Harkins, Jean (1990). Shame and shyness in the Aboriginal classroom: A case for “practical semantics”. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 293-306. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599445
Aboriginal students in many parts of Australia talk about their experiences of difficulty and discomfort in certain fairly common classroom situations, for example when the teacher calls on an individual student to answer a question, or when a student is singled out for either reprimand or praise. The name for this experience, in most varieties of Australian Aboriginal English, is SHAME. The word SHAME is used by Aboriginal speakers in circumstances where non-Aboriginal speakers would not speak of being ashamed. This paper seeks to demonstrate that proper semantic analysis can lead us to a much clearer understanding and statement of the concept underlying the Aboriginal use of this word, and how it differs from related concepts such as ‘being ashamed’, ‘shyness’, and ’embarrassment’. Such semantic information can be of immediate practical use in cross-cultural communication situations such as the classroom.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
