Bilingual Education in the NT
September 15, 2010
On 9 September 2010, a public forum was held on Indigenous languages in education. The speakers at the forum were Dr Brian Devlin, Associate Professor of Bilingual Education and Applied Linguistics at Charles Darwin University, and Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, Professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Devlin looked at whether or not the evidence supported the continuation of the present NT Government policies, or should a new policy, with reliable evidence, be developed. Dr Devlin used the statistics published on the MySchool website in his discussion on bilingual education in the NT.
To access Dr Devlin’s paper, please click here: Evidence in Bilingual Educationthe NT
Professor Lo Bianco discussed the existing policies on Indigenous education and whether they were meeting the current needs. He also discussed what was needed to break the deadlock on an Indigenous national language policy for Australia.
Professor Lo Bianco’s powerpoint presentation is available here: Indigenous Public Forum – Professor Lo Bianco
The Forum was videotaped and the audio of the sessions are available at: http://www.ausil.org.au/Resources/Advocacy/tabid/1128/Default.aspx prefaced with Sept 10.