ACTA Conference 2012 “TESOL as a Global Trade – Ethics, Equity and Ecology”

Last month, Honey Ant Readers author ,Margaret James, presented at the Australian Council of TESOL Associations International TESOL Conference “TESOL as a Global Trade – Ethics, Equity and Ecology” 2012 along with many inspirational linguists and educators such as Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Jane Simpson, Gillian Wigglesworth among others.

During her presentation, Margaret reiterated the basic message of the conference: that children learn to read and write best in their mother tongue and the pressing need to preserve and celebrate Indigenous languages and culture. She described the context in which the Honey Ant Readers were developed- the central desert and it’s the open silent space and red sand epitomising the Aboriginal way of living. In the central desert the traditional classroom is the red sand and bush, the teachers are family members, the subject matter passed down through many generations – and the knowledge is communally held.

Communally held knowledge is passed down through stories, that not individually ‘made up’. They are bigger than one person and shared with children from birth. Through narrative they teach the law, ways of living, ways of finding food and of keeping safe. The stories have a moral. The characters are generic, meaning they don’t have names. Eg nana, sister.

Margaret explained that when the elders share their stories with her for the HARs she takes them at face value, knowing full well that there are layers beyond what she can see but which the Aboriginal children and young adults learning to read can appreciate and relate to. The familiarity and deeper meaning makes them powerful to the readers. The familiarity evokes emotional and physical reactions in the children which assists learning. For example many children say, “oo this makes me hungry” when they see a honey ant or goanna crawling across the pages of the books. They see themselves as characters in the books. In the later books when they recognise the story they tend to talk about it and enjoy recounting it to their teacher.

Margaret’s interactive presentation involved visual media-video, photographs as well as whole-groups singing, with the song Kami tjawani (nana dig), explained the linguistic and pedagogic rationale for the readers which are carefully crafted to assist learners to read.

Margaret shared the promising results of the books, which are undergoing formal evaluation this year:
• Teachers assessments show very positive improvement.
• There is obvious engagement with the materials.
• Students are relating to the subject matter.
• Interest in reading has significantly increased, resulting in improved literacy and oral language acquisition.
• There is an increased interest in SAE books.