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Cultural diversity
112
ACQ
Volume 13, Number 3 2011
ACQ
uiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing
Cultural and linguistic
diversity in Australian
4- to 5-year-old children
and their parents
Sharynne McLeod
(1.0%) (ABS, 2006a). The most common ancestry reported
by the Australian population is, in order: Australian, English,
Irish, Scottish, Italian, German, Chinese, Greek, Dutch, and
Indian (ABS, 2006b), demonstrating differences between
ancestry and the most common languages spoken today.
Language conveys traditions, culture, and identity;
therefore, cultural and linguistic competence is particularly
important for speech pathologists in order to work
sensitively and holistically with their clients. Cultural and
linguistic competence includes respectful consideration
of the perspectives of children and families from diverse
communities and is enhanced by speech pathologists’
self-assessment of their own cultural biases (ASHA, 2010).
Additionally, knowledge of languages other than English
enhances cultural and linguistic competence. In Australia,
it was reported that 30.7% of speech pathologists spoke a
language other than English (Speech Pathology Australia,
2001); however, there was a “weak correlation between the
languages spoken by speech pathologists who responded
to the survey and those most commonly spoken within the
Australian community” (Speech Pathology Australia, 2001,
p. 10). For example, one-third of these Australian speech
pathologists reported they used signed English, yet signed
English is spoken by less than 0.1% of the Australian
population (ABS, 2006a).
Winter (1999, 2001) found that children who speak
languages other than English were both underrepresented
(with too few children compared with the local community
who spoke some languages) and overrepresented (with too
many children who spoke other languages) on caseloads
of speech and language therapists in the United Kingdom.
Although similar research has not been undertaken using
caseload data in Australia or the US, there have been two
recent studies where speech pathologists have been asked
to estimate the number of children who speak languages
other than English on their caseloads. In a national study of
Australian speech pathologists working with children with
speech sound disorders, the participants reported that
their caseloads included an average of 9.8% (median = 5,
range = 0–90%) of children who speak English as a second
or other language (ESL) (McLeod & Baker, 2011). This
percentage is much lower than a similar study in the US
where 48% of children on their caseloads were estimated
to be “non-native” English-speaking (Skahan, Watson, &
Lof, 2007).
Understanding the language experience, language
environment, and language background of Australian
preschool
children is important in order to differentially
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 representative sample of 4983
Australian preschool children. Over one-fifth
(21.9%) of the children were regularly spoken
to in a language other than English. The
majority (86.0%) spoke English as their first
language; and 12.2% of the children spoke
one of 35 other languages. After English, the
most common first languages were: Arabic
(1.6%), Cantonese (1.3%), Vietnamese (1.0%),
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
accommodate the diverse cultural and
linguistic heritage of children. Resourcing
should be based on data about Australia’s
children, rather than the publicly available
Australian census data.
A
ustralia has wide cultural and linguistic diversity,
with its population drawn from around the globe.
Over 400 languages are spoken in Australia
(Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2010) and 21.5% of
the population uses a language other than English at home
(but may also use English) (ABS, 2006a). After English, the
next most common spoken languages are Italian (1.6% of
Australians use this language), Greek (1.3%), Cantonese
(1.2%), Arabic (1.2%), Mandarin (1.1%), and Vietnamese
Sharynne
McLeod
This article
has been
peer-
reviewed
Keywords
CHILDREN
CULTURAL AND
LINGUISTIC
DIVERSITY
LANGUAGES
OTHER THAN
ENGLISH
MULTILINGUAL
SPEECH AND
LANGUAGE