Pictures and Pedagogies

New Resources now available!

Illustrated learner’s dictionaries and picture-based activities are important in a language teacher’s toolkit, including teachers of Indigenous languages.  The implementation of the Australian Curriculum has prompted a rise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language programs in Australian schools, however Indigenous language teacher training, teaching resources and guides remain scarce, motivating the investigation and creation of practical, usable and sharable resources. This project created two related sets of resources, informed by educator’s practices and needs, lexicographic research and language documentation. They are (i) a teacher’s resource guide to picture- and picture-dictionary-based teaching activities, (ii) an extensive corpus of line-drawn illustrations.

Project outputs are now available. The 1,600 image bank ‘Arlkeny map-akert’ Australian Indigenous Languages Image Bank and the User Guide are available to download from PARADESIC https://researchdata.edu.au/arlkeny-map-akert-bank-ailib/2041470 . The teacher resource ‘Mangurr-jangu mirlamirlajinjikki’ Teaching with pictures has over 50 teaching activities, divided into speaking, listening, reading, writing and theme work. It is available for free download through First Languages Australia https://www.firstlanguages.org.au/mangurr-jangu. First Languages Australia are also distributing the hardcopy.

We are now monitoring uptake and use of these available resources.

Projects outputs – The Australian Indigenous Language Image Bank is available

Samantha Disbray, CI
Inge Kral, University of Western Australia (then Australia National University)
Jenny Green, University of Melbourne
Funded by Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Languages

Images – cover of Arlkeny map-akert and Mangurr-jangu