‘Do you know of any good external language courses that are available?’

There are a couple of options to begin learning Yolŋu Matha, the language of north east Arnhem Land.

1. A series of distance education courses are available through Charles Darwin University (CDU).  If you are in Darwin these can also be studied internally, which is recommended. There are several  advantages of these courses.  As it is a university course, it is structured around recommended and required study, along with regular assessment, so it keeps you working. The course teaches much about culture as well as language, which makes it much richer and gives good context. The course is run by extremely knowledgable and passionate staff, who share many personal and traditional stories. Many people struggle with the work load, which does require alot of self learning in order to keep up. The early subjects  have assessments that are very much based on written work. This means that your time can easily get consumed in writting and reading the language, which is less effective for learning to speak and hear. However, the later subjects are more focused on conversational skills (not sure if these can be done externally). The staff are really helpful and if you put the work in you will get alot out of the course.
2. There are a number of self learning courses available through ARDS.  I recommend “Gupapuyngu Alphabet & Pronunciation” followed by, or in combination with the “Gupapuyngu Conversational Course” 1&2.  (ARDS has also begun to publish an identical course in Djambarrpuŋu a sister language).  It is important to understand the alphabet and pronunciation first and try to memorise the sounds, before moving to phrases. But as you get bored with pronunciation practice go to the first of the conversational courses, which have structured lessons and drills on CD for each lesson to test yourself and practice with. The down side to these courses is that you have to be disciplined with yourself to regularly spend time working through the lessons (and repeating them) when there is no one to examine you.    If you choose to do the CDU courses the “Alphabet and Pronunciation” book will help, and you should try to work through it before the course starts as there is little time alotted for learning the alphabet and their sounds.   The advantage of these self learning materials is that they focus on speaking and hearing and you will be off to a very good start to begin learning more by practicing and conversing with Yolngu people once you do enter Arnhem Land. A Gupupuy’ŋu Grammar book is also available, but you will only need this when you get to the stage of asking, ‘Now, how would I say …..” The gramma book has no audio and is best as a reference once you start to use the language with Yolngu people, or if you find yourself exceeding the expectations of the conversational courses (this book is part of the resources for the second CDU subject).

These options and resoures are complementary, so they do work together well to expand your learning options.  However, we  would not recomend attempting to do both the converstional course and the CDU couses at the same time unless you are devoting all your time to language learning while outside Arnhem Land.  It is important to devote time to practice with a native Yolŋu Matha speaker, if possible, even at the early stages of your learning. For example, you could make arrangements to talk by phone with good aquaintences you have made in Arnhem Land.

Good luck.  And please leave a comment if you know of other resources or have some useful insights from your experience with learning Yolŋu matha.

Everyone thinks, dreams and understands in the language/s that they grew up with or with which they are most familiar.  Nothing anyone can do can make a person understand what is being said to them when a new or foreign language is used.  This is because words are just sounds, they do not actually carry a meaning.  Meaning is found in the ability to decode (interpret) the sound in the hearer’s brain into a concept that is similar to the meaning expressed by the speaker.  A person always understands a new word from a new language by translating the new sounds they have learnt  into words and concepts from their native language/s.  Thus, almost all the intellectual power of people to communicate, and obtain new information, is found in the way their brain uses their native language/s.  To access that power, in order to teach or communicate information clearly, one must access the language encoded in the person’s head.

If we use a new or unfamiliar language to communicate we rely solely on the hearers ability to first decode or interpret the new sounds of the language being used, and then to comprehend it with a meaning similar to that expressed by the communicator.  If the hearer does not know some of the new words, the meaning may be lost or different to that intended.  If the hearer’s interpretation of these sounds is different to the communicator’s then to the hearer the words will have little information, the incorrect information, or be completely meaningless.  Furthermore, if the communicator cannot access the native language, their ability to check that the information being provided is being understood negligible.

To be effective in communicating to an English second language Indigneous speaker one must either

1. If using only English, know all the English words that an Indigenous person understands and how they understand them (what they mean for that person),
2. Use their local language, recognising that dialogue will be required to ensure communication is being understood.

The first option forces the Indigenous person to be the learner and interpreter. The English speaking communicator is dependent on the Indigenous persons ability in English in order to achieve understanding.    If the Indigenous person has limited knowledge of English or is just learning,  it is not possible to know how a new English speaker understands intangible English words, with out knowing their native language to check that their understanding is correct in the first place.  So while it seems the easier option for the english communicator, it is near impossible to be effective in english only.  Furthermore Option 1 limits communication to the number of English words the hearer understands.  The second option is difficult for the communicator, but very possible and rewarding as the communicator grows in effectiveness over time.  Option 2 allows the communicator to become a translator (if even a poor one) who can be a source of information for Indigenous people to learn new English words and concepts with greater ease and accuracy.

Misunderstandings about literacy education on remote communities.

1. The children in remote and bilingual schools are not being taught English.
   

   Reality:The children on remote communities and in bilingual schools are taught English and grow up with the ability to speak English and write english.  The problems are that many have a limited vocabulary, poor written literacy and numeracy skills.

2. Bilingual schools are teaching in local languages
   

   Reality: Bilingual schools are unable to train, and thus do not have, specialist teachers who know the local Indigenous language. You would be forgiven for thinking it should be otherwise. They are provided with funding for only one linguist and the rest relys on the linguistic skill of locally employed indingeous teacher aids who recieve little additional training.

3. Children in remote communities are not being taught in English.
   

   Reality: English is the language spoken by almost all teachers in remote Indigenous classrooms already.  If there is any education using the local language, it is provided by Teacher Aids from the local community.  Conssequently at least 50% of education has been taught in English for the last 30 years.  Teaching in english has not help indingeous kids learn to speak or read english well.

4. Someone out there wants to stop English being taught.
   

   Reality: No one, including Indigenous groups, have argued against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders being taught English. Aboriginal people have always asked to be taught English.

5. The forcing of teachers to use English in the classrooms is new policy that has not been tried before.
   

   Reality: This is not the first time a policy like this has been introduced.  The education department introduced a policy of English only education (100% of the time)  about 4-5 years ago. It did not apply to bilingual schools, but in a number of bilingual schools new priniciples encouraged the use of english in class rooms. Schools that currently use english only models did not perform better than the bilingual schools in recent tests.

6. The current thinking in the NT and around Australia seems to be that the best way to teach a new language is to force people to listen to it as much as possible.
   

   Reality: Such an approach only works if the student is immersed in the language and removed from peer groups that speak their first language That is, for immersion to be successful at teaching English, the kids must be taken away from their families and friends – Australia has been there done that, No thanks.

   Reality: We do not use this approach when we teach foreign languages to English first language speakers. Have you ever learnt French or Indonesian at school or university.  What do we do?  We teach the new language using the student’s first language, English.  Why? Because language acquisition is fastest if it is charted in the first language -  eg. djugu = contract, guyaŋa = think… you just learnt 2 new words in a new language using your first langauge.  Untill the student has a good grasp on the langauge we must use structured programs that teach English using the language the students already know.  Why don’t we do this in Indigenous schools?

7. Indigenous languages are not powerful or accurate enough to teach difficult English concepts.
   

   Reality: Indigenous languages are highly effective, accurate and contain all the meanings necessary to teach mathematical, scientific and humanitarian subjects. I know this because I teach economic literacy, governance and germ theory using an Indigenous language

8. We have to do something. We have tried almost everything.
   

   Reality: The one policy no government has ever implimented to solve low literacy and numeracy rates in Australian remote Indingenous schools is the training of EFL teachers to use local Indigenous languages to teach english and other subjects. This would enable true bilingual education rather than what actually happens today.

Considering that mainstream support, rather than research and local community knowledge, tend to drive government policy it is possible that these misunderstandings or assumptions are driving the current push to once again force english only environments on children in remote Indigenous schools.  I hope this clarifies the issue for you and helps you to explain some of the issues to others.