Australian English: Non-Australians' knowledge of distinctive features of this variety

This paper is intended to present what non-Australians know about Australian English. It examines the results of the survey concerning Australian English administered to students at two higher education institutions - at College and University of Rzeszów, in Poland, and at Bond University, in Australia. The main aim of the questionnaire is to examine the respondents’ awareness and knowledge of distinctive features of this variety of English. First, the survey examines the subjects’ exposure to Australian English. Then, it explores the students’ familiarity with vocabulary, e.g. clippings, idiomatic expressions and rhyming slang, and selected syntactic elements. The qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that the distinctive vocabulary is the most familiar aspect of the variety across all cohorts. To sum up, the paper proposes that, despite its geographical distance, Australian English evokes not just positive attitudes, but also attracts academic interests among the students at universities in Poland and Australia. The paper also makes some recommendations and research extensions.