“The Tongue of Pangcah and of Savages are the Same”: Language Ideologies in a Multilingual Aboriginal Village in Taiwan

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-198
Author(s):  
Ya-ling Chang

This study examines incongruent languages ideologies as they exist among parents, grandparents and community members of Taiwan’s aboriginal Pangcah people. The language ideologies of the villagers function as language policy that informs their decisions in favor of transmitting or abandoning their linguistic heritage. Taking a critical perspective on the study of language maintenance and shift, an ethnographic/discourse analytic approach to language ideologies is applied. The main insight gained from this study of ideological contention is that there are various language ideologies indexing speakers’ linguistic value. Within the ideologies of valuing and devaluing, Pangcah incorporates the hybridity of stigmatized and assimilated identities under the macrohistorical colonial processes. As a response to increasing economic pressure, the Pangcah identity with language and culture have shifted to the state and dominant languages of Mandarin and Southern Min. Consequently, efforts to maintain and learn Pangcah have diminished, making the ideology of valuing the dominant code correspondingly more successful and common.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Lucy Roberts

<p>This thesis makes a contribution to the study of language maintenance and shift among New Zealand ethnic minority communities; it explores reasons for different rates of shift and different outcomes in relation to language maintenance in different communities; and the results are related to wide-ranging issues of New Zealand language policy. Research was undertaken in three minority immigrant groups in Wellington. The Gujarati community in Wellington is a major part of the Indian community totalling approximately 6,000 people at the time of the research; the Samoan community consisted of approximately 16,000 people, and the Dutch of 3,000. 141 members of the Gujarati community responded to questionnaires and interviews about themselves and their children, providing information on patterns of reported language proficiency, language use and attitudes to language maintenance from a total of 327 people. 184 Dutch respondents replied to a postal questionnaire about their own and their children's language knowledge, language usage patterns and attitudes to language maintenance, providing data on 412 people. 93 Samoan respondents filled out questionnaires and responded to interviews about themselves and their 133 children. Thus Information on a total of 965 New Zealanders belonging to minority immigrant communities was obtained. The data collected on patterns of language maintenance and shift is examined in the light of a wide range of language policy issues. The history of language and identity politics, minority immigration in New Zealand, and the immigration histories of the three groups are examined in detail, and the history of language and policy formation in New Zealand, is outlined and evaluated. The research focuses on the process of immigrant language maintenance and shift in the family and immediate community, and also investigates the role of language maintenance education in these processes. Information about language use processes in childhood and adulthood is presented. The Graded Intergeneration Disruption Stages scale, proposed by Joshua Fishman is tested against the information gathered on the three communities and found to be a useful heuristic device. The results of the research show that while processes of language maintenance and shift occur in all three communities, these processes take very different forms in each community, move at different speeds and. to date, have had very different outcomes. The reasons for the differences between the communities in these respects are examined in some detail. Finally, on the basis of the evidence provided by the research, language policy proposals are presented supporting the provision of government services in minority immigrant languages and indicating the advantages of state support for language maintenance education.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Lucy Roberts

<p>This thesis makes a contribution to the study of language maintenance and shift among New Zealand ethnic minority communities; it explores reasons for different rates of shift and different outcomes in relation to language maintenance in different communities; and the results are related to wide-ranging issues of New Zealand language policy. Research was undertaken in three minority immigrant groups in Wellington. The Gujarati community in Wellington is a major part of the Indian community totalling approximately 6,000 people at the time of the research; the Samoan community consisted of approximately 16,000 people, and the Dutch of 3,000. 141 members of the Gujarati community responded to questionnaires and interviews about themselves and their children, providing information on patterns of reported language proficiency, language use and attitudes to language maintenance from a total of 327 people. 184 Dutch respondents replied to a postal questionnaire about their own and their children's language knowledge, language usage patterns and attitudes to language maintenance, providing data on 412 people. 93 Samoan respondents filled out questionnaires and responded to interviews about themselves and their 133 children. Thus Information on a total of 965 New Zealanders belonging to minority immigrant communities was obtained. The data collected on patterns of language maintenance and shift is examined in the light of a wide range of language policy issues. The history of language and identity politics, minority immigration in New Zealand, and the immigration histories of the three groups are examined in detail, and the history of language and policy formation in New Zealand, is outlined and evaluated. The research focuses on the process of immigrant language maintenance and shift in the family and immediate community, and also investigates the role of language maintenance education in these processes. Information about language use processes in childhood and adulthood is presented. The Graded Intergeneration Disruption Stages scale, proposed by Joshua Fishman is tested against the information gathered on the three communities and found to be a useful heuristic device. The results of the research show that while processes of language maintenance and shift occur in all three communities, these processes take very different forms in each community, move at different speeds and. to date, have had very different outcomes. The reasons for the differences between the communities in these respects are examined in some detail. Finally, on the basis of the evidence provided by the research, language policy proposals are presented supporting the provision of government services in minority immigrant languages and indicating the advantages of state support for language maintenance education.</p>


Author(s):  
Devan Jagodic

The paper focuses on the processes of language maintenance and shift among the Slovenian community in north-eastern Italy, from both the present and future perspectives, and presents the results of two empirical studies. The first offers a quantitative analysis of the linguistic behaviour of the Slovenian community members, in order to provide information about the level of minority language maintenance or the gradual shift towards Italian. The intergenerational comparison brings into focus some divergences among two differentage groups and indicates the variables that cooperate to establish them.The second study explores the challenges that the Slovenian community must face in order to encourage the use of the minority language among non-Slovenian speakers. Relying on qualitative data obtained by a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of Slovenian political, cultural and economic organizations in Italy, the study aims to identify some possible strategies for the spread and promotion of the Slovenian language among the wider society.


Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Eve Bouchard

AbstractIn São Tomé and Príncipe, the language shift toward Portuguese is resulting in the endangerment of the native creoles of the island. These languages have been considered of low value in Santomean society since the mid-twentieth century. But when Santomeans are members of a diaspora, their perceptions of these languages, especially Forro, change in terms of value and identity-marking. It is possible to observe such changes among the Santomeans who learn Forro when they are abroad, who use it as an in-group code, and start to value it more. In this article, I address the role of language contact in the maintenance and expansion of Forro. I investigate the mechanisms of language maintenance by focusing on the shifts in community members’ attitudes and beliefs regarding their languages, as a result of contact. The changing attitudes and beliefs have led to a redefinition of the role of Forro in the speech community. This qualitative study is based on semistructured interviews conducted on São Tomé Island and in Portugal. Findings suggest that the change in value attributed to Forro by Santomeans as a result of contact contribute to the valorization of the language.


Author(s):  
Yeşim Sevinç

AbstractDrawing on questionnaire and interview data, this study explores the process of language maintenance and shift across three generations of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. It compares three generations of Turkish-Dutch bilinguals by examining age and place of language learning, self-rated language proficiency, and language choices in six domains (home, school, work, friends, media and leisure time activities, and cognitive activities). Furthermore, it investigates bilinguals’ experiences, motivations for learning languages and attitudes towards bilingualism. Findings suggest that following the typical pattern of language shift described by Mario Saltarelli and Susan Gonzo in 1977, language history, self-rated language proficiency and current language practices of third-generation children differ from those of first- and second-generation bilinguals. Consequently, possible language shift among third-generation bilinguals causes socioemotional pressure about maintaining the Turkish language, triggering intergenerational tensions in Turkish immigrant families. At the same time, the perceived need to shift to Dutch for social and economic reasons causes immigrant children to experience tensions and ambiguities in the linguistic connections between the family and other social domains (e. g. school, friendship). The findings evidence that the Turkish immigrant community in the Netherlands may no longer be as linguistically homogeneous as once observed. The dissolution of homogeneity can be a sign of social change in which maintaining the Turkish language has become a challenge, whereas speaking Dutch is a necessity of life in the Netherlands.


2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy J Heineke ◽  
Elizabeth Coleman ◽  
Elizabeth Ferrell ◽  
Craig Kersemeier

In this article, we outline the necessary action steps for schools to improve the achievement of bilingual students. We review, summarize, and utilize the pertinent scholarly literature to make suggestions for school-wide, collaborative efforts to support the achievement of bilingual learners through linguistically responsive pedagogy and practice. Our research-based recommendations include the need for school actors to negotiate language policy and mandates, lay the necessary ideological foundations, build effective school structures and systems, and foster meaningful collaboration with families and communities. When teachers, administrators, counselors, families, and community members work together, schools can improve to promote the social, cultural, linguistic, and academic achievement of bilingual students.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cassels Johnson ◽  
Crissa Stephens ◽  
Stephanie Gugliemo Lynch

Abstract This article examines reactions to the changing linguistic ecology in the U.S. state of Iowa, which is experiencing a demographic phenomenon often referred to as the New Latino Diaspora (NLD) (Hamann et al., 2002). We first examine the historical processes and social structures that link current language policy initiatives within Iowa to local and national nativism. We then analyze public policies and texts to reveal how language ideologies circulate across diverse texts and contexts, forming discourses that shape the experiences of Latin@s in Iowa.


Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-275
Author(s):  
Martina Zimmermann ◽  
Sebastian Muth

AbstractIn this special issue, we bring together empirical research that takes a critical perspective on the relationship between language learning and individual aspirations for future success. In doing so we aim to initiate a debate on how neoliberal ideology and mode of governance permeate language learning as part of a wider neoliberal project that postulates the ideal of the competitive and self-responsible language learner. The four contributions illustrate how neoliberal desires about entrepreneurial selves play out differently within different social, political, or linguistic contexts. They do not only address different languages individuals supposedly need to teach or acquire for a successful future within a specific context, but also concentrate on the discourses and social relations shaping these entrepreneurial aspirations. Ranging from vocational training in Japan, early education in Singapore, healthcare tourism in India, to higher education in Switzerland, the contributions all illustrate the role of language as part of the struggle to improve either oneself or others. While the research sites illustrate that investments in language are simultaneously promising and risky and as such dependent on local and global linguistic markets, they equally highlight underlying language ideologies and reveal wider structures of inequality that are firmly embedded in local, national and global contexts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 40-46
Author(s):  
Ida Zulaeha ◽  
M. Hum

Pemertahanan dan pergeseran bahasa (language maintenance and shift) bagaikan dua sisi mata wang. Pemertahanan bahasa dapat terjadi manakala secara kolektif masyarakat tutur bahasa memutuskan tetap menggunakan bahasa yang digunakan sebelumnya meskipun ada desakan berganti menggunakan bahasa lain. Keduanya hadir secara bersamaan. Pemertahanan bahasa daerah dapat dilakukan pada ranah pendidikan. Pendidikan menjadi salah satu elemen penting dalam mempersiapkan generasi masa depan. Pemertahanan bahasa daerah pada ranah pendidikan dapat dilakukan dengan strategi formal dan informal. Strategi formal dilakukan melalui pembelajaran, sedangkan strategi informal dilakukan melalui komunitas/ekstrakurikuler, dan sebagai alat komunikasi yang wajib digunakan pada hari spesial. Pemertahanan bahasa daerah ini berfungsi mencegah pergeseran dan kepunahan bahasa daerah, mempersiapkan penutur bahasa daerah di masa depan, dan melestarikan bahasa dan budaya bangsa.


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