TY - JOUR
T1 - Cultural and linguistic diversity in Australian 4- to 5-year-old children and their parents
AU - McLeod, Sharynne
N1 - Imported on 12 Apr 2017 - DigiTool details were: Journal title (773t) = ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing. ISSNs: 1441-6727;
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - This paper describes the cultural and linguistic diversity of Australian preschool children and their parents in order to guide resourcing, assessment, and intervention practices. Data were analysed from a nationally respresentative sample of 4983 Australian preschool children. Over one-fifth (21.9%) spoke English as their first language. The majority (86%) spoke English as their first language; and 12.2% of the children spoke one of the 35 other languages. AfterEnglish, the most common first languages were: Arabic (1.6%), Cantonese (1.3%), Vietnamese (1%), Greek (0.8%), and Mandarin (0.8%). Italian was the most common additional language, spoken by 2.9% of the children. Commonly spoken children's languages differed by state/territory and showed different trends compared with Australian census data. Most of the children's parents spoke English as the primary language at home (parent 1: 82.5%; parent 2:69.8%); however, 42 other primary languages were also spoken. Significant resourcing of the Australian speech pathology, early years education, and interpreting sectors is required to accomadate the diversecultural and linguistic heritage of children. Resourcing should be based on data about Australia's children, rather than the publicly available Australian census data.
AB - This paper describes the cultural and linguistic diversity of Australian preschool children and their parents in order to guide resourcing, assessment, and intervention practices. Data were analysed from a nationally respresentative sample of 4983 Australian preschool children. Over one-fifth (21.9%) spoke English as their first language. The majority (86%) spoke English as their first language; and 12.2% of the children spoke one of the 35 other languages. AfterEnglish, the most common first languages were: Arabic (1.6%), Cantonese (1.3%), Vietnamese (1%), Greek (0.8%), and Mandarin (0.8%). Italian was the most common additional language, spoken by 2.9% of the children. Commonly spoken children's languages differed by state/territory and showed different trends compared with Australian census data. Most of the children's parents spoke English as the primary language at home (parent 1: 82.5%; parent 2:69.8%); however, 42 other primary languages were also spoken. Significant resourcing of the Australian speech pathology, early years education, and interpreting sectors is required to accomadate the diversecultural and linguistic heritage of children. Resourcing should be based on data about Australia's children, rather than the publicly available Australian census data.
KW - Open access version available
KW - Children
KW - Cultural and linguistic diversity
KW - Language
KW - Multilingual
KW - Speech
M3 - Article
SN - 1441-6727
VL - 13
SP - 112
EP - 119
JO - ACQuiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing
JF - ACQuiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing
IS - 3
ER -