Policy Challenges for Bilingual and Immersion Education in Australia: Literacy and Language Choices for Users of Aboriginal Languages, Auslan and Italian

• Autores: Michele de Courcy
• Localización: International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, ISSN 1367-0050, Vol. 8, Nº. 2-3, 2005, págs. 178-187
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 2 Citas
• Resumen

  • This paper deals with the author's recent work on political, sociolinguistic and educational aspects of bilingual and immersion education in Australia. Among the cases considered are: the development of a professional position statement on bilingual and immersion education, to be disseminated to policy makers; advising on an Auslan (Australian language of the Deaf) bilingual programme; and a proposed investigation of why there are no Italian late immersion programmes in Victoria, despite the importance of Italian as a community language of long standing. Several aspects of heritage/community language education in Australia will be discussed: political issues of programme staffing and funding; the impact of sociolinguistic factors, relating to a particular community language and how it is viewed by its own and other communities, on the types of programmes that will be undertaken; and the effect of educational decisions taken by school administrators on the language learning experiences of children in immersion programmes.