Queensland Department of Education videos on cultural safety and maintaining home language

The Queensland Department of Education has just launched two excellent videos:

• Cultural safety with Professor Tony Dreise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYL__hyro7A

"The first Kindy uplift priority, ‘Creating culturally safe, inclusive and responsive Kindergarten Programs’ emphasises the importance of including all First Nations children and enhancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives within Kindergarten Programs. In this video we hear from Professor Tony Dreise about the importance of cultural safety. Explore further at https://earlychildhood.qld.gov.au/grants-and-funding/kindy-uplift-program"

• Maintaining home language - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XneIolMk42s

"Multilingualism is a strength. More than one in four Australian children speak a language other than English at the age of starting school. Being multilingual has many advantages, including improved learning at school, social skills, self-confidence, and cognitive development. The two animated videos aim to empower families to maintain home language. The Language and Literacy team provides a range of resources encompassing evidence-based research, to enable educators, families and home tutors to support children’s development of language, reading and writing. Visit https://readingwritingcentre.education.qld.gov.au/ for more information."

International Mother Language Day

Happy International Mother Language Day for 21st February (which aptly is also Helen’s birthday). https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/motherlanguageday

The theme of the 2021 International Mother Language Day, “Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society,” recognizes that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion, and the Sustainable Development Goals’ focus on leaving no one behind. UNESCO believes education, based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.(UNESCO, 2021)

Language proficiency, use, and maintenance among people with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia

The following manuscript has just been accepted for publication in the first issue of a new journal:

McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Wang, C., & Tran, V. H. (2019, in press March). Language proficiency, use, and maintenance among people with Vietnamese heritage living in Australia. Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech.

The paper is based on data from Study 1 of our VietSpeech grant funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (DP).

Here is the abstract:

Multilingualism provides cultural, economic and social benefits to individuals and societies. A large number of people with Vietnamese heritage have migrated to English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, and the US. This study describes language proficiency, use, and maintenance of 271 adults with Vietnamese heritage living across Australia. The majority were first generation immigrants (76.6%), spoke Vietnamese as their first language (94.3%), and indicated Vietnamese was their most proficient language (78.5%). The majority were more likely to use Vietnamese (than English) with their mother, father, older siblings, Vietnamese-speaking grandparents, relatives in Vietnam, and Vietnamese friends. They used English and Vietnamese with their partners, children, younger siblings, and English-speaking grandparents. They were more likely to speak English when working, studying, and watching TV, but used English and Vietnamese equally on social media. The most important reasons for maintaining Vietnamese were: maintaining bonds with relatives, maintaining Vietnamese cultural identity, and building friendships.