The English language differs from others both in the patterns and the sociolinguistic conventions of its discourse. This paper uses forms of greeting as a specific reference as to how crosscultural communication can break down when Aboriginal people and English speakers interact.

Since children often rely on the spoken word as a basis for writing, and Aboriginal children rarely learn to write successfully in English, referring to the structure of Aboriginal languages offers a possible explanation of one contributive factor to this inability.

Central Schools in New South Wales administratively combine primary and secondary schools on a single site. They are normally located in small, relatively isolated, rural communities. In the Western Region of the NSW Department of Education there are 19 Central Schools varying in size from 88 to 557 students. At the time of this study eight of the Central Schools catered for students from kindergarten to Year 12, the remaining eleven catered for kindergarten to Year 10.

In 1987/88 Mitchell CAE, in collaboration with the Department of Education in the Western Region, undertook a major research study into the perceptions of Central Schools held by those most closely involved (Sinclair 1988). Prior to the study much of the knowledge of how Central Schools were perceived was anecdotal and impressionistic. This study aimed at gathering comparative data from all Western Region Central Schools about how those who taught, studied, or sent their children there perceived the quality of education provided by Central Schools.

Part I of this article outlined the findings of a 1987 study of attitudes of Aboriginal students in 19 New South Wales Central Schools. It showed that, despite higher attrition rates, Aboriginal children seemed to be as favourably disposed towards their schools as were their non-Aboriginal peers.

Part II, drawing from the same Central Schools study, compares the perceptions of teachers in these Central Schools according to whether the schools were ‘predominantly Aboriginal’, ‘significantly Aboriginal’ or ‘non-Aboriginal’.

In an article based largely on overseas research into teacher effectiveness (e.g., Ryans, 1960; Kleinfeld, 1972) and Australian discussions of the non-Aboriginal teacher’s role in educating Aboriginal students (e.g., Hart, 1974), Fanshawe (1976) argues that the personal characteristics of effective teachers of adolescent Aborigines are likely to include:

• being warm and supportive;

• making realistic demands of students;

• acting in a responsible, businesslike and systematic manner;

• and being stimulating, imaginative and original.