The language learning environment of indigenous preschool children

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The language learning environment of indigenous
preschool children
Jane Simpson and University of Sydney and
Gillian Wigglesworth University of Melbourne
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This Paper

• Project background
• Kinds of input
• Focus on Yakanarra and Tennant Creek
• Traditional language input - and problems with
  measuring it
• New languages - sources, code-switching
• Code-switching in Yakanarra and Tennant Creek
• Differences between communities
• Differences in new languages
• Variation
• Conclusion changes, indigenous language shift

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Previous studies of bilingual acquisition

• Traditionally have involved single children,
  often growing up in a one parent, one language
  environment
• Focus has been on the cognitive processes of the
  child, particularly with respect to the childs
  ability to differentiate the languages
• Recently there has been increased focus on the
  effect of the input on the childs mixing

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Mixed input

• Traditionally mixed input has been negatively
  evaluated
• In Central Australia code switching reflects
  normal conversational behaviour
• Children receive variable input in different
  codes
• Input is from a wider circle of relations and
  peers than reported for Western children
• Later we will investigate how children deal with
  this input, and the effect it has on their own
  language

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Research questions

• Designed to address three research questions
• what language input do indigenous Australian
  Aboriginal children receive from traditional
  indigenous languages, Kriol and varieties of
  English, and from code-switching involving these
  languages as used by adults and older children?
• what processes of language shift, maintenance and
  change can be hypothesised to result from this
  multilingual environment, as evidenced by the
  childrens input and output and the degree to
  which this reflects transmission of the target
  languages, the loss of traditional languages, or
  the emergence of new mixed languages?
• what effect does this have on the childrens
  language acquisition how is the input reflected
  in their production

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Communities and languages involved in the project
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The project design

• Three communities with one fieldworker and
• one indigenous researcher in each community
• 6-8 pre-school focus children in each community
• Two six week visits per community per year
• Video data collected over 3 years
• four or five sessions with each focus child
• includes data from interlocutors at a range of
  ages
• includes structured, semi structured and
• naturalistic data

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Data sources

• Focus group children who were aged between 18
  months and 2 years at the beginning of the
  project
• Each focus child is video-recorded approximately
  four times per field trip with various activities
  which include different levels of control
• story book reading ( a number of people reading
  the same book to the same child)
• set play situation e.g. dolls house, cars, toy
  mobile phones, etc.
• Naturalistic settings, e.g fishing, swimming etc

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Input overview
No one talks straight Traditional Language
(except Lajamanu) or straight English in child
directed speech
People use a broad range from mixed language to
close to standard English
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Range of input
Use of traditional language
Range acrolectal, basilectal creoles, mixed
languages
Code-switching between all codes
Variation in input
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Traditional language tokens and types

• a first attempt to measure presence of
  traditional language in the present-day language
• more traditional language tokens used in
  proportion to total tokens in Tennant Creek than
  Yakanarra
• impression younger speakers use fewer types than
  older speakers, and mostly nouns
• searching for more accurate ways to measure
  presence of traditional language

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Traditional languagediversity of types

• The distribution of presence of parts of speech
  differs with age of speaker.
• Older speakers have a wider range of parts of
  speech.
• Nouns are the most likely parts of speech to be
  retained.
• Communities differ as to whether grammatical
  morphemes are retained.

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New languages
Late nineteenth, early twentieth century Northern
Australian creole and pidgin spread through the
north Yakanarra area Fitzroy Valley Kriol is
recorded at least by the 1930s (Hudson
1985) Tennant Creek area early 1900s
Warumungu speakers recorded using pidgin at Banka
Banka station. Development of basilectal Kriol on
Barkly Tablelands and Ali Curung, but adoption of
acrolectal Kriol at Banka Banka station.
Daguragu area early 1900s English-based pidgin,
followed by use of Kriol in 1970s, followed by
development of mixed language documented in late
1980s.
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Sources for new languages

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Differences between code-switching and mixed
languages
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Code-switching in Yakanarra
Speakers use Acrolectal and Basilectal Kriol and
code-switch between them, and use some words of
Walmajarri. Older speakers can code-switch with
Walmajarri. MO Wat i doing did man? What is
that man doing CHI I silipin iya. Hes
sleeping here MO A i silipin. Ah hes
sleeping MO En wat is kunyarr doing? And
whats the dog doing?
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Code-switching Tennant Creek
Speakers use Acrolectal and Basilectal creole
(called Wumpurrarni English) and code-switch
between them, and use some words of Warumungu.
Older speakers can code-switch with Warumungu.
Some middle-aged speakers from the Barkly
Tablelands appear to have a mixed
language. Code-switching between Acrolectal and
Basilectal Kriol MODid you come today? Yu bin
kam fo plei? Baby yu bin kam fo plei?
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Code-switching between Warumungu, acrolectal
Wumpurrarni English, basilectal W.E. and
indeterminate forms
SBT da Rikisha, da Rikisha. SRT she's deya o
partirranyi ama?
leave.PAST she Is she there or has she
gone? SBM apurtu im deya o warraku taun kana?
FM nothing
to Father's mother, is she there or not -
in town? SBM xx im deya o im gown taun? Is she
there or has she gone to town? SBMDorothy. SRT
ah, ah kamanta ankkul nyunyu.
OK we.SUBJ give-PAST Ah, it's done we've
?given it?
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Types of differences between speakers and
communities

• Number of morphemes in TL and English and new
  languages
• Diversity of types
• Use of TL grammar (e.g. case-marking)
• Mixing of morphemes of different origin in words

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Differences in new languages
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Variation in W.E. inputmiddle-aged Warumungu
speaker
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Summary on Input

• Input is highly variable but may be
  conventionalising/stabilising
• Awareness of language differences
• Use of code-switching among children?

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Change

• Creolisation-decreolisation? Yakanarra seems to
  fit this most, but innovation also
• Speed and nature of language shift
• Walmajarri certainly more abrupt than Gurindji,
  or even perhaps Warumungu
• Basilectal Kriol virtually disappearing at
  Yakanarra.

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Situation of languages
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Indigenous language shiftIn Australia Indigenous
population rises, but the number of traditional
Indigenous language speakers remains steady and
many languages lose last speakers
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Age profile endangerment