Language Planning in Relation to the Education of Bidialectals and Bilinguals. Linguistic Communications: Working Papers of the Linguistic Society of Australia, No. 16.

The aims of this paper are to: (1) emphasize the need for language planning in efforts to solve the sociolinguistic problems of bidialectal and bilingual indegenous peoples in Australia, (2) demonstrate that these problems are not confined to Australia, and (3) show that methods of language planning and research in language attitudes developed in the United States are applicable in Australia. The observations in the paper are based on twelve years of linguistic and field experience in Queensland, supplemented by papers by Spolsky and Shuy delivered at the Third International Congress of Applied Linguistics in 1972, and briefly outlined here. The sociolinguistic problems associated with the education of aboriginals in Australia are discussed, particularly the implications of linguistic variety for the choice of instructional medium. In this area, three choices are apparent: (1) instruction at least at the primary level in the aboriginal vernacular; (2) instruction in the Aboriginal English L or familiar form; (3) instruction in Standard English H or General Australian English. The best basis for planning and developing educational programs is formed by research into language attitudes and language maintenance initiated by government authorities and administered by community leaders. The linguist's role in language planning is discussed, and specific language planning efforts in Australia are briefly mentioned. (CLK)