Language, Cultural Identity and Empowerment in the Dominant Culture

Abstract

Lack of a common means of verbal or written communication always creates problems of interpersonal communication and gives rise to misunderstandings and (possibly) prejudice against one or other party. On the surface, there would seem to be a good deal of merit in the suggestion that “if everyone spoke the same language, all these problems would disappear”. However, the matter is not as simple as it seems, for questions must be asked as to what language should be chosen, the dialect of it, and to what extent cultural factors, deeply related to the true understanding of how thought is expressed within a language, need to be addressed. In Australia, most reasonably well education Anglo-Celtic Australians asked these questions would immediately think of Standard Australian English (SAE), though working-class and indigenous Australians may consider it too “posh” and out of touch with their lifestyles. Few from the dominant group, however, would be even remotely aware of the degree to which cultural factors influence how thought is expressed in a language (as already mentioned), and how this influences the spoken language and, more particularly, the written language in a literate society.