ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the televised teaching of the English language to non-English speaking migrants in Australia in the 1970s, and spans television history, migration history, and the history of language education in the English-speaking world. In particular, it examines You Say the Word, a federally funded television program that screened from 1971 to 1978. Through the teaching of language, the program aimed to translate Australia and Australian-ness for new migrants. By building on the language teaching activities that were developed for Australia’s large migrant intake in the late 1940s and early 1950s, You Say the Word extended the model of assimilating large numbers of non-English speaking migrants into Australian society—and its workforce—as quickly as possible. Conducted entirely in English, You Say the Word featured in-studio language lessons, as well as documentary segments about various aspects of Australian culture and social custom. This chapter argues that You Say the Word’s linguistic and cultural translations for new migrants, emphasizing English language as an essential prerequisite for assimilation and citizenship, was at odds with an emerging policy of multiculturalism, as well as with migrants’ own informal television viewing and educational habits.
