Australia's Spanish speakers studied
A University of Queensland academic has completed the most comprehensive known sociological snapshot of Australia's 100,000 Spanish speakers.
Romance Languages Department lecturer Dr Daniel Martin is now embarking on a new phase of the study extending the survey sample from 500 to 1500 people.
From his original survey, he collected general information about the life and work experiences of Australia's Spanish speakers and constructed a model of the likelihood of their passing the language on to their children.
The model combined data from face-to-face interviews, the survey and census information and found that 65 percent of Australia's Spanish speakers were transferring the language to their children.
However, the reasons for transferral varied greatly, Dr Martin said.
"Some people pass the language on simply because they used to speak Spanish with their children before migrating or are not sure if they will stay in Australia. Others, such as teachers and interpreters who realise the importance of the language's survival into the next generation do so for intellectual reasons," he said.
"The other main reason is economic, especially if parents own a business servicing the Spanish-speaking community or they realise the importance of Spanish as an international language.
"They believe it is commercially important for their children, who will one day run the business or look for employment in the global economy, to retain the language connection to the community."
The survey had revealed many interesting aspects about the experiences of Spanish speakers in Australia, Dr Martin said.
"For example, it seems the less European you look, the more likely you are to be told by teachers and other people in authority to speak English in the home to aid assimilation," he said.
"A higher proportion of Mexicans, Peruvians and Ecuadorians (many of whom are of Creole rather than European descent) reported having this experience in comparison with Spanish speakers from Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay (among whom there are more descendants from European stock)."
Dr Martin said the results of the new survey would enable him to further refine the model.
Dr Martin has also written a booklet in Spanish providing a snapshot of Spanish speakers living in Australia. Projecto "Lengua Espanola en Australia 1994" is available at 500 libraries and Spanish community organisations throughout Australia.
Spanish is the dominant language in 22 countries with migrants from eight of these represented in Australia, Dr Martin said. They are Spain, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. About 9000 Spanish-speakers live in Queensland.
Twenty-five percent of Australia's Spanish-speaking citizens migrated from Chile to Australia between the 1960s and 1980s, he said.
Dr Martin's research has been incorporated into his teaching. He has developed a course for second-generation native Spanish speakers who want to improve their writing skills.
The course is also open to people who have a high proficiency in spoken Spanish such as Australian students returning from exchange programs in Spain or Latin America.
It is available both on campus and as a distance education external course to Spanish-speakers Australia-wide. There is an Open Learning version of the subject as well.
For more information, contact Dr Martin (telephone 07 3365 2276).
