Iem: Incidental English for Migrants in Australia – Revised Edition

By Harry H. Krane

Australia the largest island continent in the world has now
broken the twenty-three million people population barrier. At
the end of World War 2 people whose lives were wrecked
through war, politics and racism, many of them displaced
persons, sought it out as a haven of freedom, refuge and
opportunities. There were also those who wished to escape
the ravages of poverty and bleak futures for their children,
many coming from Italy and Greece. Australia became a
robust multicultural society with some two hundred different
nationalities, all aussies.
Migration brings to the surface problems and hardships.
People domiciled in Australia gave assistance, yet even in
the seventies (evidently) much more had to be done. A small
group of people, both native Australian and migrants, wanted
to contribute towards alleviating the various distressing
situations. A paper was researched, and this became a
booklet called IEM English for migrants in Australia, widely
distributed to educators and governments. It contained
submissions and ideas that ranged from migrant language
education, social integration and telephone services to
ethnic Radio and TV. This publication contains the original
IEM booklet with expanded explanations to highlight its
contribution to the migrant story of Australia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jun 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493134809

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Harry H. Krane.

First published by ICITA 1974

Revised Edition by ICITA 2005

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/22/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ABOUT

3. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

3.1 Post World War Two Immigration

3.2 Background: Migrant Language Problems

3.3 Background: Immigration, Ethnicity and Public Debate

3.4 Background: The Abeta Correspondence School Solution

3.5 An idea is born: development of the 1974 Booklet

3.6 Post-publication distribution, a pilot scheme and feedback

3.7 The Historical Contribution of the IEM Method

4. THE THEORETICAL CONTEXT

4.1 Bilingualism

4.2. The Principle of Withdrawal-and-Return

4.3 Visual Communicative Learning

4.4 Interdisciplinary Education

4.5 Group Solidarity and Migrant Learning: Dr Hansen’s Experiment

4.6 Theory into Practice: Recommendations of the IEM Team

4.7 Project Dissemination Workbook (PDW)

5. THE ORIGINAL IEM BOOKLET

Publishing Details and the Authors

Foreword

Introduction

I. Basic Assumptions

II. Practical Consequences

III. A Note Concerning the Concept of International Studies

IV. Incidental English Method (I.E.M.)

V. The Citizen Task Force

VI. A Further Note on the Art Teacher’s Role in Migrant Education

VII. Initial Implementation

VIII. Diagrammatic Presentation

IX. I.E.M. SAMPLES (1)

IX. I.E.M. SAMPLES (2)

6. LIST OF REFERENCES

7. NOTE

8. APPENDIX: RETROSPECTIVE NEWSPAPER REPORTS

Acknowledgements:

In producing this Revised Edition I am particularly grateful to Dr Donald Cave, who generously gave his time, in spite of health problems, to assist in the revision and make amendments where necessary to clarify the text. Further thanks go to my wife Renee and my son Jonathan’s computer expertise and assistance with formatting. Appreciation goes to my editor Richard Pannell and the work of Ingrid Barker and Gary Fabien. I wish to thank Andrew Nickson, Moya McFadzen, a curator at Melbourne Museum (Victoria, Australia), and various people at The Victorian Multicultural Commission. Taking a large step into the past it is necessary to mention the help of the Hon. Al Grassby (then Federal Minister of Immigration) and Professor Kwong Lee Dow (then Dean of Education at Melbourne University), and the (former) Technical Teachers’ Association of Victoria. Finally, let me, as another ‘new Australian’ beneficiary at the time when these submissions became operative, join others gratefully in our new haven—Australia.

1. Introduction

The aim of this Revised Edition is to re-publish the IEM Incidental English for Migrants in Australia Booklet [‘the Booklet’] that was first published in 1974 by Dr Harry H Krane, Dr Donald Cave and Heather Kaufman and Rory Barnes, together with further preliminary commentary by Harry H. Krane, in order to provide additional historical and theoretical context to the IEM method.

Research and compilation of the 1974 Booklet was voluntary, with some small financial assistance from the University of Melbourne and the Technical Teachers’ Association of Victoria. This latter group printed the original Booklet.

Much has occurred since the Second World War influx of European migrants. As the 21st century progresses European migration is in retreat but migrants are still arriving, particularly from Asia and more recently the Middle East and Afghanistan. As lecturer (and at times counsellor) teaching design psychology to Industrial Design students at RMIT University in Melbourne for many years, the author became increasingly aware of Australia’s new migrants, and how similar many of their problems were to those of the earlier migrants from Europe. Although many of these students were not migrants in the strict sense of the word, culture and the English language impacted upon their involvement with Australia. But the problem of marginalisation always appeared to hover on the horizon. Possibly some reasons can be the linguistic differences and cultural differences which induce distances between people.

The current influx of migrants comes from many parts of Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Many now live with their families in new migrant enclaves, in various districts of Melbourne, like Springvale. There are also many overseas students attending high schools, TAFE colleges and universities. Although they are here as paying students and may return to their parent countries, they may experience language and cultural dissonances. This has been the author’s own teaching experience since the early nineties. What made the author’s overseas (frequently Asian) students too frequently fail to attend the readily given classes in English, despite his persistent prompting, was the formality of those classes. They had developed a knowledge of language that may not have sufficient regard to the necessary cross-fertilization of language and culture. It was their need to seek a ‘comfort zone’ that thrust the overseas students into their own language and culture, and/or led them to mix largely with others of a similar background to escape what they perceived as loneliness and alienation. This situation is likely not to be unique to one state or one university in Australia, but to be found in many.

The author’s frustration as a university teacher can surely be shared with other university teachers, who taught complex learning material in English, in communicating what needs to be known. The problem goes much deeper: it is the contingency of a two-way process for the differences in the cultures to be understood in the classroom, with the counsellor or in English learning classes.

When we speak about overseas students we must not speak in the hundreds but in hundreds of thousands, all over Australia. Whilst they are a welcome addition to the national income, they also enrich Australia by bringing their cultural endowments to our shores. This cross-fertilization of cultures, cognitively and socially, was defined in the IEM Report as ‘The modified Principle of Withdrawal-and-Return’ (p.20). For instance, what they absorb from our culture ‘incidentally’, apart from their formal studies, is likely to add new dimensions to their lives—and indeed it has proved to be the case. On the other hand what native Australians learn in interacting with other cultures adds new riches to their existing culture and outlook on life. This enrichment of cultural wealth by crossing the boundaries of cultures is the very essence of the principle.

What is being argued is that the ‘principle’ is as applicable to today’s influx of migrants as it was in the post-Second World War immigration years and may find productive use in the present time. It is surely worth examining.

Harry H Krane PhD

2. About

Australia, with over 200 ethnic groups and eighty different languages and this growth continues (according to the BIMPR Bulletin, August 1996), has become one of the most culturally diverse societies in the world. It is a unique illustration of how people from so many diverse backgrounds can live peacefully together. At this juncture it is necessary to remind ourselves that, although the initial phases of immigration and social integration were difficult, the newcomers came to a country that was established by earlier pioneering work in this vast island continent. Among the pioneers were the tens of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders (ANZACS) who laid down their lives in the fields of Europe so that we could be free. Yet we live in a time when sustainable survival becomes too readily pulped and negotiations for peace become violent because people cannot tolerate each other’s differences. Much has happened since the post-war immigration years when post-world war two migrant problems started to be more widely considered for serious intervention. Among the less well known interventions were the Abeta Correspondence School (see section 3.3) publication of the IEM Incidental English