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Educational Policies and Language Maintenance in Multilingual Settings: Australia and The Philippines

2000; Routledge; Volume: 3; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13670050008667710

1747-7522

J. J. Smolicz, Illuminado Nical, Margaret Secombe,

Education Systems and Policy

In this paper, the educational policies and levels of language maintenance found in the linguistically diverse societies of Australia and The Philippines are compared. The respondents in this study were senior secondary school students and their parents selected from three non-Tagalog-speaking communities in the Philippines (Cebuano, Ilocano and Waray) and from the Filipino immigrant community in Australia. Analysis of the data, collected through questionnaires and personal statements, indicated that usage and positive attitudes to regional languages for oral communication were comparatively high for all groups, suggesting their core value significance at the local level, but were minimal in relation to literary activities. While the Ilocano respondents favoured Filipino for reading and writing purposes, the Cebuano and Waray respondents preferred to read and write in English. In the Australian context exogamous marriages had a negative influence on the maintenance of both Filipino and other regional languages, but there was evidence of Filipino/Tagalog becoming more frequently spoken as a core identifying value of the Filipino-Australian community.