“Hey BCC this is Australia and we speak and read English:” Monolingualism and othering in relation to linguistic diversity

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 577-603
Author(s):  
Valeria Sinkeviciute
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
City Council ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
English Only ◽  
The Us ◽  
Negative Comments ◽  
Negative Identity

AbstractThis paper explores how linguistic diversity gave rise to a multi-party interaction with strong elements of monolingualism and othering. The data analyzed comes from the official Facebook page of Brisbane City Council that very rarely creates posts in languages other than English. One of such rare posts in Korean attracted a number of negative comments in relation to the language used. This paper examines how the discourses of monolingualism and othering are constructed in those comments. The findings of this qualitative study show that, in the analyzed data, monolingualism is primarily indexed through the following discourses: “English only”, English as the language of Australia, English as a national identity and monolingual beliefs, in general. Othering includes such practices as predominantly engaging in the “us vs them” discourse, positioning the non-dominant language and its speakers as the different ‘other’, ascribing negative identity and using impoliteness practices, such as challenges, warnings or accusations.

American Speech-Language Pathologists' Training and Legislative Knowledge When Working With Immigrant and Refugee Populations: A Qualitative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 1148-1161
Author(s):  
Camilo Maldonado ◽  
Alejandro Ashe ◽  
Kerri Bubar ◽  
Jessica Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Federal Mandates ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee

Background American educational legislation suggests culturally competent speech and language services should be provided in a child's native language, but the number of multilingual speech-language pathologists (SLPs) is negligible. Consequently, many monolingual English-speaking practitioners are being tasked with providing services to these populations. This requires that SLPs are educated about cultural and linguistic diversity as well as the legislation that concerns service provision to non-English or limited English proficiency speakers. Purpose This qualitative study explored the experiences of monolingual, American, English-speaking SLPs and clinical fellows who have worked with immigrant and refugee families within a preschool context. It investigated what training SLPs received to serve this population and what knowledge these SLPs possessed with regard to federal legislation governing the provision of services to culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) communities. Method Ten American clinicians with experience treating CLD children of refugee and immigrant families in the context of preschool service provision participated in the study. Semistructured interviews were utilized to better understand the type of training clinicians received prior to and during their service delivery for CLD populations. Additionally, questions were asked to explore the degree to which practitioners understood federal mandates for ethical and effective service provision. The data collected from these interviews were coded and analyzed using the principles of grounded theory. Findings The results of this study revealed that there was a general sense of unpreparedness when working with CLD clients. This lack of training also attributed to a deficiency of knowledge surrounding legislation governing service provision to CLD populations.

Reaching Spanish-Speakers in Self-Administered Surveys

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Michael Brick ◽  
Andrew Caporaso ◽  
Douglas Williams ◽  
David Cantor
Keyword(s):  
Single Phase ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
English Only ◽  
Eligible Population ◽  
The Us ◽  
Survey Estimates

Decisions on public policy can be affected if important segments of the population are systematically excluded from the data used to drive the decisions. In the US, Spanishspeakers make up an important subgroup that surveys conducted in English-only underrepresent. This subgroup differs in a variety of characteristics and they are less likely to respond to surveys in English-only. These factors lead to nonresponse biases that are problematic for survey estimates. For surveys conducted by mail, one solution is to include both English and Spanish materials in the survey package. For addresses in the US where Spanish-speakers are likely to be living, this approach is effective, but it still may omit some non-English-speakers. Traditionally, including both English and Spanish materials for addresses not identified as likely to have Spanish-speakers was considered problematic due to concerns of a backlash effect. The backlash effect is that predominantly English-speakers might respond at a lower rate because of the inclusion of Spanish materials. Prior research found no evidence of a backlash, but used a twophase approach with a short screener questionnaire to identify the eligible population for an education survey. In this paper, we report on experiments in two surveys that extend the previous research to criminal victimization and health communication single-phase surveys. These experiments test the effect of the inclusion of Spanish language materials for addresses not identified as likely to have Spanish-speakers. Our findings confirm most results of the previous research; however we find no substantial increase in Spanish-only participation when the materials are offered in both languages for addresses that are not likely to have Spanish-speakers. We offer some thoughts on these results and directions for future research, especially with respect to collecting data by the Internet.

Identity Politics and Migration

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-158
Author(s):  
Vytis Čiubrinskas
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
The Us ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
A Current ◽  
Respective Host

The Centre of Social Anthropology (CSA) at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas has coordinated projects on this, including a current project on 'Retention of Lithuanian Identity under Conditions of Europeanisation and Globalisation: Patterns of Lithuanian-ness in Response to Identity Politics in Ireland, Norway, Spain, the UK and the US'. This has been designed as a multidisciplinary project. The actual expressions of identity politics of migrant, 'diasporic' or displaced identity of Lithuanian immigrants in their respective host country are being examined alongside with the national identity politics of those countries.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Study on the US Forest Service’s Risk Management Assistance Efforts to Improve Wildfire Decision-Making

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 344
Author(s):  
Courtney A. Schultz ◽  
Lauren F. Miller ◽  
Sarah Michelle Greiner ◽  
Chad Kooistra
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Perceived Value ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
The Us ◽  
Decision Biases ◽  
Line Officers

To support improved wildfire incident decision-making, in 2017 the US Forest Service (Forest Service) implemented risk-informed tools and processes, together known as Risk Management Assistance (RMA). The Forest Service is developing tools such as RMA to improve wildfire decision-making and implements these tools in complex organizational environments. We assessed the perceived value of RMA and factors that affected its use to inform the literature on decision support for fire management. We sought to answer two questions: (1) What was the perceived value of RMA for line officers who received it?; and (2) What factors affected how RMA was received and used during wildland fire events? We conducted a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with decision-makers to understand the contextualized and interrelated factors that affect wildfire decision-making and the uptake of a decision-support intervention such as RMA. We used a thematic coding process to analyze our data according to our questions. RMA increased line officers’ ability to communicate the rationale underlying their decisions more clearly and transparently to their colleagues and partners. Our interviewees generally said that RMA data analytics were valuable but did not lead to changes in their decisions. Line officer personality, pre-season exposure to RMA, local political dynamics and conditions, and decision biases affected the use of RMA. Our findings reveal the complexities of embracing risk management, not only in the context of US federal fire management, but also in other similar emergency management contexts. Attention will need to be paid to existing decision biases, integration of risk management approaches in the interagency context, and the importance of knowledge brokers to connect across internal organizational groups. Our findings contribute to the literature on managing change in public organizations, specifically in emergency decision-making contexts such as fire management.

Teaching linguistics through language construction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yılmaz Köylü
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
The Us ◽  
Students First ◽  
Long Course ◽  
High Level ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Specific Project

Abstract This article details how introductory linguistics courses can increase student engagement and learning through a project-based approach, whereby the students first study the subfields of linguistics with a view to complete the main project of the course, namely to construct a novel language. I provide information from a semester-long course with specific project-based activities teachers could utilize in their classes. I also thoroughly examine the constructed language projects based on 33 student submissions in an introductory linguistics course in the US. The analysis indicates a high level of engagement and creativity by the students in creating a distinct orthography, phonetic, morphological, and syntactic rules and semantic properties for their constructed languages. The results from a 20-item questionnaire and student exit interviews indicate that the project-based approach adopted in the completion of their constructed languages proved effective in (a) improving student motivation and engagement; (b) helping students apply the knowledge of the material to carry out linguistic analysis; (c) enhancing students’ language learning skills; (d) encouraging them to study additional foreign languages; and finally (e) promoting linguistic diversity. Hence, as an innovative and effective method still in its infancy, project-based learning should be more widely implemented in linguistics instruction.

scholarly journals Perceptions and Barriers to Physical Activity in Childhood and Adulthood Among Latinas

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosenda Murillo ◽  
Mariana Vazquez ◽  
Isabel Leal ◽  
Daphne Hernandez ◽  
Qian Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Individual Interview ◽  
Latina Women ◽  
The Us ◽  
Promotion Of Physical Activity ◽  
Barriers To Physical Activity

Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify perceptions and barriers to physical activity in childhood and adulthood among Latina adults. Methods: We conducted 3 focus groups, 2 dyadic interviews, and an individual interview using semi-structured interview guides with 23 Latina women aged 21-35. A thematic analysis approach employing inductive and deductive coding was utilized to code, categorize, and summarize data into themes. Results: The themes that emerged focused on: (1) physical activity is enjoyable; (2) family influenced physical activity; (3) different lifestyle in the US influenced physical activity; (4) physical activity is important for health; and (5) responsibilities (eg, work, caregiving) as barriers to physical activity in adulthood. Conclusions: Perceptions and barriers to physical activity experienced in both childhood and adulthood should be considered in the promotion of physical activity among Latinas.

scholarly journals The Emergence of Multilingual Education in India: Issues Related to Media of Instruction in Border Areas of Telangana Schools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Kothakonda
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Multilingual Education ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
The Right

<p>My main goal is to focus on the importance of multilingual education through translanguaging pedagogies in Telangana schools especially in the areas of minority linguistic communities. India is remarkably well-known for cultural and linguistic diversity. In such a context, it is difficult to implement the right medium of instruction in which the students’ home language is different from the school language. Though there are many factors involved in delivering quality education, language plays a significant role in teaching and learning across the world. The majority of the schools encourage dominant language(s) in teaching and learning in Indian states. As a result, students of non-dominant language(s) are totally out of the classroom conversations and they slowly come to know that their languages are less prestigious and not used in schools. This leads them to show less interest in learning. Non-dominant language(s) are pushed out of important domains and such languages are impoverished with limited functions in India. In this paper, I discuss the complexity which lies in providing the right media of instruction to heterogeneous students in Indian classrooms and also explores the students’ language(s) proficiency levels in two target languages. Finally, I explain some ways to develop students’ linguistic and cognitive skills in such a multilingual environment. Two schools were, for this study, visited to understand the language(s) scenario in the Telangana region. The data was collected from 15 students who were in the IX class.Apart from this, we interacted with teachers to get their opinions on various topics in relation to students’ language skills as well as multilingual education. Extensive individual interviews and long conversations were conducted from classroom teachers in relation to students’ language skills in three languages. The data was collected through a variety of sources in order to illuminate multilingual education in Telangana schools. Oral and written samples were collected from the participants in two languages L2 & L3. In the process of data collection, each student performed spoken as well as written tasks. Oral tasks consist of discussions, role-plays, and one storytelling task based on the provided pictures. Written tasks consist of reading, listening, and writing (vocabulary, grammar, and sentence meaning). The result of the collected data reveals the proficiency levels of students in L2 & L3. The empirical data, interviews, and conversations revealed the significance of LI in schools at the right time. </p>

scholarly journals "Re-Imagining" the Homeland? Languages and National Belonging in Ukrainian Diasporas since the Euromaidan

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-109
Author(s):  
Ivan Kozachenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
The Continuum ◽  
Ethnic And Linguistic Diversity

From the first days of the Euromaidan protests, Ukrainian diasporas around the globe took an active part in supporting democratic change in Ukraine. These diasporic communities actively used social media to “represent” their national identity, to promote their visions of Ukraine’s past and future, and to network and coordinate their actions. This paper argues that the events of the Euromaidan made Ukrainian diasporas in Western countries “re-invent” and “re-imagine” their national belonging. In these processes historical memory, language, and regional identifications play a crucial part within the continuum between conservative ethnonationalist identities and “civic” ones that try to accommodate the ethnic and linguistic diversity of Ukraine in the diasporic setting. This study reveals that “civic” identity elements became more visible across Ukrainian diasporas, but that Russian aggression somewhat haltered the acceptance of diversity and reinforced previously existing conservative sentiments.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document