page_title: John Rudder
section_title: Language teaching
hierarchical_section_title: John Rudder / Work / Language teaching
context_page_description: John Rudder, PhD, has studied the Australian Aboriginal languages, of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and the state of New South Wales, Australia.
context_section_description: From 1993 to 2010, Rudder was heavily involved with Stan Grant, an elder of the Wiradjuri people, in reclaiming the Wiradjuri language that was at that time effectively dead. He took anthropological studies and records amounting to the records of fewer than 2,000 words and applied the language and cognitive analysis he had previously applied to the Yolngu language, to begin to reconstruct the Wiradjuri language. With Grant, who provided a sense of the language remembered from his youth in World War II among Wiradjuri-speaking family and tribal members, notably his grandfather, they have established training sessions to teach the language across Wiradjuri country. Intensive weekend camps, workshops, and other sessions have seen a growing number of Wiradjuri speakers who are beginning to re-establish the language. For instance, these speakers are beginning to write songs and poems that are then being taught to children.
  Secondary effects of the cultural use of the Wiradjuri language are being felt within the language group, and beyond. Examples are:
  recognition of the Wiradjuri as a cultural group within the wider society
  use of Wiradjuri words in communities, and in Australian usage
  teaching of Wiradjuri to New South Wales Primary School children
caption: Stan Grant
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