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Language Interview Project
 Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have shared their personal language stories through the Language Interview Project. Their stories are a great resource for generating language awareness with educators, community and students. Some stories are already available for download at the bottom of this page, with more to be added in the near future.
Language Interview Project
One of the projects that has been going on for a while at ISSU is to record real life experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults from around Queensland around the issue of language. When some people talk about language, they just mean traditional languages, but the point of these stories is to talk straight about how Indigenous people really talk with each other these days, so as to understand the kinds of language that kids are coming to school with. Very often this is what some people call Murri Talk, Aboriginal English, Bama Talk, Creole, Broken, or Slang.
While it is not our intention to ignore traditional languages, the emerging picture is that less and less children in Queensland are learning a traditional language as their first language. More common is that kids speak one of these 'new' languages. What this means is that many Indigenous kids are learning Standard Australian English (SAE) as a second language at school, even though we may not recognise them as English as a Second Language (ESL) students.
We have found that many teachers need help understanding Indigenous kids especially in regards to English as a Second Language (ESL). Surprisingly there are many ill-informed attitudes that have filtered down through stereotypes, individuals and unfortunately also though education.
There are similarities as well as differences within each and every story, but the over-riding message is that language DOES play an important part in communications between students and teachers in the school environment. For some people it was difficult to dig deep for the content of these stories because for many reasons the issues surrounding languages and ways of talking have historically been pushed to the side.
When awareness of languages is high, teachers, kids and families can feel pride in their ways of talk. By reading these stories, teachers will begin to develop an understanding of some of the facts, history, and issues around language that impact upon Indigenous learners in Queensland. However, it is really by talking to other people at a local level that shared understandings and awareness of language issues are developed. Teachers, students and the community need to engage often in conversations that focus on language and ways of talking.
We hope that these stories might be a launching point for everyone to start having these conversations about language and to help achieve the best outcomes for Indigenous students.
Interpreting the Stories
A series of icons has been developed to help readers negotiate their way through the personal stories in this project. Here is an idea of what to look out for as you are reading.
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Family Languages
Everyone learns their first language from their family - we don't just make it up. Most people interviewed have talked about their own family's language background. Sometimes this includes traditional Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages, sometimes 'new' Indigenous languages, and sometimes other languages altogether.
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Becoming aware of language differences
For most people who speak a foreign language, the differences between their first language and English are obvious. Indigenous ways of talking can be different. Although many of them sound a bit like English, with a lot of English vocabulary, they often have quite a different structure, or way of making sentences. When we don't talk about it much, it is often wrongly assumed by everyone, even kids themselves, that what they are speaking is just 'bad English'.
Many Indigenous people can identify a point at which they realised that the way they talk with their family just isn't the same as the way the teachers talk at school or the language in books. In some people's experiences this takes a long time because adults around them don't talk about language issues. However, when this awareness comes at an early age and is nurtured, students can much more easily figure out exactly what is they need to learn, and teachers can much more easily help them as they would any other ESL learners.
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Contemporary languages
A large number of Indigenous people in Queensland have contemporary ‘ways of talk’ that are different from both traditional languages and Standard Australian English. We can learn a language without necessarily having a label for what we speak. But we should take note and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of talk as full languages (which they are).
It can sometimes be useful to name languages as a way of explaining differences. Some of the names given to contemporary languages in these stories are Murri Talk, Aboriginal English, Bama Talk, Lingo, Creole, Pidjin and Broken.
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Three way strong
There are three areas of language that have influence in people's lives:
1. Family, or everyday way of talking
2. Meeting Standard Australian English (SAE) at school
3. Links with traditional languages
For many people, language is strongly related to identity. Recognising both contemporary and traditional languages can affirm Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity.
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Language in school
In Queensland classrooms, the language used for teaching is Standard Australian English (SAE). Some students are not able to access the curriculum because it is not taught in a language they can understand. So, when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students come to school with other languages, teachers need to work hard at building language bridges to reach students.
Several of the people interviewed for this project have had significant experience working in schools, and everyone has attended one! Their experiences offer insights for teachers into the powerful effects of language in the classroom. Stories with this icon include these insights into language in school.
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True stories
Sometimes language differences can cause misunderstandings that can make you laugh, or sometimes cry. Stories with this icon include a light-hearted look at language in the real world.
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Click the title to view/download the document
 Cherry Royee (1704 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Cherry in Cairns talks about her language story.
Eileen Yeatman (869 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Eileen in Yarrabah talks about her language story.
Gilmore Johnston (1879 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Gilmore in Cairns talks about his language story.
Janice Walker (1748 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Janice in Mossman talks about her language story.
Jason Von Roehl (1671 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Jason in Cairns talks about his language story.
Kath Williams (2046 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Kath in Mossman talks about about her language story.
Kerry Hollingsworth (1845 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Kerry in Cairns talks about her language story.
Lenice Schonenberger (1724 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Lenice in Mossman talks about her language story.
Linc Walker (1821 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Linc in Mossman talks about his language story.
Norman (1660 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Norman in Mossman talks about his language story.
Sonya Stephen (1903 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Sonya in Cairns talks about her language story.
Valda Wallace (1683 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Valda in Cairns talks about her language story.
Wally Ziegelbauer (1833 K) - Type: Adobe Acrobat file
Wally in Cairns talks about his language story.
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