Search results for "indigenous language"
showing 10 items of 10 documents
Indigenous language education in Russia: current issues and challenges
2021
Despite the high number of recognised Indigenous groups who are struggling to maintain their languages, cultures, and identities in Russia, there is little research done on the matters of cultural and linguistic revitalisation. This study sought to address this gap by exploring the views of two Indigenous groups, Karelian and Mari, on the development of their Indigenous languages and educational strategies to protect and revive their languages. The study relied on in-depth one-on-one interviews with 20 participants, ten from each Indigenous group. The findings show that despite older generations’ relative proficiency and interest in their respective Indigenous languages, motivation to maste…
Wordarrows: El poder representativo del lenguaje en la obra de no ficción de N. Scott Momaday
2012
This article focuses on two non-fiction works by Native American author N. Scott Momaday: his 1969 historical memoir The Way to Rainy Mountain and his essay collection The Man Made of Words. It specifically tackles performative conceptions of language in the Kiowa storytelling tradition, where words are experienced as speech acts that have the power to intervene in surrounding realities. Taking into account 20th century ethno-cultural and linguistic policies in the United States, the article also reflects on the role indigenous languages may play in contemporary Native American Literature, which has most often been written in English.
Welcome to the end of the world! Resignifying periphery under the new economy: a nexus analytical view of a tourist website
2013
Accompanying the rise of the globalized new economy, the heritage tourism industry is expanding ever further into the global peripheries. One such ‘peripheral’ site is Samiland, home of the indigenous language minority Sami people, in the north of Lapland. Here, tourism is emerging as an opportunity for the Sami to challenge their longstanding marginalization by mobilizing the periphery and signifying their peripheralized identities in new ways. These processes may look encouraging but they call for critical interrogation. To gain a deeper insight into these processes, the present study draws on a nexus analytical approach combining discourse analysis and ethnography to examine an illuminat…
Minority Languages and Markets
2018
This chapter explores how minority languages figure in economic development and are invested with values of expertise, distinction and authenticity. Drawing on previous research, including the authors’ own studies on minority and indigenous language practices and discourses in peripheral, multilingual Irish and Sami sites, the chapter discusses the changing and expanding role of minority languages in some key economic domains: advertising and marketing, tourism, the media and job markets. It reflects on the conditions and consequences of economic processes for the exchange value of minority languages in changing markets.
Indigenous education in Russia : opportunities for healing and revival of the Mari and Karelian Indigenous groups?
2020
Despite being a multicultural country throughout its history, the Russian Federation has long struggled to embrace its diversity. As a result, the country’s many cultural, religious, and ethnic minority groups have been going through waves of assimilationist policies and practices. Assimilation into the Russian society enforced through formal schooling, daily life, and mass media has led to a destruction of Indigenous lifestyles, cultures, identities, and languages. This article explores the views of Russia’s Indigenous people regarding the country’s education system and its ability to support the cultural revival of Indigenous groups as well as the healing of the trauma that emerged from h…
Commodifying Sami culture in an indigenous tourism site
2014
Cultural tourism has become an alternative economic activity in many indigenous sites, and local tourist providers compete globally by commodifying their culture in an efficient, attractive manner. This process is not however a straightforward one, because of the need to manage both the multilingual context and the interaction between host and tourists, and this can lead to tensions for all parties. We examine a Reindeer Farm in the indigenous language space of Samiland. Based on a long-term ethnography, we identify different scripts which are used within the tourist encounter to pre-empt and manage tensions around the legitimacy of the host, the collusion and cooperation between host and t…
Multilingual dynamics in Sámiland: Rhizomatic discourses on changing language
2013
Multilingualism in indigenous language communities brings forth tensions and creativity related to language change. In this article, taking dynamic multilingual indigenous Sámi language practices as a focus of ethnographic and discourse analytical research, I examine rhizomatic discourses on changing language in multilingual Sámi spaces. Based on longitudinal research on multilingualism in Sámiland, I will argue that the interlinked discourses of endangerment, commodification and carnivalisation simultaneously circulate across Sámi spaces, and structure language practices and experiences. Furthermore, multilingual dynamics can lead to both contestation and creativity in language practices,…
Indigenous language education in Russia: current issues and challenges
2021
Despite the high number of recognised Indigenous groups who are struggling to maintain their languages, cultures, and identities in Russia, there is little research done on the matters of cultural and linguistic revitalisation. This study sought to address this gap by exploring the views of two Indigenous groups, Karelian and Mari, on the development of their Indigenous languages and educational strategies to protect and revive their languages. The study relied on in-depth one-on-one interviews with 20 participants, ten from each Indigenous group. The findings show that despite older generations’ relative proficiency and interest in their respective Indigenous languages, motivation to maste…
A Culturally Sensitive Approach to Promoting Initial Literacy Development in Africa : Ongoing and Planned Research and Development at the University …
2017
A four-year research and development program at CAPOLSA (the Centre for the Promotion of Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa) was inspired by widespread dissatisfaction with poor literacy outcomes of mass basic schooling in Zambia and sought to test the generalizability of a scientifically grounded, computer-mediated instructional resource developed in Finland, for effective intervention in an African society where different linguistic and educational conditions obtain. Specific challenges and opportunities posed by the local sociocultural context included the prevalence of multilingualism, the relatively transparent orthographies of local languages, and poor infrastructure of the public school …
Promotion of Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Goals and Prospects of CAPOLSA at the University of Zambia
2014
The convergence of two complementary agendas motivated collaboration between two universities (in Zambia and Finland) to establish the Centre for the Promotion of Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa (CAPOLSA), focused on initial literacy learning in indigenous languages. The project’s mandate and activities are closely related to Zambia’s national context of literacy and educational provision, emerging trends in information and communication technology, and the University of Zambia’s institutional context of research and development on literacy, child development, and education. CAPOLSA has afforded opportunities for enhancing the working relations between the national university and government …