Pluricentricity and minority languages: the difficult case of North Frisian

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Nils Langer
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
West Germany ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Difficult Case ◽  
North West ◽  
Sufficient Detail ◽  
North Frisian ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Common definitions of pluricentricity rely on the notions of centre, nation, and norm, frequently without, however, offering sufficient detail on what precisely these mean. These terms are often applied to classify languages as pluricentric or not, without adequately recognising intra-linguistic variation and dynamics of power within a speaker community (language ownership). Using the example of a national minority language from North-West Germany, North Frisian, this article discusses how a narrow reading of the definition of pluricentricity would deny such a status to this language, when in fact the sociolinguistic situation of North Frisian matches that of many acknowledged pluricentric languages. Instead, the article suggests that the term nation should no longer be equated with state, that the term centre be further specified to determine what institution or which individuals have authority over language, and that the term norm be more clearly articulated to account for the variability in “correct” language use.

Territoriality and Minority Language Rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balázs Vizi
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Technical Approach ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Minority Language Rights

Territorial principle emerges not only in domestic legislations on language rights, but also in international documents. The article aims at offering an overview of the interpretations of territoriality in international documents relevant for minority language rights, with a special focus on the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. While states often use territorial requirements as a tool of political control over minority language use, the interpretation of their obligations under the two Council of Europe treaties would require a more practical and technical approach to territorial limitations.

scholarly journals Does more exposure to the language of instruction lead to higher academic achievement? A cross-national examination

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orhan Agirdag ◽  
Gudrun Vanlaar
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Achievement Gap ◽  
Reading Achievement ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
School Context ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Background ◽  
International Student Assessment

Aims and objectives: As some Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies claimed that native speaking (NS) students outperform language minority (LMi) students, far-reaching inferences have been drawn by policymakers. However, previous PISA assessments were not appropriate because they only included a dichotomous home language variable. The main objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of how students’ language background and use are related to academic achievement. Design: The PISA data from 2012 provides a unique opportunity to fill this research lacuna as it includes a more elaborated questionnaire on language background and use. Data and analysis: Multivariate three-level analyses are conducted on PISA 2012 data from 18 countries, covering about 5,000 schools and 120,000 students. Findings: The results show that there is an achievement gap between LMi and NS students for both reading and math. After controlling for students and school characteristics, the LMi–NS achievement gap narrows, but remains significant. This holds true for most countries. However, language use per se is not the cause of underachievement: LMi students who more often speak a minority language with their parents do not achieve less. In some countries, speaking a minority language more often with parents is actually positively related to math and reading achievement. Nevertheless, speaking the instruction language in the school context is positively associated with math and reading achievement. Originality and significance: This study revealed that the relation between language use and academic achievement is more complex than it was conceptualized in most previous PISA studies. Scholars need to go beyond the dichotomous approach to achieve a better understanding of language use. Our results show that linguistic diversity could function as an asset for academic performance, at least if a good balance between focus on minority languages at home and instruction language at school can be found.

Ethnic Classroom Composition and Minority Language Use among Classmates: Do Peers Matter for Students’ Language Achievement?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Seuring ◽  
Camilla Rjosk ◽  
Petra Stanat
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Classroom Composition

Abstract This article examines the relationship between ethnic classroom composition and students’ language-related achievement. We investigate whether minority language use among classmates accounts for effects of ethnic composition on minority students’ German reading comprehension and their proficiency in the minority languages Russian and Turkish. We employ multilevel models using cross-sectional data from a sample of ninth-grade students participating in the German National Educational Panel Study. Our findings indicate that students’ minority language background rather than their ethnic origin accounts for ethnic composition effects. We find a negative relationship between the ethno-lingual classroom composition and students’ German reading comprehension, but the association is small and limited to minority students. Moreover, the ethno-lingual classroom composition is positively correlated with minority language proficiency, specifically among Turkish-speaking students. These associations are substantially reduced after controlling for students’ minority language use with their classmates, indicating that a higher proportion of minority language students in a classroom provides additional opportunities for acquiring or maintaining higher levels of proficiency in the minority language. Overall, the ethnic classroom composition does not appear to substantially reinforce existing inequalities between minority and majority students.

scholarly journals The Development of Mongolian as a Minority Language in digital spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-76
Author(s):  
Kewen Xu
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
The State ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
South American ◽  
Crucial Point ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Given

Chaklader (1981) argues for adopting a definition of minority languages at the state level. A ‘minority language’, in the most straightforward sense, is simply one language spoken by less than 50 percent of a population within a specific geographic region which is different from the language of the majority community and the language of the state. The crucial point is the proportion of speaker population in the given region or country. In other words, a minority language might be only a minority language in this specific region, but a majority language in other region (Grenoble, 2014). For example, Spanish is the majority language in a group of south American countries, however, it is a minority language in the USA in general. Mongolian, is also an example of this kind of minority language.

scholarly journals “Et språk som alle andre”. Om norsk romani i samfunn og utdanning

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guro Nore Fløgstad
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Practice ◽  
Current State ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
The One ◽  
New Immigrant

Norsk romani og andre nasjonale minoritetsspråk representerer en historisk norsk flerspråklighet, en form for flerspråklighet som er mindre synlig i norsk offentlighet og i norske lærerutdanninger enn annen simultan bruk av flere språk. I denne artikkelen tar jeg for meg hva vi vet om norsk romani i dag, gjennom en omfattende metastudie, ispedd observasjoner fra eget feltarbeid. Videre analyserer jeg disse observasjonene i et bruksbasert lys. Bruksbasert og annen kognitiv teori er gjerne bakteppet i profesjonsorienterte tilnærminger til språk og skole i Norge i dag, men en eksplisitt bruk av det som postuleres i denne teorien er ikke vanlig, til tross for at denne teorien har svært gode verktøy for å møte et vell av ulike former for flerspråklighet. Jeg diskuterer hvordan læreren kan benytte seg av disse innsiktene i møtet med flerspråklige elever med varierende språklig kompetanse, slik som talere av norsk romani. Nøkkelord: Romani, nasjonale minoritetsspråk, bruksbasert teori, lærerutdanning “A language as any other”. On Norwegian Romani in society and education. AbstractNorwegian Romani and other national minority languages represent the historical Norwegian multilingualism, a form of multilingualism that is less visible in contemporary Norway than the one represented by speakers of new immigrant languages. In this article, I discuss the current state of Norwegian Romani, through a metastudy of current research, combined with observations from many years of contact with the community. Furthermore, I discuss these observations in the light of usage-based theory. Usage-based and other cognitive theories form the basis of most approaches to professional linguistic practice in Norway, but seldom explicitly use it in their approach to language contact. I discuss how the teacher can use these insights in her approach to speakers with variable competence in the minority language, such as speakers of Norwegian Romani. Keywords: Romani, national minority languages, usage-based theory, teacher education

scholarly journals Virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages: Re-framing minority language use in social media

Adeptus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillem Belmar ◽  
Maggie Glass
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Essential Component

Virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages: Re-framing minority language use in social mediaConsidering that social media is increasingly present in our daily communicative exchanges, digital presence is an essential component of language revitalization and maintenance. Online communication has modified our language use in various ways. In fact, language use online is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages tend to blur. These are also characteristics of translanguaging approaches, which see language as fluid codes of communication. “Breathing spaces” are needed in order to achieve “sustainable translanguaging” practices for minority languages. The establishment of communities of performing minority language speakers in a digital environment raises the question whether these emerging virtual communities can take up the role of  breathing spaces for minority languages. Społeczności wirtualne jako przestrzeń życiowa dla języków mniejszościowych. Nowe spojrzenie na używanie języków mniejszościowych w mediach społecznościowychPonieważ media społecznościowe są coraz bardziej obecne w codziennej komunikacji, obecność języków mniejszościowych w świecie cyfrowym jest niezbędnym elementem dla ich zachowania i rewitalizacji. Komunikacja online przyniosła zmiany wielu aspektów użycia języka. Używanie języka w Internecie często określa się jako hybrydowe, a granice między językami często się zacierają. Te zjawiska cechuje również transjęzyczność (translanguaging), podejście które postrzega język jako płynne kody komunikacji. W przypadku języków mniejszościowych, osiągnięcie „zrównoważonej transjęzyczności” (sustainable translanguaging) wymaga „przestrzeni życiowej” do ich używania. Tworzenie wirtualnych społeczności posługujących się językami mniejszościowymi w świecie cyfrowym rodzi pytanie, czy mogąone pełnić rolę takiej przestrzeni.

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.

Students' Perception of a Difficult Case in Psychotherapy

1997 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Sylvia A. Linares ◽  
Freddy A. Paniagua ◽  
Michael O'Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Difficult Case ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Mental Health Practice ◽  
Present Sample ◽  
Definition Of

Paniagua, et al. suggested that the definition of a “difficult” case in psychotherapy implies a relational definition involving the characteristics of the patient, the case, and the therapist. This study concerned this hypothesis with 44 graduate students in social work who received the Difficult Case Questionnaire representing examples of variables across each domain, e.g., motivation of the client, nature of the disorder, generic factors, and orientation of the therapist. The results were compared with the 1993 findings reported by Paniagua, et al., for a group of professionals in mental health practice. As in the earlier study, the present sample also agreed that, although all such domains are important in the formulation of that definition, their importance is not equal. Whereas professionals rated patient's, case's, and therapist's characteristics as the most important order of domains in that definition, students in this study agreed on the order of therapist's, patient's, and case's characteristics.

English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (271) ◽  
pp. 35-64
Author(s):  
Alexandra Grey ◽  
Gegentuul Baioud
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Academic Discourses ◽  
East West

Abstract Socially constructed and globally propagated East-West binaries have influenced language ideologies about English in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they are not hegemonic. This essay explores how East-West language ideologies are reformed in mergers with Mandarin-minority language ideologies. It discusses two separate but similar recent studies of minority language speakers and language ideologies in the PRC, respectively by Grey and Baioud. Each study reveals aspects of how Mandarin and English are being socially constructed as on the same side of a dichotomous and hierarchic linguistic and social order, in contradistinction to minority languages. The essay thus problematizes the construction of English as a Western language and Mandarin as an Eastern language; both in academic discourses and in wider social and political discourses. The essay uses Asif Agha’s theory of “enregisterment” to unify the points drawn from each study. It concludes that the language ideologies and practices/discourses under examination reproduce the displacement of a subaltern status; we describe this process as dynamic, internal Orientalism and “recursive” Orientalism, drawing on foundational theory of language ideologies. This essay paves the way for further studies of recursive Orientalism.

scholarly journals Language planning for "Mundurukú do Amazonas"

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gessiane Picanço
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Ethnic And Cultural Identity ◽  
Language Revitalisation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Indigenous Land

Mundurukú, a Tupian language of Brazil, exhibits two opposite scenarios. On one extreme, there is Mundurukú do Pará, the language of daily communication in the Mundurukú Indigenous Land, with fluent speakers found across all generations and still acquired by children as a mother tongue. On the other extreme, there is Mundurukú do Amazonas, formerly spoken in the Kwatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land, but whose inhabitants have shifted to Portuguese. A group of Mundurukú students from Amazonas decided to initiate a process of language revitalisation as a way to strengthen the community's ethnic and cultural identity. This paper reports the initial stages of language planning, and includes future actions to promote language use in the homes and communities, assessement of language proficiency, and definition of educational programs to teach Mundurukú in local schools.

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