacle of Question Time. Whereas most of what goes on in parliament may be drab, perfunctory and arcane, Question Time is often dramatic, adversarial, and highly publicised. It is, generally, the only parliamentary procedure to be televised and stands out in the public mind as one of the primary tests of a politicians ability to perform. But how might this performance be judged? Strangely, there has been little systematic linguistic research into the characteristic ways in which this political theatre is stage-managed by its actors. Using the Australian federal parliament as a case study, this paper attempts to elucidate some of the patterns that emerge from a close analysis of all opposition questions directed to government members over a weeks sitting of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Utilising the tools of systemic functional grammar, recurring discourse structures are identified as standard techniques of formal interrogation between political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of low fertility and Australia's ageing population, a national longitudinal telephone survey, Negotiating the Life Course (NLC), asks women about their childbearing intentions. This paper uses conversation analysis (CA) to examine interaction between an interviewer and respondents on one NLC question about the likelihood of having children, Question 165. The analysis focuses on excerpts from troubled interviews, making transparent the task of negotiating responses acceptable to the interviewer and shedding light on problems inherent in the question for older women and women for whom prediction is difficult. Analysis shows the trouble to result from lack of congruence in the purposes of the researcher and the respondent: the researcher asks about likelihood, whereas the respondent tells her own story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article reports on research conducted during late 2004 on the language abilities of Australia's parliamentarians and a parliamentary debate in 2005 on languages in Australia. A small questionnaire was administered to all members of the nine legislative structures of Australia comprising six states, two territories and the one Federal parliament. This is the first such survey in Australia. While the response rate was uneven, from good to poor, the survey does shed light on the range and number of languages other than English spoken by Australia's parliamentary representatives, where their language capabilities were gained, how proficient they estimate themselves to be, and in what settings their language skills are used. The paper includes a comparison between these Australian data and equivalent, though slightly less sketchy, data from the UK. The article concludes with the text and debate of a recent private members' bill on languages and makes comments on the responses in light of the language abilities of the parliamentarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telephone interpreting has been used widely in various community interpreting settings, but it has received little attention as a distinct area of interpreting in the growing body of interpreting studies. As telephone interpreting is being promoted for its convenience and for the greater availability of interpreters, this paper examines the perspective of telephone interpreters on their professional activity. Based on telephone surveys with Korean interpreters working in Australia, this paper investigates the profiles of the telephone interpreters in terms of age, gender, years of working experience, and employment type, as well as their professional practice and their opinions about telephone interpreting and the role of telephone interpreters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article previews the April 2007 issue of the "Journal of Asian Communication." The article notes that the current issue focuses on language and communication in Australia and New Zealand. The author highlights the bicultural nature of both countries, as Europeans and indigenous cultural traditions interact on a regular basis. The article also states that globalization has made Australia and New Zealand even more of a cultural melting pot, and articles in the issue focus on ethnic diversity and multiculturalism in both countries.

The introduction and spread of Ms as the courtesy address title for women is a cornerstone of feminist linguistic planning for English. Its introduction aimed to eradicate the discriminatory inequity in the address system that exposed women through their (non)marital relationship with men. The understanding, use and impact of the courtesy title are fairly well documented, particularly for Englishes of Australia (e.g. Pauwels 1987; 1998; 2001; 2003), US and Britain (Romaine 2001) and New Zealand (Holmes 2001). We have little knowledge of the form's spread, impact and use by speakers for whom English is not the dominant language but forms part of their linguistic repertoire. Graddol (1997) argues that English-speaking bilinguals will outnumber first language speakers and, increasingly will decide the global future of the language' (p.10). Such contexts of English -- second / third / foreign -- usage loosely align with locales Kachru (1997) identified as 'expanding circles', and to some extent, many of the 'outer circle' Englishes, e.g. Hong Kong. In this paper we take up a new direction in feminist language planning: the exploration of courtesy title use and practices by English-speaking mono-/bi-/multilingual women around the world. We draw upon online survey data (available from http://www.teagirl.arts.uwa.edu.au/) to probe respondents' strategies for addressing unknown women, as well as women's use of courtesy titles for themselves. Our mapping of practices associated with Ms reveals an unexpected pattern of diffusion with implications for evaluating planned social language change. In relation to Ms, the implementation of feminist linguistic policy does not cohere with a pattern of spread from inner to outer to expanding 'circles' of English or from 'first language speaker' to... 'foreign language speaker' diffusion. The locale and personal contexts associated with education, awareness and personal commitment to gender equity interact in complicating, and surprising ways. Indeed our research exposes a new directionality for Ms as a preferred form for unknown women, without necessarily implicating its use in self-naming for many bilingual women resident in 'outer circle' locales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom discourse analysis has contributed to understandings of the nature of student-teacher interactions, and how learning takes place in the classroom; however, much of this work has been Undertaken in teacher-directed learning contexts. Student-centred classrooms such as problem-based learning (PBL) approaches are increasingly common in professional disciplines such as the health sciences and medicine. With the globalisation of education, health science and medical education, PBL classrooms are often sites of considerable linguistic and cultural diversity, yet little is known from a classroom discourse perspective about the language demands of PBL. This paper examines the ways in which the students and tutor negotiate and construct meanings through language in one first year physiotherapy PBL tutorial at an Australian university, with a particular focus on the ways in which the discourse is regulated in a student-centred learning environment. The analysis of the classroom discourse is underpinned by Halliday's systemic functional linguistics. The findings provide a description of the linguistic resources students draw on to co-construct and negotiate knowledge, as well as show how the tutor, with minimal strategic interventions, scaffolds the students' learning. The findings also suggest that the PBL environment can be a challenging one for students whose cultural and language backgrounds are different from that of the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates examination English in Australia from the point of view of two analytical frameworks: Bernstein’s code theory and systemic functional linguistics. Linguistically it explores the semantic features of six responses to an open question about an unseen narrative in Year 10 examinations. Two responses at three achievement levels are described in terms of ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings and the overall orientation to narrative interpretation in each grade is related to a particular type of reading — tactical, (D or E grade), mimetic (C grade) and symbolic (A- grade). Capturing students’ orientations to meaning through text analysis is one aspect of the challenge. The other is explaining how some students appear to ‘recognize’ and ‘realize’ what the ‘open question’ requires of them in this context while others do not. The second half of the paper applies Bernstein’s code theory, particularly his notion of ‘recognition’ and ‘realization rules’ to the readings students make of the interpretive context. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the potential of this dual analysis (textual and contextual) for making success in school English both more visible for students currently disadvantaged by examination English and more tractable rhetorically in their production of successful responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]