The role of the home culture in promoting the mother tongue in a minority language environment

1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Duquette
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
Language Environment

Reflections on the Promotion of an Endangered Language:

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olimpia Rasom
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
The Creation

This chapter investigates the linguistic beliefs and ideologies of Ladin women in the Dolomites in Italy. The reasons that lead women to speak their heritage language in a progressively globalized Europe were investigated, to identify the role of ideologies about language and culture in shaping personal views. Focus groups of no more than seven women per group allowed the creation of a constructive setting where each woman could express her own ideas, which progressively evolved as other women’s opinions were heard. Life history interviews were used to investigate the ideologies of women aged 70 and over. Results suggest that reflection may lead to greater awareness of what it means to speak the ‘mother tongue’ and the consequent implications for an endangered minority language. Reflecting together makes women aware of their own skills and fosters willingness to promote their language and culture.

scholarly journals Russian-Speaking Jewry Communal and Congregational Life Abroad: the Role of Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 02013
Author(s):  
Gregory Ser ◽  
Larissa Talalova
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Host Society ◽  
Congregational Life ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
Host Culture ◽  
Jewish Immigration ◽  
Russian Jews ◽  
The Uk

The authors explore the Russian Jews diaspora which represents the viable mechanisms of real functioning in a host society. The article marks three criteria that help to be navigated among the options how the Russian Jewish immigration in the UK pans out in terms of: a) preserving the mother tongue, b) sticking to the home culture and c) whether the Russian Jews choose to adopt the host culture, whether they partly integrate into it or they fully assimilate.

Language Use and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy-Makers and Educators in Northeast Vietnamese Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Ha Ngan Ngo ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Wedding Songs

Vietnam represents a country with 54 ethnic groups; however, the majority (88%) of the population are of Vietnamese heritage. Some of the other ethnic groups such as Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, and Nung have a population of around 1 million each, while the Brau, Roman, and Odu consist only of a hundred people each. Living in northern Vietnam, close to the Chinese border (see Figure 1), the Tay people speak a language of the    Central    Tai language group called Though, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di. Tay remains one of 10 ethnic languages used by 1 million speakers (Buoi, 2003). The Tày ethnic group has a rich culture of wedding songs, poems, dance, and music and celebrate various festivals. Wet rice cultivation, canal digging and grain threshing on wooden racks are part of the Tày traditions. Their villages situated near the foothills often bear the names of nearby mountains, rivers, or fields. This study discusses the status and role of the Tày language in Northeast Vietnam. It discusses factors, which have affected the habitual use of the Tay language, the connection between language shift and development and provides a model for the sustainability and promotion of minority languages. It remains fundamentally imperative to strengthen and to foster positive attitudes of the community towards the Tày language. Tày’s young people must be enlightened to the reality their Tày non-usage could render their mother tongue defunct, which means their history stands to be lost.

The role of communities in Uganda’s mother tongue-based education: Perspectives from a literacy learning enhancement project in Arua district

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Ngaka
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Learning Enhancement ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Medium Education

AbstractThis paper explores some of the factors that limit the effectiveness of Uganda’s mother tongue-based education policy, where instruction in lower primary classes is provided in the mother tongue. Using socio-cultural and ethnographic lenses, the paper draws from the experiences of a study implemented by a Ugandan NGO in one primary school in Arua district. Findings revealed weaknesses in implementation of the MTBE policy, highlighting deficiencies in the training of teachers, and lack of sensitization of local communities to the value of MTBE. The study also highlights the need for greater involvement of many kinds of stakeholder, and in particular, it focuses on how communities can be encouraged to work together with schools. A clearer understanding of what literacy involves, and how subjects can be taught in poorly-resourced communities, can be gained by considering the contribution of funds of local knowledge and modes of expression that build on local cultural resources. However, the strategies proposed are insufficient given the flawed model of primary education that the present MTBE policy embodies. A reenvisioning of how MTBE articulates with English-medium education is also needed. Substantial rethinking is needed to address target 4.6 of SDG 4 (UNDP, Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld (accessed 30 November 2015), 2015) which aims to ensure that “all youth and a substantial proportion of adults achieve literacy and numeracy by 2030”.

scholarly journals Stimmen: A citizen science approach to minority language sociolinguistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanna Haug Hilton
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Speech Corpora ◽  
Societal Context ◽  
Smartphone Technology ◽  
Language Areas

Abstract This paper presents the project Stimmen fan Fryslân ‘Voices of Fryslân’. The project relies on a smartphone application developed to involve local communities in the creation of speech corpora, particularly of lesser used languages. This paper lays out the scientific and societal context of the project, showcases the smartphone application and gives an overview of the results from the project that attracted more than 15,000 users. Some key methodological issues are considered, and the paper discusses the role of smartphone technology for citizen science in minority language areas while also showing new maps with distributions of lexical and phonological variation in Frisian.

scholarly journals The French-Farsi Simultaneous Early Bilingualism in an Iranian Child—Study on the Regularity of the Presence of the Minority Language in the First Lexical Productions of a Bilingual Child

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Sahar Jalilian ◽  
Rouhollah Rahmatian ◽  
Parivash Safa ◽  
Roya Letafati
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Parental Attitudes ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Child Study ◽  
Iranian Child ◽  
Audio Files ◽  
A Minor

In a simultaneous bilingual education, there are many factors that can affect its success, primarily the age of the child and socio-cognitive elements. This phenomenon can be initially studied in the first lexical productions of either language in a child. The present study focuses on the early lexical developments of a child, who lives in the monolingual society of Iran, where there is no linguistic milieu for French, and has been exposed to a bilingual education since birth. Applying Ronjat’s principle of “one parent-one language” (1913), the parents have formed the child’s basic linguistic interactions; the father employs Farsi in his interactions with the child as his mother tongue while the mother uses French as her foreign language. The data is collected from audio files recorded in the period between 18 and 36 months old of the child, containing her everyday interactions with her parents. Through the analysis of the data with the purpose of studying the changes of the presence of the minority language words, i.e. French, in the child’s sentences at different ages, questions are raised regarding the conditions of a persistent presence of both languages and the reason due to which one language positions as a minor means of communication, observing parental attitudes and environmental issues that can influence the language acquisition procedure.

The role of second language in higher education: A case study of German students at a Dutch university

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidy Zijlmans ◽  
Anneke Neijt ◽  
Roeland van Hout
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Main Language

AbstractThis article reports on an investigation of the challenges and benefits of university students taking a degree course in a language other than their mother tongue. Our study was conducted from the point of view of the non-native students themselves, and our primary concern was the role of language. We investigated the academic achievement of German students studying in a Dutch-English academic environment. Dutch is the main language of instruction, and English the main language of the literature used. In search of predictors for successful learning of Dutch (our first research question), LexTALE tests were administered to determine linguistic competence in the students’ first language, German, and their second language, English. In addition, we collected data on their educational background and language learning history. None of the LexTALE scores stood out as ‘the’ predictor for success in learning Dutch; German was a slightly better predictor than English. The best predictor appeared to be the students’ general educational level, expressed in mean grades for final exams in secondary education. We then studied the role of proficiency in the foreign languages needed for academic success. Language data on L3 Dutch were gathered at the start and were compared to study results after the first six months and at the end of the first year. The level of Dutch as a second language correlated with study results, expressed in ECTS; the correlation was even higher with mean grades on exams. This indicates that language proficiency does play a role in study success.

scholarly journals Errors in Second/Foreign Language Learning and Their Interpretations

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Falla Wood
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Possible Cause

The aim of this article is to try to understand why the results of studies on errors in second language learning undertaken for several decades are diverse or even divergent. Some of these studies state that the mother tongue (L1) plays an important role in the learning process not only at the beginning, but also at higher levels of competency while others deny the influence of the mother tongue. The results of 60 studies on errors over a period of 40 years were contrasted to find out if a link existed between the theoretical foundations, and the interpretation of data, and conclusions of those studies. The results of the meta-analysis of studies whose theoretical foundations were related to operational cognitive strategies showed a continuum from partial to an important role of L1, and those related to order of acquisition, universal sequences showed a non-influence of L1. Another possible cause for this discrepancy was found in the method used to classify the errors. Finally, a possible cause could have been the methodological difficulties concerning the reliability and validity of the data. Only one third of the studies applied the control of bias and the triangulation of data.

scholarly journals CZY JESTEŚMY GOTOWI NA EKOGLOTTODYDAKTYKĘ W POLSKIM KONTEKŚCIE EDUKACYJNYM?

Neofilolog ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Jolanta Sujecka-Zając
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Language Context ◽  
The Relationship

The trend for eco-linguistics, which has been dynamically developing in the English-language literature since the 1970s, proposes a change in the perception of the relationship between language, nature, and culture, in a sense making language a link which brings together nature and culture, rather than separating them as is traditional. This approach poses important questions: How do languages ​​work in the ecosystem created by the language environment of all users of a given language context? What relationships can they enter into? How should one perceive the development of multilingualism in such an ecological approach, in which not only does "strong" affect the "weak" but “weak” reciprocates? "Weak" has an important place in the language ecosystem, which risks serious changes due to excessive weakening of one of its components. This paper aims to examine the possible inspirations that eco-linguistics offers Foreign Language Teaching (FLT), highlighting the role of each language and sensitizing the reader to the relationships that arise between languages ​​and their users in a given environment. From this perspective Claire Kramsch (2008) postulates a change in the perception of the main function of the teacher from the "teacher of a code" to the "teacher of meaning", which has specific didactic consequences in how language activities are approached. Is the school classroom a place for activities which have their origin in the trend for eco-FLT?

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