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Multicultural Victoria Act Discussion Paper

Submission
Submission by: Aleksandra Ceferin, Director, Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria Inc.
Date: 16 July 2004

Multicultural Victoria Act is a great document for multicultural Australia, most comprehensive in
covering the principles of social justice, equal rights, social harmony and cultural diversity.

They are principles that work extraordinarily well in practice, and make Australian citizens from
non-English speaking backgrounds proud to be Australians.

The record of the Victorian government in the area of language teaching has been remarkable. It
has supported language teaching at all levels, and has made it possible for languages to be
taught and accredited to the VCE level - chiefly through the institution Victorian School of
Languages. I regard the many languages taught within the system and at a professional high
standard as one of the greatest achievements of Australian democracy and its multicultural
policy, hardly repeated anywhere else in the world. The Victorian School of Languages, unique
to Victoria is with its 44 languages an extraordinary institution and a major keystone for language
maintenance.

I would like to refer to one specific area however, which I believe deserves more attention. I
introduce my comments from the point of view of a language teacher and a course developer for
Slovenian, one of the smaller languages of Australia. I have been involved personally and
professionally since 1976 in introducing Slovenian into the state school system including the
VCE, and maintaining it through a series of educational reforms. I was also a member of FOSC
for LOTE from 1986 to 1991, and have participated as LOTE Consultant and VSL Area Manager
and Assistant Principal for Curriculum in CSF and VCE Curriculum and Professional
Development Programs.
I have been closely involved with development of major and minor languages and have
participated apart from Slovenian, also in German VCE Design Projects.

My chief reason for presenting this submission is that Slovenian is one of the five languages of
low VCE candidature (Slovenian, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian and Bengali), which have been
notified in May this year by the VCAA and ACACA that they will be suspended as VCE
accredited languages from 2006. The reason given was low candidature and resource intensive
VCE procedures. Languages are to be re-accredited under the condition that they present fifteen
candidates for three subsequent years. Since there were hardly ever fifteen candidates for any
of these languages, this means virtually the end of VCE accreditation.
This decision, most disappointing for languages concerned, opens the way for other languages
to be suspended and goes directly to the equity, social justice and diversity principles of the
multicultural policy of Australia.

Therefore I am making a special plea for the role of smaller community groups and languages.
There is no point mentioned in the Discussion Paper about their position and role.

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I would like to argue that numerically small languages can and do, as in the case of Slovenian,
make a valuable contribution to language teaching in Australia, have contributed in a significant
way to the cultural diversity of Australian society, and add significantly to overseas business and
cultural links.
In my view it is precisely the smaller groups that have created the cultural and linguistic diversity
associated with the concept of multicultural Australia. Several major language groups would
have possibly remained just that, creating their separate individual environments, rather than the
rich mix that we have today.

It is stated in the discussion paper that the Government recognises the great benefits of the
diverse cultural backgrounds, languages and abilities of Victorians as one of the State’s greatest
strengths, providing economic and social benefits to all Victorians, and increased funding for
languages referred to as one of the achievements of multicultural Victoria.
The policy states for the future:
• Improving the delivery and quality of language services
• Improving the effectiveness of the teaching of languages other than English (LOTE) in
Victorian schools

I can attest to the success and value of this policy, particularly through my involvement with
Slovenian language at all curriculum and administrative levels.

I wish to put forward the view however that the language policy, which I believe is a cornerstone
to the achievement of results in Victoria enumerated in the Discussion paper, needs to be
extended by the notion that languages spoken by its people represent an enormous asset for
Australia, and should be supported for that reason.

We accept the fact that not all languages can be equally highly funded and that more must be
spent on larger language groups in a response to their needs, although that is arguable. It could
also be argued that small languages need more support for their maintenance. The post-migrant
generations are not supported by an environment of native speakers and often lose the ability to
speak within one generation.

Small languages have been given the opportunities of equity and access available to all LOTEs,
and assisted in various ways right up to VCE accreditation. However, one major difference was
funding. Only “major” languages, that is numerically strong groups were fully supported by
funding. This required from the professionals involved with a minor group commitment and
dedication over a long period of time, use of their own resources, not to mention professional
expertise and a great deal of time. Some funding for minor languages was provided in time, but
was never comparable to the support provided for “major” language groups.
For instance, till 2001 all professional curriculum development work at primary, secondary and
VCE level was not remunerated, and small languages depending exclusively on the commitment
of the professionals in each language to initiate, maintain and support the language. If one is to
consider that some of the smaller languages also lacked the teaching resources that major
language take for granted, one gets at least some idea of the work and dedication required.

I would like and consider it essential that this principle be included in the multicultural policy on
languages. I suggest:

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• All languages (major and minor) are supported because they represent a valuable
resource for Australia and add considerably to the diversity of multicultural Australia.

I would like to support my proposal by presenting the case of Slovenian, as example of thriving
within the possibilities offered through the multicultural underpinnings of Australian democratic
system, of effectiveness, achievements, use of resources, and finally of information technology.

The Case of Slovenian


.
In Australia the Slovenian community is relatively small, and geographically dispersed
throughout Melbourne, Victoria and Australia.
It has been estimated that there are nationally about 25,000 Slovenes living in Australia, and
about 8,000 Slovenes in Victoria, mostly in Melbourne and Geelong. English philologist David
Crystal stated in an interview in 2003, that statistics show that Slovenian is in the top ten per
cent of spoken languages of the world. Although the population of Slovenia is only two million,
with a further 400,000 Slovenians living abroad, such a world ranking indicates that a smaller
country is significant in more ways than population figures suggest.

The Slovenian community in Victoria has availed itself of all the opportunities available to non-
English speaking groups, including formal study of Slovenian language. The considerable
contributions to Australian diversity include an active social and cultural life, the development of
LOTE curriculum, and establishing major cultural Internet projects.

There are five cultural, social, and sporting associations and the Slovenian Religious and
Cultural Centre. They contribute to the diversity and richness of Victorian cultural life with art
exhibitions, festivals, traditional celebrations, traditional polka music bands, entertaining
community groups from central Europe, and folk dance groups.

Slovenian language was initially taught in clubs and centres. It was introduced as a secondary
subject with VCE accreditation into the Saturdays School of Modern Languages in 1976.
Slovenian Teachers’ Association of Victoria was formed in the same year. It was reconstituted in
1998 as the Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria in response to new necessities and
opportunities offered by the Information Technology,
with broader aims and membership.

It is evident that the initial support subject by the Government was crucial to the success of
Slovenian in Victoria as a school subject and later even more significantly, as a motivating and
driving force to establish a Web base from where the language and culture could be promoted
and linked globally. The great response from the global audience has proven the strategy to be a
major success for promoting language learning, as well as developing Slovenian language and
cultural resources.

The Funding given in 1998 by the LOTElinx project, initiated by the Victorian Department of
Education and offered to all LOTE associations, gave the initial impetus for a Slovenian
language and culture web node. The website was created and is being developed further by
ISSV. It is now a platform for a number of bilateral Slovenian language and cultural projects and
is accessed (an average 200,000 hits each month) by an audience from over fifty countries.

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Most importantly the projects are open and contributors are from Australia, Slovenia, and
Argentina.

The mission of STAV was the maintenance of Slovenian language as a school subject. In 1998
ISSV broadened this aim into a wider area of cultural and language studies, with the web portal
www.Thezaurus.com.

ISSV members saw the Internet as the ideal medium able to take the culture and language
studies beyond the physical classroom, and thus reach the widely dispersed Slovenian
community. The web site was named Thezaurus - treasury or collection to reflect the concept of
a web library for Slovenian studies. The site presents cultural and language archives for the
dispersed community of the second and third generation descendants of Slovenian emigrants
and at the same time aims to inform the broader world community. Another important
consideration was that we believe that Slovenian language learning as well as any other
language be made available to anyone interested in learning a language and culture. Hence the
logo phrase of the Thezaurus web site “Speak to the world - learn a language”. We regard that it
is just as important to promote language learning in general, as well as any particular language.

From the start ISSV expanded the defined parameters of the LOTElinx project, that of teachers’
and students’ web pages, to create a broader dynamic web node focusing on Slovenian
language, culture and educational resources.

Twenty-one language associations were invited to develop web pages and received funding as
well as professional development. In the final stage of the project the “major languages” were
issued another sum, double the amount for the minor languages, which was based purely on the
fact they are numerically strong, and therefore “defined” as major languages. Once again, what
counted was the size of the language group, rather than the productivity, the achievement and
the need.

Since 1998 ISSV developed Thezaurus.com web node, through a number of web projects -
including language resources, web classroom, webzine and online gallery, into a premier
language and culture studies website. It is the only language website included in major
Australian educational databases and it has been funded by the Slovenian government every
year since 1999.

Along with our Internet projects, one of our main aims is to establish and nurture cooperation
between Australia and Slovenia, and we have members in both countries, with headquarters in
Melbourne. Such cooperation has been established in 2003, with the ISSV initiative of the first
secondary student exchange between Australia and Slovenia. The Slovenian government has
provided scholarships for four students of Slovenian language attending the Victorian School of
Languages.

ISSV facilitated and advertised in 2001 five prominent Slovenian authors on their reading tour of
Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, and have organized four programs in Melbourne, including
Monash University, RMIT, Victorian Writers’ Association and Baraga House. We have been in
touch with the acclaimed avant-garde Slovenian artists group Irwin, which has exhibited in
Sydney and Adelaide in the past. We have a number of new projects, which are all aimed at
informing, linking and connecting Slovenia and Australia, and the English-speaking world in
general.
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CONCLUSION

In the Act there needs to recognition of the value of linguistic diversity to Australia. Unless this
principle is enshrined within the Multicultural Policy Act, small languages will lose the battle of
the numbers and fall off the edge. This year five languages are under the threat of indefinite
suspension of VCE. When you are looking only at the number of candidates, other suspensions
will inevitably follow. Are the educational institutions required to adhere to the multicultural
polices of Victoria? What redress is there if they don’t?

Languages are an extremely valuable resource for Australia. They open Australia to the world,
leading to contacts between countries, and cultural and commercial exchanges.
Within this context “small” languages are important. As far as Slovenia is concerned, such links
have existed for some time and are increasing in number. Placed as it is in central Europe
between Austria and Italy and bordering on the Eastern Bloc countries, it is strategically
important. Harvey Norman is the first major Australian business to recognize its potential as a
strategic location.

The second point that needs consideration is that of the role of small languages in view of
diversity. Without small languages there would be no diversity as we have come to know and
appreciate it. There would be also far less integration, social harmony and rich tapestry of
Australian society. There is a need to recognize that they have the capacity and the potential to
play a crucial role within the framework of multicultural Australia, which has little to do with
numbers. That role needs to be recognized and small languages supported and maintained.

Yours sincerely,

Aleksandra Ceferin
Director, Institute for Slovenian Studies of Victoria Inc.

Sending by post:
1. Signed copy of submission
2. Book – Slovenian Language in Australia, by A.L. Ceferin (ISSV, Melbourne 2003)
3. ISSV Profile, including publications

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