An Analysis of Sasak Language Maintenance and Shift in Sumbawa: A Case Study at Surya Bhakti Neighbourhood in Sumbawa Regency

This research aimed to investigate the Sasak language maintenance and shift of Sasak people in Surya Bhakti neighborhood. This research was Qualitative descriptive method was employed in analyzing the data. There were 40 participants divided into young generation participants and old generation participants. There are 20 participants of the young generations that consist of 16 males and 4 females, while 20 participants of the old generation participants consist of 18 males and 2 females. Three techniques were employed to collect the data: observation, interview, and documentation. Observation and interviews serve as primary data sources. Meanwhile, documentation serves as the secondary one. The process of the interview was recorded. Meanwhile, a field note was used during the observation. Documents or documentation were used to complete the data findings from the observation and interview and take some pictures in the research area. Thus, all data from observation, interview, and documentation were analyzed. The research results show that Sasak people, both young and old generation participants, are proud of their language and cultural identity. The young generation participants maintain the Sasak language in Surya Bhakti neighborhood. In addition, the young generation participants have the proficiency in speaking Sasak language fluently and accurately than Sumbawanese. Furthermore, the data indicate that the old generations of Sasak people in Surya Bhakti neighborhood are more likely to use Sasak language than Sumbawanese when communicating daily with Sasak people in their community, even in their community outside of the neighborhood.

Selective Language Maintenance in Multilingual Malaysia

Aiming to understand the phenomena of language maintenance and shift in Malaysia, this chapter focuses on efforts by Penang's Chinese community to maintain Penang Hokkien alongside other Chinese community languages. The Malaysian Government has explicitly allowed the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in Chinese-medium schools, which resulted in the reduced use of Penang Hokkien and other Chinese community languages among the Malaysian Chinese community. Such a situation has caused sociolinguistic realignment in many Malaysian Chinese families, including in Penang, and raised questions about the survival of these languages in Malaysian society. Based on interviews with participants from Penang's Chinese community, the findings reveal that although past studies have demonstrated a decline in the use of Chinese community languages, the participants expressed their willingness to regularly use them in their daily life in various domains. Despite the announced desuetude of these languages, participants consistently used them and indicated their determination to pass on to the next generation.

PEMERTAHANAN BAHASA DAERAH DI KOTA AMBON: STUDI KASUS BAHASA DAERAH DI NEGERI LAHA SEBAGAI SATU-SATUNYA BAHASA DAERAH DI KOTA AMBON [Local Language Maintenance in the city of Ambon: A Local Language Case Studying in the Laha Village as a Local Language only in the City of Ambon]

The purpose of this research is to describe local language maintenance in Laha village as the only local language in the City of Ambon. The kind of this research uses quantitative desceiptive. The method of this research is qualitative method where questionnaires were specifically given to 50 respondents that were chosen randomly (random sampling). Beside that, the writer also interviewed some informants and did observation in Laha village and some decent villages in Ambon. The result of this research showed that the condition of local language in Laha village is in danger of extinction. It is shown from local language mastery in society, speakers’ age, first language use, mother tongue, mastery period of local language, and local language acquisition in Laha village. Most speakers of Laha local language can only communicate with little local language of Laha (passive speakers). In terms of age, most of the fluent speakers of local language of Laha are above 50. Those who are under 50 can communicate limitedly, passively understand the language, and even some of them can not communicate using the language at all. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan pemertahanan bahasa daerah yang ada di Negeri Laha (setingkat desa) sebagai satu-satunya bahasa daerah yang ada di Kota Ambon. Jenis penelitian ini menggunakan deskriptif kuantitatif. Metode dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kuantitatif yang secara spesifik responden diberikan kuesioner atau daftar tanyaan dengan jumlah sampel sebanyak 50 orang yang diambil secara acak (random sampling). Daftar tanyaan penelitian secara umum meliputi situasi dan kondisi bahasa daerah yang ada di Negeri Laha termasuk pemakai dan pemakaiannya. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa sekarang ini, kondisi bahasa daerah yang ada di Negeri Laha Kota Ambon terancam punah. Hal itu terlihat dari penguasaan bahasa daerah dalam masyarakat, usia penutur, bahasa yang digunakan ketika masa kecil (anak-anak), bahasa pertama yang dipelajari, masa penguasaan bahasa daerah, dan pemerolehan bahasa daerah di Negeri Laha. Kemampuan penguasaan berkomunikasi dalam bahasa daerah di Negeri Laha lebih banyak hanya bisa berkomunikasi secara sedikit-sedikit daripada bisa berkomunikasi secara aktif. Dari segi usia, kebanyakan yang dapat dan lancar berbahasa daerah Laha rata-rata usia di atas 50 tahun. Untuk usia di bawah usia 50 tahun, kebanyakan dapat berkomunikasi secara sedikit-sedikit, bisa memahami (pasif), dan sebagian pula tidak bisa berkomunikasi sama sekali.Abstrak

Russian language maintenance among multilingual teachers in Israeli educational settings

The present paper focuses on language maintenance among multilingual teachers and presents a research project with Russian-Hebrew speakers on their ideas of language-related normality in educational settings. The main objective is to investigate the role of migration-related multilingual teachers within the multilingual turn. The project approached the topic from three perspectives: the macro level of educational policies, the meso level of educational institutions, and the micro level of linguistic development. Data were collected through biographical interviews with 17 teachers and interpreted within the theoretical framework of language beliefs using the concepts of linguistic market, language awareness and language education policy as well as pedagogical competence. The results show the close interconnectedness of language beliefs on all the three levels. They also show that beliefs can experience a reconstruction. In order to challenge the monolingual idea of normality among teachers, an interwoven intervention on all the three levels is necessary: there is a need for education policy measures (macro level) that would anchor training on dealing with multilingualism (meso level) in regular teacher training and, in doing so, would draw on the existing migration-related multilingual practices of prospective teachers (micro level). This interaction between top-down (professionalization in dealing with multilingualism anchored in educational policy) and bottom-up (migration-related multilingual practices among prospective teachers) measures can enable a shift toward multilingualism as an idea of normality in educational contexts. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the formation, development and reconstruction of language-related idea of normality among teachers and discusses its methodological and theoretical implications.

Review of Andrea C. Schalley & Susana A. Eisenchlas (eds.). 2020. Handbook of Home Language Maintenance and Development: Social and Affective Factors.Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-1-5015-1689-4

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Language Policy, Language Practices and Language Shift in Tabriz

<p>This thesis examines how Azeri, a minority language with the largest number of speakers in Iran, is marginalized by de facto monolingual language policies of the state favoring Farsi, the only official language, over Azeri in the three selected domains. The research provides insights into how family language policies, i.e. attitudes, ideologies and practices in the home, are influenced by macro policies of multilingual nation-states, leading to language maintenance/shift among minority groups. The investigation adopted and integrated a number of complementary theoretical frameworks and paradigms. An ecology of language paradigm (Haugen, 1972; Hornberger & Hult, 2008; Mühlhäusler, 1996) was used to situate the research within a broader sociopolitical, historical and economic context. The ethnolinguistic vitality model (Giles, Bourhis, & Taylor, 1977), and language policy and planning (LPP) frameworks proposed by Shohamy (2006) and Lo Bianco (2005, 2008c, 2012a; 2013) were utilized to explore the complex interaction between macro level LPP activities and micro level attitudes and practices. The integrated model demonstrates how language policies implemented within state-run domains and institutions produce particular Discourses. The proposed framework further illustrates how such Discourses may influence people at the grass roots level which in turn could lead to language maintenance/shift in different communities and groups. The data base for the study comprised two phases: the first phase involved ethnographic observations of the public sphere (linguistic landscape data), language use in the home (three case studies), and the local channel for Azeris (media data), interviews with fifty children, and authorities of ten kindergartens and preschools. A focus-group interview was also conducted in this phase to assist with designing an attitude questionnaire which was administered in the second phase to 150 parents of young children. The empirical data suggests that family language policies among Azeris in Tabriz are constantly and increasingly influenced by monolingual policies of the state. The institutionalization and legitimization of Farsi through de facto LPP activities has resulted in formation of uncommitted, if not negative, attitudes among Azeri parents regarding their ethnic language. The analysis shows how a Farsi-only education system cajoles kindergarten principals into favoring Farsi over Azeri, leading them to suggest that parents and children speak Farsi in the home to ease their integration into the education system. The linguistic landscape data demonstrates the absence of Azeri both in top-down governmental and private individual signage indicating its low status compared to Farsi and English, the two prevalent languages in public signage in Tabriz. Exploring the broadcasting media suggests Azeris' inclination towards Farsi, and then in a second place, Turkish channels. As a result, having attracted only one percent of Azeri audience, the only available channel provided by the government for Azeris, Sahand TV, provides arguably no institutional support for Azeri. The findings suggest that although family members may be viewed as free agents to choose a particular language to speak in the home, in reality such choices are highly constrained by the ecology surrounding the home which is shaped by LPP decisions and activities. Overall, this thesis sheds light on the complex nature of language policy and planning in multilingual nation-states, and how they impact on language maintenance/shift processes among minority groups, whilst also illuminating how language ecologies are manipulated by nation-states to achieve particular non-linguistic goals.</p>

Language Policy, Language Practices and Language Shift in Tabriz

<p>This thesis examines how Azeri, a minority language with the largest number of speakers in Iran, is marginalized by de facto monolingual language policies of the state favoring Farsi, the only official language, over Azeri in the three selected domains. The research provides insights into how family language policies, i.e. attitudes, ideologies and practices in the home, are influenced by macro policies of multilingual nation-states, leading to language maintenance/shift among minority groups. The investigation adopted and integrated a number of complementary theoretical frameworks and paradigms. An ecology of language paradigm (Haugen, 1972; Hornberger & Hult, 2008; Mühlhäusler, 1996) was used to situate the research within a broader sociopolitical, historical and economic context. The ethnolinguistic vitality model (Giles, Bourhis, & Taylor, 1977), and language policy and planning (LPP) frameworks proposed by Shohamy (2006) and Lo Bianco (2005, 2008c, 2012a; 2013) were utilized to explore the complex interaction between macro level LPP activities and micro level attitudes and practices. The integrated model demonstrates how language policies implemented within state-run domains and institutions produce particular Discourses. The proposed framework further illustrates how such Discourses may influence people at the grass roots level which in turn could lead to language maintenance/shift in different communities and groups. The data base for the study comprised two phases: the first phase involved ethnographic observations of the public sphere (linguistic landscape data), language use in the home (three case studies), and the local channel for Azeris (media data), interviews with fifty children, and authorities of ten kindergartens and preschools. A focus-group interview was also conducted in this phase to assist with designing an attitude questionnaire which was administered in the second phase to 150 parents of young children. The empirical data suggests that family language policies among Azeris in Tabriz are constantly and increasingly influenced by monolingual policies of the state. The institutionalization and legitimization of Farsi through de facto LPP activities has resulted in formation of uncommitted, if not negative, attitudes among Azeri parents regarding their ethnic language. The analysis shows how a Farsi-only education system cajoles kindergarten principals into favoring Farsi over Azeri, leading them to suggest that parents and children speak Farsi in the home to ease their integration into the education system. The linguistic landscape data demonstrates the absence of Azeri both in top-down governmental and private individual signage indicating its low status compared to Farsi and English, the two prevalent languages in public signage in Tabriz. Exploring the broadcasting media suggests Azeris' inclination towards Farsi, and then in a second place, Turkish channels. As a result, having attracted only one percent of Azeri audience, the only available channel provided by the government for Azeris, Sahand TV, provides arguably no institutional support for Azeri. The findings suggest that although family members may be viewed as free agents to choose a particular language to speak in the home, in reality such choices are highly constrained by the ecology surrounding the home which is shaped by LPP decisions and activities. Overall, this thesis sheds light on the complex nature of language policy and planning in multilingual nation-states, and how they impact on language maintenance/shift processes among minority groups, whilst also illuminating how language ecologies are manipulated by nation-states to achieve particular non-linguistic goals.</p>