Towards a bilingual nation
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February 20, 2006
Page 1 of 2
Multicultural Australia has tremendous language potential, says
Professor Michael Clyne.
Multicultural Australia has tremendous language potential, says
Professor Michael Clyne.
Photo: Supplied
Australia is wasting its potential in languages. Margaret Cook reports.
MICHAEL CLYNE, a passionate advocate for bilingualism, practises what
he preaches. He grew up in a family that spoke English and German at
home. As a father, he spoke (and still speaks) only German to his now
adult daughter; her mother spoke to her in English.
Professor Clyne, who also speaks Dutch and has studied French,
Italian, Swedish and Norwegian, says research has found that young
monolingual children think differently to those who are bilingual."
If you ask them, 'can you call a cow, a dog?' monolingual children
will say 'No, that's silly'. However, bilingual children might say
'Yes, because the words are similar in my language'." They have a
better sense of the arbitrary nature of words, and the difference
between form and meaning."
And because they're constantly switching between languages - if they
can't say something one way, they switch to another - they develop
very strong problem-solving and cognitive skills."
Professor Clyne has researched bi and multilingualism and
inter-cultural communication for more than 40 years. In his book
Australia's Language Potential he explores the paradox of "a nation
rich in language resources, yet characterised (at government and
community level) by monolingual thinking".
In some ways the situation is positive, he says. According to the 2001
census, 240 languages are spoken in Australia, and 16 per cent of the
population speaks a language other than English at home.
This doesn't include people who speak English at home but another
language when they visit their parents.
Also, half of our top 20 languages - Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish,
Hindi, Arabic, German, French, Italian, Korean and Vietnamese - are
among the most widely used in the world.
But Professor Clyne despairs that many Australians - unlike much of
the world - remain "proudly monolingual", and that this attitude has
increased in the past few decades.
Even our business leaders are not exempt. A survey of chief executives
from 28 mainly OECD countries conducted in 2000 found that Australians
averaged proficiency in fewer languages (1.4) than the others - and
even lower than their counterparts in Britain, the US and New Zealand.
The top countries were the Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil, Germany, the
Philippines and France.
Professor Clyne, an honorary professorial fellow at the University of
Melbourne, says knowing other languages has cultural, social, economic
and cognitive benefits. He refutes "fallacies that make us feel better
about being monolingual".
http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/towards-a-bilingual-nation/2006/02/18/1140151820165.html
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