Since the early 90s Aboriginal English has been recognised as one of more than 160 official dialects of English but many people have never heard of it, including some of those who speak it.
Ms Davis said holding the view that Aboriginal English was broken English, or slang, was not only incorrect but could have detrimental impacts on learning outcomes for Indigenous students.
"The more competent you are in your first language through reading and writing and speaking and listening, the better off you are in your second language, which therefore would be Australian Standard English," she said. "If kids are speaking Aboriginal English you might have different sounds, phenology, semantics and pragmatics that goes with it."
Ms Davis said 80 per cent of Indigenous Australians were Aboriginal-English speakers and the way it was spoken varied based on different language groups. "If you think about British English and the different dialects within that, like cockney and dialects from different areas, Aboriginal English is similar," she said."There's variety but also a lot of similarities to the way people speak Aboriginal English."According to the Primary English Teaching Association Australia , colonisers were reluctant to learn Aboriginal languages so Aboriginal people started learning English words.
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