Language Maintenance Revisited: An Australian Perspective.

Language maintenance has been an issue debated whenever languages come into contact. This paper presents a detailed discussion of the reasons most often cited as to why languages should be maintained, with a specific focus on Australia because of the country's multilingual makeup. Australia currently has about 150 aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages still in use, and more than 100 languages other than English are spoken by its immigrant population. However, these diverse language resources have been allowed to steadily decline. The arguments for the maintenance of Australia's languages are categorized loosely based on Thieberger's (1990) work and each of the arguments is discussed: (a) group intergrity and group membership, (b) identity, (c) cultural heritage, (d) social-humanitarian and economic implication, (e) assimilation, and (0 cognitive development and academic achievement. This paper argues that there are many apparent advantages to maintaining languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]