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The Australian Government is investing in the English Language Learning for Indigenous Children (ELLIC) Trial. It aims to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preschool children who are EAL/D learners to learn English in a fun and engaging way.
The ELLIC Trial is designed for preschool children in the year before fulltime schooling. It is aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and informed by the Foundation year of the Australian Curriculum.
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Multilingualism
Multiple languages are good!
Australia’s prevailing monolingualism is an anomaly. Worldwide, most people are multilingual, that is, they speak more than one language. It’s the most common way to be and multilingual people and societies flourish. The ability to speak more than one language is clearly associated with:
- cognitive benefits, such as problem solving
- economic advantages, including employment opportunities
- social advantages[1].
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have traditionally encouraged multilingualism, and ongoing oral cultural practices in Indigenous families tend to orient Indigenous children towards learning languages.
[1] Australia’s Language Potential, Michael G. Clyne, UNSW Press, 2005
ELLIC advises learning Standard Australian English be additive for Indigenous children and indeed for all preschoolers. In other words, early childhood educators should be aware of and support any use of a child’s first language to develop and expand, while teaching (adding) SAE.
This also needs to be said given that many speakers of Indigenous languages have close family, such as grandparents or parents, who may have faced discrimination, and even punishment, for speaking their first language/s.
Early childhood educators have a wonderful opportunity to encourage each new generation of Australian children to treasure and benefit from learning new languages and to grow up as proud participants in our multilingual society.
Early childhood educators have a wonderful opportunity to encourage each new generation of Australian children to treasure and benefit from learning new languages and to grow up as proud participants in our multilingual society.
Test Downlaod Cards
These beautiful baskets were created by Nadine Foley (CultureWeave) for the ELLIC project.
Finding a local maker
During the ELLIC project educators will be encouraged to identify local people who weave baskets or make fabric bags that are big enough to hold a picture story book. This process might mean some research, some interaction with local families with a purpose. The intention is that the baskets (or bags) reflect something of the local traditions and aesthetics. The Story Baskets can contain stories created for the ELLIC project as well as other published picture story books.
Preschools can draw on the grant provided to preschools to fund this process.
Support for the project
The Story Basket project is designed for foster contact and interaction between preschools and their local community.