The ownership of Aboriginal English in Australia.

ABSTRACT A widely-observed postcolonial phenomenon is the indigenization of English by communities into which it was formerly involuntarily introduced. When this takes place, the community which has appropriated English to serve its own purposes regards the language as their own. The question of the ownership of English has been extensively discussed by applied linguists against the background of globalization and the need for TESOL teachers to agree on what they can legitimately claim to teach. Aboriginal English is non-standard and has a long history in Australia of marginalization. This paper argues, on the basis of Australian and international evidence, that claims of ownership of a dialect of English entail questions of identity, authenticity, group membership and language rights. In particular, it investigates the bidialectal tension affecting Aboriginal Australians, involving ambivalence to Standard English, potential misinterpretation of the unqualified term 'English' and the cross-cultural use of schemas in interpreting speakers of the other dialect. The paper concludes by addressing the question of under what conditions, in view of the assertion of ownership of English by Aboriginal English speakers, education may successfully equip them to operate in a world which requires Standard English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]