The languages of Aboriginal Australians have attracted a considerable amount of interest among scholars from such diverse fields as linguistics, political studies, archaeology or social history. As a result, there is a large number of studies on a variety of issues to do with Aboriginal Australian languages and the social contexts in which they are used. There is, however, no integrative reader that is easily accessible to the non-specialist in any of the areas concerned. The collection edited by Leitner and Malcolm fills this gap. Looking at Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and their changing habitats from pre-colonial times to the present, the book covers languages from a structural and functional linguistic perspective, moves on to the issue of cultural maintenance and then turns to language policy, planning and the educational and legal dimensions. Among the many themes discussed are: the social and linguistic history of language contact after 1788 (including the Macassans); the demographic base of indigenous languages; traditional indigenous languages; results of language contact such as the modification of traditional languages and the rise of contact languages (pidgins, creoles, esp. Kriol, Torres Strait Creole, and Aboriginal English); the impact of the Aboriginal languages on mainstream Australian English; maintenance, shift, revival and documentation of indigenous and contact languages; language planning; language in education; language in the media; language in the law courts. The contributors are leading experts in their fields. The book can serve as a reader for university courses but also as a state-of-the-art work and resource for specialists like applied linguists or educational planners.

Australia has a reputation for sustained work in language policy and has had over 20 years of experience of language policy development. During these years, language policies have sought to increase and reshape languages education in Australian schools, but have had only limited success in achieving their objectives. This means that Australia’s extensive work in language policy has not yet guaranteed a secure place for languages within education. After a period of comparative neglect of languages and multiculturalism, Australia is now entering a new phase of activity in language policy and it is timely to consider critically what has and has not been achieved to date and the reasons why. The aim of this book is to examine the current state, nature, role and purposes of languages in Australian education as a basis for considering a viable, encompassing language education policy. The book is divided into four specific focus areas for discussion, each of which is based on a core theme in Australian languages education: engaging with diversity; the current state of policy and participation in languages education and languages teacher education; current orientations to languages education, and future possibilities and directions in languages education. Underlying the discussion is the recognition that at this particular juncture in languages education policy in Australia it is necessary to re-examine constructs, research, evidence and practice as the basis for renewal. The book presents a collection of papers dealing with each of the themes and aims to give greater focus to the contemporary debates around languages in education in Australia and more generally.

This book brings together current research by leading international scholars on the often contentious nature of language policies and their practical outcomes in North America, Australia and Europe. It presents a range of perspectives from which to engage with a variety of pressing issues raised by multilingualism, multiculturalism, immigration, exclusion, and identity. A recurrent theme is that of tension and conflict: between uniformity and diversity, between official policies and real day-to-day life experiences, but also between policies in schools and the corporate world and their implementation. Several chapters present research about language policy issues that has previously not been fully or easily available to an English-language audience. Many of the chapters also provide up-to-date analyses of language policy issues in particular regions or countries, focusing on recent developments.

This volume explores the concept of 'citizenship', and argues that it should be understood both as a process of becoming and the ability to participate fully, rather than as a status that can be inherited, acquired, or achieved. From a courtroom in Bulawayo to a nursery in Birmingham, the authors use local contexts to foreground how the vulnerable, particularly those from minority language backgrounds, continue to be excluded, whilst offering a powerful demonstration of the potential for change offered by individual agency, resistance and struggle. In addressing questions such as 'under what local conditions does "dis-citizenship" happen?'; 'what role do language policies and pedagogic practices play?' and 'what kinds of margins and borders keep humans from fully participating'? The chapters in this volume shift the debate away from visas and passports to more uncertain and contested spaces of interpretation.

Review of Adult Learning and Literacy: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice, Volume 7, is the newest volume in a series of annual publications of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) that address major issues, the latest research, and the best practices in the field of adult literacy and learning. Each Review opens with an overview of significant recent developments in the field of adult literacy followed by a set of chapters presenting in-depth reviews of research and best practices on topics of high interest to the field, and concludes with a Resources section. Chapter topics in Volume 7: *Persistence: Helping Adult Students Reach Their Goals *Achieving Adult Education Program Quality *Assistive Technology and Adult literacy *Individualized Group Instruction *Health Literacy *Research on Professional Development and Teacher Change *Opportunities, Transitions, and Risks: Perspectives on Adult Literacy and Numeracy Development in Australia *Adult Basic Education in South Africa *Annotated Bibliography on Workplace Education The Review of Adult Learning and Literacy serves as the journal of record for the field and is an essential resource for all stakeholders who need to know what research can reveal about how best to serve adult learners. The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) is a federally funded research and development center focused solely on adult learning. NCSALL's efforts are dedicated to improving practice in educational programs that serve adults with limited literacy and English language skills, and those without a high school diploma. For more information on NCSALL, please visit http://www.ncsall.net/.

This book analyses the experiences of multicultural education in nine very different international settings uncovering insights from a vast variety of educational contexts. Taking a multi-critical approach in reporting and discussing problems faced by increasingly multicultural and multilingual societies the nine case studies reflect radically different assumptions about what counts as ‘ difference’ and what should be the appropriate ways for education systems to respond to differences. While each country’s approach seems unique, analysis of the divergent treatments of internal population diversity elicits a genuinely global instance of the increasingly shared phenomenon of cultural pluralism. Discussing various successes and failures of policy enactment, theory, pedagogy and management of diversity, the book isolates both the differences and similarities in the unique geopolitical and socio-historical contexts of the countries investigated. A key value of the book is that it greatly expands the range of settings, experiences, epistemologies, ontologies and practical experiences that are typically encountered in mainstream discussion of what counts as 'multicultural education'. In effect, all societies are in some way ‘dealing with difference’ – this volume helps widen the scope of reflection and thus facilitates increased, global ‘learning from difference’.