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Structures of Discourse : Some implications for teachers of Aboriginal children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Ruth Gledhill
Ruth Gledhill*
Affiliation:
Darwin, N.T.
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Extract

The English language differs from others both in the patterns and the sociolinguistic conventions of its discourse. This paper uses forms of greeting as a specific reference as to how crosscultural communication can break down when Aboriginal people and English speakers interact.

Since children often rely on the spoken word as a basis for writing, and Aboriginal children rarely learn to write successfully in English, referring to the structure of Aboriginal languages offers a possible explanation of one contributive factor to this inability.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , September 1989 , pp. 3 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

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