Academic literature on the topic 'Italian language – Australia'

In the process of language shift from the immigrant languages to English, everyday communication within the family can become increasingly problematic due to strong divergences in the linguistic competences of the older and the younger generations. This article explores the process of language mediation between different generations, as it occurs within a Sicilian-Australian family belonging to the last wave of Italian mass immigration to Australia Through a corpus of spontaneous conversations, the study focuses on the role played by a second generation woman as a mediator within her family. The linguistic analysis shows that, in order to overcome communication breakdown, she makes full use of her competence in all three languages: Italian, Sicilian and English, and employs codeswitching extensively as a conversational strategy to accommodate participants with different language abilities. Furthermore, while she maintains Dialect as the language of the most inner family circle, she shifts to Italian as the more ‘learneable’ language that can contribute to cohesion in the extended family.

This paper discusses evidence of an early pidgin in use amongst Aboriginal people of the north west coast of Western Australia. The crucial evidence comes from an Italian manuscript describing the rescue, by local Aborigines, of two castaways wrecked on North West Cape in 1875. The data reveals that the local Aborigines attempted to communicate with the Italian-speaking survivors using what appears to be an Australian language spoken some 300 kilometers further along the coast, around the emerging center of the new Pilbara pearling industry. I present an analysis of the material, showing that it differs from Australian languages of the area in significant ways and can be considered a reduced variety. I conclude that this variety is an indigenous pidgin — the first to be described for Australia.

Although Italian mafia scholars have recently been turning their attention to the Calabrian mafia (known as the ’Ndrangheta) diaspora in Australia, their efforts have been limited by conducting research remotely from Italy without the benefit of local knowledge. Australian journalists and crime writers have long played an important role in documenting ’Ndrangheta activities, but have in turn been limited by a lack of expertise in Italian language and culture, and knowledge of the Italian scholarly literature. As previously in the US, Australian scholarly discussion of the phenomenon has been inhibited, especially since the 1970s, by a ‘liberal progressive’ ‘negationist’ discourse, which has led to a virtual silence within the local scholarly literature. This paper seeks to break this silence by bringing the Italian scholarly and Australian journalistic and archival sources into dialogue, and summarising the clear evidence for the presence in Australia since the early 1920s of criminal actors associated with a well-organised criminal secret society structured along lines familiar from the literature on the ’Ndrangheta.

This study outlines a linguistic profile of two subgroups of Italian English circumstantial bilinguals – one dominant in English and the other dominant in Italian – by exploring for the first time their linguistic repertoire through the Gradient Bilingual Dominance Scale (Dunn & Fox Tree, 2009). The scale takes into account language background/history, language use and phonological interference, three main clusters of indicators that make up their dominance. The analysis is further complemented by additional descriptors adapted from Marian, Blumenfeld and Kaushanskaya (2007) and Baker (2011). Over one hundred English dominants (EDs) and Italian dominants (IDs) of Italian descent living in Australia were administered a survey. Results indicate that the scores yielded by the scale broadly parallel the data on self-reported dominance. The contrastive analysis of single variables, however, reveals both discrepancies and similarities between the two groups. While both groups use and are exposed to both languages and self-report high proficiency in the four skills, EDs differ from IDs across indicators such as language attrition and phonological interference. These outcomes confirm that the examination of these subgroups of Italians through the components of their language dominance offers a concise analysis of their linguistic features that makes allowance for both the individual and the societal elements of their bilingualism.

Abstract The aim of this article is to analyse the relationship that second- and third-generation Italian migrants in Australia have with the Italian dialect of their family. We report on the survey we recently carried out among young Italian-Australians, mainly learners of Italian as a second language. First, we analyse the motivation behind learning Italian as a heritage language. We then move on to describe their self-evaluation of their competence in the dialect of their family, and their perception thereof. Surprisingly, our survey reveals that not only are Italian dialects still understood by most second- and third-generation Italians (contrary to what people may think), but Italian dialects are also perceived by young Italian-Australians as an important part of their identity. For them, dialect is the language of the family, particularly in relation to the older members. It fulfills an instrumental function, as it enables communication with some family members who master neither English nor Italian, but above all, it is functional to the construction of their self and their social identity.

This article reports on an investigation into the loss of morphology expressing temporality in the Italian of second generation Italo-Australians. The purpose of the study is to verify whether the loss of Italian tense and aspect morphology proceeds from marked to unmarked, where markedness is defined on the basis of formal and semantic criteria. Italian language samples are elicited through interviews with first and second generation Italo-Australians, and speakers are placed on an attritional continuum along which the verb forms are compared. The explanations for the patterns of loss identified in the data involve a combination of factors, such as markedness principles, universal or general characteristics of spoken language and interlinguistic influence of dialect.

Griffith University is set across five campuses in south-east Queensland, Australia, and has a student population of 43,000. The School of Languages and Linguistics (LAL) offers programs in linguistics, international English, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, as well as English language enhancement courses. Research strands reflect the staff's varied scholarly interests, which include academic language and learning, sociolinguistics, second language learning/acquisition and teaching, computer assisted language learning (CALL) and language corpora. This report offers a summary of research recently published or currently underway within LAL.

Prior studies report a tendency of university students in Australia to quit their beginner level second language (L2) courses at an early stage (Martín et al., 2016; Nettelbeck et al., 2007). Demotivational patterns are meta-analyzed to understand what hampers the interest in learning French, German, Italian and Spanish of continuing students, discontinuing students, and quitters over one year of studies at Australian universities. Such a distinction across categories of students is offered in line with Martín et al.’s (2016) research. Demotivators are structured on three levels of analysis drawing on Gruba et al.’s (2016) and The Douglas Fir Group’s (2016) frameworks, which encapsulate three levels of analysis, specifically micro, meso and macro. Findings suggest that beginner L2 students in Australia are demotivated by all three levels of analysis in very dynamic and interchangeable ways. Students were found to concurrently experience very different degrees of demotivation over time.

Background: Australia has a growing aging migrant population and rates of dementia in residential care are high. The communication of persons with dementia and limited English language proficiency in residential care is an area that has received little attention in the research literature.Method: Thirty-nine Italian-background older persons with severe dementia residing in either mainstream (n = 20) or Italian-specific (n = 19) aged care facilities were observed and language use was recorded. Medication regime and language proficiency information was obtained.Results: Participants in mainstream facilities engaged in less communication with co-residents and were prescribed daytime benzodiazepines at a higher rate than those in Italian-specific facilities.Conclusions: Older persons in mainstream facilities with dementia and lower levels of English proficiency may benefit from additional language-relevant resources. The finding of higher prescription rate of daytime benzodiazepines requires further investigation.

Doctor of Philosophy
This thesis analyses language shift in a Sicilian-Australian family, from the parents' use of three languages: Sicilian, Italian and English, to the children's almost exclusive use of English.

Thesis (M.A) -- University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, 1999.
"University of Western Sydney, Macarthur in completion of Master of Arts Degree in Interpreting and Translation, 1999" Bibliography: leaves 61-63.

This thesis is broadly concerned with how an ethnic group defines itself through the medium of the press. It contends that newspapers do more than simply 'reflect' the experience of ethnic groups, they in fact help to 'construct' ethnic identity.
The specific focus of this study is the Italian language press and its attempts to shape the ideals of italianita of Italian migrants in Canada and Australia in the immediate post-war period. This work is based on two newspapers, Montreal's Il Cittadino Canadese and La Fiamma published in Sydney, New South Wales. All available editions from the decade 1947 to 1957 are examined in order to determine which symbols and causes were used to promote Italian ethnic cohesiveness.
In the course of this thesis, it is argued that La Fiamma used religion as the basis of its ideal of italianita, while the Italo-Canadian paper Il Cittadino Canadese made the issue of Italian political representation in Canadian government structures the basis of its quest to unite Italian migrants into an ethnic 'community'. Some possible reasons for the difference in focus between the two newspapers are presented in the conclusion. Also, suggestions are made for future comparative research between Italian ethnic communities in Canada and Australia which may help to better explain the differences laid bare in this paper.

Language is a form of human expression. It is the way people communicate with one another to express thoughts, ideas, decisions, desires and essentially to relay information successfully. There are numerous types of language, perhaps the most common of which are the written and spoken languages. Other forms include sign language, Braille and even primitive smoke signals. The term language comes via French, from the Latin word lingua meaning tongue. Even today, the spoken language is often referred to as tongue. It is not known exactly when language began or even how it began, although a common theory is that it began as an imitation of natural sounds of animals such as grunts, groans, whistles and barks. What is known, however, is that language changes everyday as it is influenced by human and historical changes. Words that exist in our vocabulary today did not exist for example a hundred years ago. Nor, perhaps, will they exist a hundred years from now. This is the same for all languages around the world, including the Italian language. Since the beginning of Italian history, Italians have spoken innumerable varieties of language. Discussions concerning these countless varieties could continue incessantly; and for this reason it is important to outline immediately the aim of this discussion. Throughout the ensuing chapters, all information gathered and analysed, has been done in order to achieve one aim: to discuss the existence of a standard Italian language in Australia as well as various dialects and regional varieties, and to analyse its promotion since Italian immigration to Australia. There is an immense wealth of information about Italian and English languages and so it is my objective not to be lost in general discussion but rather to adhere to my main aim as closely as possible
Master of Arts in Interpreting and Translation

Alla luce del recente interesse verso l’insegnamento della lingua italiana all’estero, il presente elaborato esamina la storia della comunità italiana e dell’evoluzione della didattica dell’italiano nello stato del Victoria, in Australia. La tesi presenta inoltre i risultati della mia ricerca sull’influenza dei flussi migratori e delle politiche linguistiche australiane sull’insegnamento dell’italiano nelle scuole, descrivendo come la percezione della lingua italiana sia cambiata nell’immaginario australiano. Tale analisi storica mi ha permesso di formulare una valutazione critica e suggerimenti per migliorare le metodologie didattiche impiegate nei corsi di italiano nelle scuole secondarie del Victoria.
In light of the growing interest towards Italian teaching abroad, the present dissertation investigates the history of the Italian community and the evolution of Italian teaching in the state of Victoria, Australia. I hereby present the results of my research on the history of the Italian community in Victoria, as well as the influence of Australian immigration and language policies on Italian teaching in Victorian schools, highlighting how the perception of Italian language evolved in Australian public opinion throughout history. Based on this historical framework, a critical evaluation of Italian teaching methodologies in Victoria was conducted, which informed my suggestions for future improvement of Italian teaching practices.

The first aim of the research was to determine the applicability of certain variables from the Health Belief Model (HBM), the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the risk dimensions from the Psychometric Paradigm, the Common-Sense Model of Illness Representations and the Locus of Control to Italian women’s beliefs and behaviours in relation to screening mammography. These models have predominantly been derived and evaluated with English-speaking persons. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods to enable explanation of research-driven and participant-driven issues. The second aim was to include Italian women in health behaviour research and to contrast the Italian sample with the Anglo-Australian sample to determine if differences exist in relation to their beliefs. In Australia many studies in health behaviour research do not include women whose first language is not English. The third aim was to evaluate the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria’s (ACCV) Community Language Program (CLP) by: (a) identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the program as seen by the participants; and (b) assessing the impact of the program on women’s knowledge and beliefs about breast cancer, early detection of breast cancer, self-reported and intended breast screening behaviours. The CLP is an information service that uses women’s first language to convey information to women whose first language is not English. The CLP was designed to increase knowledge about breast and cervical cancer. The research used a pre-test-intervention-post-test design with 174 Italian-born and 138 Anglo-Australian women aged 40 years and over. Interviews for the Italian sample were conducted in Italian. The intervention was an information session that related to breast health and screening mammography. Demographic variables were collected in the Pre-Test only. Qualitative open-ended questions that related specifically to the information session were collected in the Post-Test phase of the study. Direct logistic regression was used with the participants’ beliefs and behaviours to identify the relevant variables for language (Italian speaking and English-speaking), attendance to an information session, mammography screening and breast self-examination (BSE) behaviour. Pre- and Post-Test comparisons were conducted using chi-square tests for the non-parametric data and paired sample t-tests for the parametric data. Differences were found between the Italian and Anglo-Australian women in relation to their beliefs about breast cancer screening. The Italian women were: (1) more likely to state that medical experts understood the causes of breast cancer; (2) more likely to feel that they had less control over their personal risk of getting breast cancer; (3) more likely to be upset and frightened by thinking about breast cancer; (4) less likely to perceive breast cancer as serious; (4) more likely to only do what their doctor told them to do; and (5) less likely to agree that there were times when a person has cancer and they don’t know it. A pattern emerged for the Italian and Anglo-Australian women from the logistic regression analyses. The Italian women were much more likely to comply with medical authority and advice. The Anglo-Australian women were more likely to feel that they had some control over their health. Specifically, the risk variable ‘dread’ was more applicable to the Italian women’s behaviour and internal locus of control variable was more relevant to the Anglo-Australian women. The qualitative responses also differed for the two samples. The Italian women’s comments were more general, less specific, and more limited than that of the Anglo-Australian women. The Italian women talked about learning how to do BSE whereas the Anglo-Australian women said that attending the session had reminded them to do BSE more regularly. The key findings and contributions of the present research were numerous. The focus on one cultural group ensured comprehensive analyses, as did the inclusion of an adequate sample size to enable the use of multivariate statistics. Separating the Italian and Anglo-Australian samples in the analyses provided theoretical implications that would have been overlooked if the two groups were combined. The use of both qualitative and quantitative data capitalised on the strengths of both techniques. The inclusion of an Anglo-Australian group highlighted key theoretical findings, differences between the two groups and unique contributions made by both samples during the collection of the qualitative data. The use of a pre-test-intervention-post-test design emphasised the reticence of the Italian sample to participate and talk about breast cancer and confirmed and validated the consistency of the responses across the two interviews for both samples. The inclusion of non-cued responses allowed the researcher to identify the key salient issues relevant to the two groups. The limitations of the present research were the lack of many women who were not screening and reliance on self-report responses, although few differences were observed between the Pre- and Post-Test comparisons. The theoretical contribution of the HBM and the TRA variables was minimal in relation to screening mammography or attendance at the CLP. The applicability of these health behaviour theories may be less relevant for women today as they clearly knew the benefits of and the seriousness of breast cancer screening. The present research identified the applicability of the risk variables to the Italian women and the relevance of the locus of control variables to the Anglo-Australian women. Thus, clear cultural differences occurred between the two groups. The inclusion of the illness representations was advantageous as the responses highlighted ideas and personal theories salient to the women not identified by the HBM. The use of the illness representations and the qualitative responses further confirmed the relevance of the risk variables to the Italian women and the locus of control variables to the Anglo-Australian women. Attendance at the CLP did not influence the women to attend for mammography screening. Behavioural changes did not occur between the Pre- and Post-Test interviews. Small incremental changes as defined by the TTM and the stages of change may have occurred. Key practical implications for the CLP were identified. Improving the recruitment methods to gain a higher proportion of women who do not screen is imperative for the CLP promoters. The majority of the Italian and Anglo-Australian women who attended the information sessions were women who screen. The fact that Italian women do not like talking or thinking about cancer presents a challenge to promoters of the CLP. The key theoretical finding that Italian women dread breast cancer but comply with their doctor provides clear strategies to improve attendance at mammography screening. In addition, the inclusion of lay health advisors may be one way of increasing attendance to the CLP by including Italian women already attending screening and likely to have attended a CLP session. The present research identified the key finding that improving Anglo-Australian attendance at an information session is related to debunking the myth surrounding familial risk of breast cancer and encouraging the Anglo-Australian women to take more control of their health. Improving attendance for Italian women is related to reducing the fear and dread of breast cancer and building on the compliance pattern with medical authority. Therefore, providing an information session in the target language is insufficient to attract non-screeners to the session and then to screen for breast cancer. Suggestions for future research in relation to screening mammography were to include variables from more than one theory or model, namely the risk, locus of control and illness representations. The inclusion of non-cued responses to identify salient beliefs is advantageous. In addition, it is imperative to describe the profile of the cultural sample in detail, include detailed descriptions of the translation process and be aware of the tendency of Italian women to acquiesce with medical authority.

Silent film proved to be not just a global entertainment medium but also a deeply transnational one. “A global cinema” looks at its worldwide spread, largely unimpeded by language barriers and even national barriers. International coproductions were common, with actors and directors moving freely between countries. Alongside the rise of the Hollywood classical style, French, German, Italian, and Russian national cinemas emerged. Australia, India, Mexico, China, and Japan forged active film industries despite international pressures, while other regions saw their markets dominated by foreign imports.