Community: year 2 – Home and identity
How does language connect us to home and identity?
In this inquiry question, students discuss vocabularies and discourses used in families and learn about the
cultural effects of loss of first languages, including loss of world views and concepts. They create a picture
book to demonstrate the link between language and culture.
Organising ideas
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies have many Language Groups.
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The broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies encompass a diversity of nations
across Australia.
What do we want the students to know?
ENGLISH
Discuss how depictions of characters in print, sound and images reflect the contexts in which they were
created (ACELT1587)
How will we know if the students have got it?
Students will know:
> how to use everyday language features and topic-specific vocabulary when discussing their ideas and
experiences
– describe where they live and what their home is like
– distinguish the differences between other cultures' homes and communities and their own.
Students will understand:
> how to make connections between texts by comparing content
– Aboriginal families, in communities, sometimes live in an extended family situation
– the characters, and the language that books use, reflect a different context to that which most
students are used to.
Students will be able to:
> create texts that show how images support the meaning of text
– discuss how language helps us to pass on knowledge about our culture and the effects on our
culture of the loss of language
– create short stories with illustrations that show the use of their languages in their families.
What do we want the students to know?
ENGLISH
Understand that spoken, visual and written forms of language are different modes of communication with
different features and their use varies according to the audience, purpose, context and cultural background
(ACELA1460)
© Government of South Australia 2013. With the exception of material owned by other parties, this work is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Australia 3.0 licence.
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How will we know if the students have got it?
The students will know:
> that they monitor meaning and self-correct themselves using context, prior knowledge, punctuation,
language and phonic knowledge
– there are many languages spoken in students' homes
– there are many Aboriginal languages in Australia
– many cultures, such as Aboriginal cultures, use different forms of communication.
The students will understand:
> that similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features used to
describe characters, settings and events
– they can listen to, read, view and interpret spoken and written texts
– many Aboriginal languages are no longer spoken
– they can produce texts that reflect their own experiences.
The students will be able to:
> identify literal and implied meaning, main ideas and supporting detail
– list the range of languages spoken in students' homes
– discuss and record some of the reasons why many languages, especially Aboriginal languages,
have been lost
– make a picture book that shows readers how the home cultures of students in the class are linked
to language.
How do we get the students there?
> Work with an Aboriginal cultural specialist for this inquiry question if possible. Ensure at the planning
stage that they are comfortable sharing the information covered in this unit.
> Students mark their home on a large street map of the area.
> Students explain what 'home' means to them in a class discussion.
> Ask the Aboriginal cultural specialist and any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to locate
their 'home' on the Horton's map and explain its significance to them.
> Ask any students who were born outside Australia to show on a world map where they were born.
> Find out if any students have more than one home. Get them to mark their other home on a large map
of Australia or the world to show the rest of the class.
> Ask students who have a home connection with another place to talk about their other home and what
it means for them.
> List the range of languages spoken in students' homes. Which language groups do you have among
your classroom community?
> Ask students whose background language is not English if there are any special words in their
language that have no clear translation into English. If nothing springs to mind, ask students to think of
customs or special foods: often these are difficult to translate.
o Ask students to share the words and, as a class, consider the consequences of losing that word.
> Discuss the kind of English that families and friends sometimes use with each other: colloquial terms,
nicknames and made-up words and expressions.
> Ask an Aboriginal Community Education Officer or cultural specialist to talk about Aboriginal English
expressions used with family and friends.
o Work with them to summarise reasons why many Indigenous languages are being irretrievably
lost. Currently only 17 of the original 250 languages are being passed on to children (eg
Pitjantjatjara). Seventy other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are endangered.
o Discuss how loss of language has affected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's ability to
pass on values and knowledge through oral stories. Ask students to imagine how it would be if
© Government of South Australia 2013. With the exception of material owned by other parties, this work is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Australia 3.0 licence.
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o
very few people spoke their language. What effects would this have on the relationships and
friendships open to them?
Ask the Aboriginal cultural specialist to share a Dreaming story with students. What knowledge or
teaching is being passed on through stories? Are there recurring themes and characters? Explore
Dust echoes, which has a range of Dreaming stories and provides background information on
each story and what can be learned from it.
> Ask the Aboriginal cultural specialist to teach students some words, including greetings and thank you,
in the local Aboriginal language. They can also teach students some songs in the local or their own
Aboriginal language (see the resources list).
> You can also get support from the Holding our tongues website, where you can listen to Aboriginal
languages and view archival footage, and from the Aboriginal Languages Network from Port Augusta
Primary School, which provides words and pronunciation for many everyday items in Adnyamathanha.
Any resources you use as a class, find the location of the language group on Horton's map.
o Ask students who speak a language other than English to teach some of their words and songs to
the class. Write, display, practise and use the words in class.
> As a class, read the picture book Nyunta Ninti, which is Anangu man Bob Randall's view of home and
life, based on the documentary film Kanyini. Discuss as a group:
o the similarities and differences of the Anangu worldview to that of students and their families
o how Anangu words help to explain their world view
o the advantages of learning about and embracing the range of world views and languages.
> Students work in small groups or as a class to make a picture book that shows readers how the home
cultures of students in their class are linked to language.
Resources
Aboriginal Multicultural, Languages and Learning Resource Centre: (08) 8301 4850
Dust echoes, http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/default.htm
Holding our tongues, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/features/holdingourtongues/ – an ABC Hindsight
project about reviving Aboriginal languages
Indigenous language map of Australia by David Horton, www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/
Indigenous language programmes in Australian schools,
http://research.acer.edu.au/indigenous_education/18
Kanyini 2006, director Melanie Hogan, Reverb Film DVD (53 mins) – available on Youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwuJbJaCLtc
Kanyini study guide by Marguerite O'Hara, www.artssmart.sa.edu.au/files/links/SGKanyini.pdf
Local Aboriginal language song books: contact your school or community library
Randall, B & Hogan, M 2008, Nyuntu Ninti, ABC Books,
www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/ommoverride/NYUNTU_NINTI_teacher_notes.pdf – a picture book
about connection to home
Schultz, C, Varcoe, N & Amery, R (eds) 1999 Kaurna Paltinna [music]: a Kaurna song book, Kaurna Plains
School, Elizabeth, South Australia
Acknowledgements
Excerpts from the Australian Curriculum are reproduced courtesy of the Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
© Government of South Australia 2013. With the exception of material owned by other parties, this work is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Australia 3.0 licence.
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