Structures of Discourse : Some implications for teachers of Aboriginal children

Abstract

The English language differs from others both in the patterns and the sociolinguistic conventions of its discourse. This paper uses forms of greeting as a specific reference as to how crosscultural communication can break down when Aboriginal people and English speakers interact.

Since children often rely on the spoken word as a basis for writing, and Aboriginal children rarely learn to write successfully in English, referring to the structure of Aboriginal languages offers a possible explanation of one contributive factor to this inability.