scholarly journals Maximizing Scalability in Literacy Game App Design for Minority Languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 668-680
Author(s):  
Christy Hemphill ◽  
Aaron Hemphill
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Educational Game ◽  
Literacy Skill ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Technology Markets ◽  
Resource Investment ◽  
App Design ◽  
Skill Building

Minority language communities lack access to educational technology that facilitates literacy skill building. The approach currently taken by most educational game app developers privileges widely spoken languages and often requires intensive resource investment.  In response, a new game app was designed to provide easily localized, pedagogically appropriate games for literacy skill building. Scalability to multiple minority languages was possible through a programming design based on language packs that could be compiled by local implementation teams without specialized technical skills and without significant resource investment. We describe the scalability issues encountered when localizing the app for the initial ten minority language pilot groups and how a language-neutral app design that relies on language packs to specify language-specific content and parameters can adequately address these issues. When it comes to meeting the demands of growing education technology markets in underserved Indigenous and minority communities, localizing an app initially designed for maximum scalability is more feasible than investing significant resources converting apps custom designed for one language into new languages.

scholarly journals Languages and language varieties: Comparative research on the linguistic attitudes in four bilingual minority communities in Hungary

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Anna Borbely
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Research ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Advanced Stage ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Positive Attitudes

A central issue of this paper is to study the patterns invariation of attitudes toward minority language varieties in four minority communities from Hungary: German, Slovak, Serb and Romanian. This study takes part from the research which focuses on how to obtain significant information about the mechanism of the language shift process concerning autochthonous minorities in Hungary. The results demonstrate that in the course of language shift communities at an advanced stage of language shift have less positive attitudes toward their minority languages than individuals from communities where language shift is in a less advanced stage. In Hungarian minority groups speakers’ attitudes toward minority language varieties (dialect vs. standard) are the symptoms of language shift.

scholarly journals Minority Languages as a Resource for Tourism Promotion on the Web: The Case of Some Minority Communities in Italy

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Francesco Costantini ◽  
Diego Sidraschi ◽  
Francesco Zuin
Keyword(s):  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Cultural Experience ◽  
Local Variety ◽  
Tourism Promotion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Tourism Websites ◽  
Local Languages ◽  
The Web

Minority languages have been the subject of a rich literature in the field of the sociolinguistics of tourism and a number of works have underlined that they have been increasingly used in tourism promotion in the last few decades as they convey overtones evoking authenticity. Travel websites do not only provide a first glance at a destination for potential guests, but they are also part of the tourist experience because they introduce visitors to relevant contents related to specific places. In view of this, in websites of a destination where a minority language is spoken the use of the local variety could be particularly relevant in order to promote a specific place as offering an immersion into a unique cultural experience. The present article addresses the question how ten minority communities in Italy mobilize their local languages for self-representation purposes within their tourism websites.

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.

Facts and transformations in European minority language media systems amid digitalization and economic crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iñaki Zabaleta ◽  
Arantza Gutierrez ◽  
Carme Ferré-Pavia ◽  
Itxaso Fernandez ◽  
Nikolas Xamardo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Media Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Systems ◽  
Comparative Nature

This article investigates the reality and variations of the European minority language media systems between 2009 and 2016, a period of serious economic crisis and accelerated digitalization process. To that aim, several parameters were measured: structure of the media systems and changes during that period along the variables of media type, ownership and reach; presence and relevance of major media in each of the communities; number and variation of full-time journalists; and the density or relative weight of the media systems with regard to the speaking population. The 10 minority languages under analysis (Basque, Catalan, Galician, Corsican, Breton, Frisian, Irish, Welsh, Scottish-Gaelic and Sámi) represent a wide range of communities. The relevance of the study lies in its direct comparative nature and in the fact that it thoroughly updates previous scholarly literature, measuring the changes which occurred within the 10 media systems.

Development of an Educational Video Game That Can Be Modified by End-Users

2018 ◽  
pp. 184-204
Author(s):  
Noah L. Schroeder ◽  
Alexandrea Oliver ◽  
Kenneth Deffet ◽  
James Morgan
Keyword(s):  
User Interfaces ◽  
Video Game ◽  
End Users ◽  
Graphical User Interfaces ◽  
Educational Game ◽  
Educational Video ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Sound Effects ◽  
Educational Video Game ◽  
Beta Testing

The development of educational video games can be a challenging process. Typically, games are created for one content area and are designed to specifically facilitate learning in regards to that content. However, this approach inherently limits the utility of the game to specific content. In this chapter, the authors describe the development and systematic iterative playtesting of an educational game designed to be modified by end-users (e.g., teachers, researchers, students). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through three phases of beta-testing, and the results from each test informed the subsequent version of the software. Overall, the results indicated that, aside from fixing software glitches, the addition of aesthetically pleasing graphical user interfaces and the integration of sound effects appear to have made the biggest contributions to players' perceptions of the game.

scholarly journals Doing Content and Language Integrated Learning With a Minority Language: A Teacher Development Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Marcella Menegale ◽  
Ada Bier
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Development ◽  
New Teacher ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Teacher Autonomy ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Educational Goal ◽  
Functional Literacy

Recent research suggests that minority languages cannot be lastingly revitalised unless related functional literacy skills become an explicit educational goal. Focussing on the Friulian minority language in Italy, this paper discusses the importance of developing literacy skills in the minority language. In line with this, a new teacher development model in CLIL has been conceived and piloted with a small group of teachers of Friulian. The findings of the study suggest that the model was effective in relation to both the development of teaching skills in CLIL and in literacy related issues and, more in general, to the promotion of teacher autonomy.

Economy and funding of European minority language media: Reality and impact of digitalization and economic crisis

Journalism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 146488492095403
Author(s):  
Iñaki Zabaleta ◽  
Nikolas Xamardo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Scottish Gaelic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Aid ◽  
Media Types ◽  
Media Systems

This article investigates the economy of monolingual media systems in nine European minority language communities during 2009–2015, a period of strong economic crisis and accelerated digitalization. The main areas of study are three: The economic volume or weight of those media systems and its variation between 2009 and 2015; the current funding structure of the four media types (press, radio, TV and cybermedia); and the qualitative evaluation of media editors and managers on the effect of those two crises as well as the significance of the public aid. The nine European minority languages are Basque, Welsh, Galician, Irish, Breton, Frisian, Sámi, Corsican and Scottish-Gaelic. As for the findings, it can be highlighted that the economic volume or revenue of European minority language media is close to five hundred million euros per year, of which over ninety per cent is public funding, mostly devoted to broadcasting media. The conclusion set forth is that public funding should not be framed as aid but as a social, cultural and economic investment.

Interpreting and minority language planning and policy

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Neal Baxter
Keyword(s):  
Language Planning ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Planning And Policy ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Oral Interpretation ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Similarities And Differences

With potential applications for other minority languages, this paper discusses the implications of interpreting to and from Galician, starting with an overview of the current sociolinguistic situation, and the interpreting and translation market in Galicia in the light of political changes. After highlighting the similarities and differences between written translation and oral interpretation, the article examines the role played specifically by interpretation as a prestige-raising activity within the framework of language planning. Finally, the paper also discusses interpreting using minority languages as a tool enabling citizens to exercise their linguistic rights to the full.

scholarly journals Be Wise: A complementary and alternative medicine health literacy skill-building programme

2020 ◽  
pp. 001789692097406
Author(s):  
Clarann Weinert ◽  
Elizabeth Nichols ◽  
Jean Shreffler-Grant
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Literacy Skill ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Adequate Health Literacy ◽  
Health Literacy Skill ◽  
Skill Building ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Background: Health literacy has been found to be the strongest predictor of health status; and without adequate health literacy, consumers may not understand/adequately evaluate the myriad of choices available. Older rural residents tend to use self-prescribed complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies and glean information about these therapies primarily by word of mouth/media. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to describe the Be Wise health literacy skill building programme and the participants’ evaluation of the programme. Design: The programme involved four sessions delivered over 7 weeks at seniors’ centres in rural communities. Method: Data were collected initially ( N = 127), at the end of the sessions ( N = 67) and after 5 months ( N = 52). Setting: Participants were primarily rural Caucasian women, mean age 76 years, and most had an associate/baccalaureate degree. Results: Questions were worded to ascertain satisfaction with the programme, usefulness of the information provided, willingness to recommend the programme, and the likelihood of using the programme. All scores were most favourable ranging from 3.35 to 4.41 on a 5-point scale. A question regarding the usefulness of the Be Wise programme in managing health received at mean score of 3.55 on a 5-point scale. Written comments on the questionnaires were overwhelmingly favourable. Conclusion: Delivering programmes to older adults in small rural communities has special challenges and rewards. Participants were enthusiastic about learning more about making informed health care choices. There is a compelling need for continued programme development and long-term outcomes evaluation.

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