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ACQ Volume 13, Number 3 2011 117
2.9%; parent 2: n = 77, 1.5%). There were missing data for
745 (15.0%) of parent 2’s responses.
Discussion
Understanding the demography of Australia’s children
enables speech pathologists, early childhood educators,
and interpreters to plan services for children who speak
languages other than English. These data highlight the
diversity of languages represented in Australian 4- to
5-year-olds and their parents. These nationwide data
concur with the distribution of languages reported in a
study that has examined children’s language skills within the
state of Victoria. Nicholls, Eadie, and Reilly (in press) found
that 31 different languages were spoken by children at age
3 within the Early Language in Victoria Study, which were
similar to the 35 languages that were listed in the current
study as being spoken across Australia.
The importance of examining data for children, instead of
relying on the Australian national census data, is highlighted
in two ways: first by considering primary languages spoken
and second by considering languages used by state.
The most common primary languages other than English
spoken by the children in the current study were: Arabic,
Cantonese, Vietnamese, Greek, and Mandarin. These were
in a different in order compared with the home languages
spoken by the entire Australian population: Italian, Greek,
Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin and Vietnamese (ABS,
2006a). Notably, although Italian was the most common
primary language other than English spoken by the
Australian population, it was not a common first language
spoken by the children in the current study. However, Italian
was the most common additional language spoken by the
children in the current study.
There may be a difference in the proportion of speakers
of languages other than English between the general
Australian population and 4- to 5-year-old children in each
state. According to the publicly available data from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2006c), the proportion
of Australians who were 5 years of age or older who spoke
a language other than English was as follows: the highest
proportion (26–56%) was in New South Wales, Victoria,
and Northern Territory, followed by 16–25% in South
Australia and Western Australia, 4–9% in Queensland,
and only 3–4% in Tasmania (ABS, 2006c) (see Figure 2).
Extrapolating data from the current study for 4- to 5-year-
olds (by subtracting the number of children who spoke
English), there are no states where 26–55% of children
spoke a language other than English as their primary
language. The states where 16–25% spoke languages
other than English as their primary language are in order:
New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory,
then 4–9% in South Australia, Western Australia, Northern
Territory, and Queensland, with less than 2% in Tasmania.
By examining these data from children, future national
trends of languages used in the Australian community
may be predicted; for example, Italian may not be a major
language spoken in Australia in the future. These data
may also provide information regarding linguistic support
for required for children’s transition to school, in order to
facilitate speech, language and literacy acquisition by the
critical age (Bishop & Adams, 1990; Nathan et al., 2004).
One limitation of this study was that, although the
data were from a nationally representative sample of
4- to 5-year-old children and responses were statistically
weighted, it is important to acknowledge that some of
the information presented about language use related to
very few children. For example, each of the 12 languages
listed as spoken in the Australian Capital Territory were
only spoken by 1 child. This heterogeneity of languages is
consistent with Canberra’s position as the nation’s capital
and the many consulates and embassies located there.
The current findings represent the most comprehensive
information currently available about cultural and
linguistic diversity of a nationally representative sample
of Australian preschool children. These data should be
interpreted in conjunction with an understanding of the
demography of each speech pathologist’s local context,
and can be used by speech pathologists, early years
educators, and interpreters to guide allocation of resources
for development of information, assessments, and
interventions.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by an Australian Research
Council Future Fellowship (FT0990588) and Jane
McCormack provided research support.
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