Materinski jezik u multukulturalnom prostoru Australije
Native languages in the multicultural space of Australia

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary Australian society with its developed multiculturalism policy encourages all Australian immigrants to preserve mother tonque language and culture, and the system of regular education also encourages second and third generation children of immigrants to learn their ancestor’s language in the national educational curriculum. The author in this paper analyzes the work of Saturday and ethnic schools in three Australian states, South Australia, Victoria and New South Weles, where as part of the educational program Croatian language classess are taught in grades 1-12. The collected dana covers altogether fifteen school centers of the above mentioned three states where Croatian language classes are taught.; two centers in the state of South Australia – School of Languages and the Croatian Sport Centre in the city of Adelaide; six centers in the state of Victoria – Altona, Keilor Downs, Roxburgh Park and Westall in Melbourne and three centers in the town of Geelong – Holy Family Primary School, Victorian School of Languages (North Geelong) and the Croatian Catholic Centre; six centres in the state of New South Wales – Terrey Hills, Strathfiled, Beverly Hills, Liverpool, Blacktown and one centre in the town of Wollongong (Croatian Catholic Centre). The goal of this analysis is linguistic behaviour of 550 students and 60 teachers in these centres since the students are second, third and even fourth generation of Croatian immigrants, and the teachers are mostly second generation of immigrants, which unfortunately is a confirmation of evident loss of bilingualism in Australia.

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