Browsing by Subject "Language shift"
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Item The cross-cultural classroom in the context of radical language shift : humor, teasing, and the ethnolinguistic repertoire in the Blackfeet Nation(2013-05) Seifert, Nicole Rae; Woodbury, Anthony C.In this dissertation, I analyze classroom interactions between a White, nonlocal high school English teacher and American Indian students on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. I focus on the participants' strategic use of humor and distinctive linguistic features in these interactions, particularly teasing as a cultural activity among the students, the teacher's immersion and adaptation to that culture, and the affective and sociocultural importance of the ethnolinguistic repertoire to the students. I argue that the main functions of the humor and teasing are threefold: (a) to build rapport, (b) to accomplish interactional goals in the classroom, and (c) to negotiate teacher-student power struggles in a socioculturally acceptable way. I show that the students' humor and discourse is constitutive of local culture and often counterhegemonic, implicitly and at times explicitly critiquing mainstream educational practices and the marginalized status of the students. My analysis considers the data from a discourse level as well as examines the indexical and patterned use of microlevel linguistic resources from the student's ethnolinguistic repertoire--specifically, distinctive interjections and scooped-accent intonation. The primary data is naturally occurring classroom discussions, complemented by individual and group interviews and ethnographic observations. This study points to the importance of sociocultural factors in language variation and change in communities undergoing or having undergone radical language shift. It thus adds to the literature that considers how cultural practices are disrupted and may be restructured as the linguistic code changes. This research also contributes to the research that details the difficulties nonmainstream students face in public schools when their home culture and language practices are at odds with those of the school, and it examines humor and teasing as student strategies to navigate these differences. This study aims to help paint a more complete picture of the contemporary social and linguistic contexts in which American Indian speakers live, with a mind toward how this understanding can be applied to the real-world circumstances of these youth.Item An exploratory study of a Tamil immigrant community in Austin, Texas : issues of language maintenance and shift(2003-05) Ernest, Harishini Marysze; Moore, ZenaThis study examines the language choices of Tamil immigrants, part of a South Asian diasporic community, in Austin, Texas. The researcher posits reasons why Tamil language maintenance/shift occurs for this Tamil community in the United States English-dominant macrosociety. The study also examines the domains in which Tamil and English are used and the various sociolinguistic factors which influence the language maintenance/shift of Tamil. Tamil immigrant participants were selected by snowballing, a non-probability purposive sampling technique. This multi-modal study used both quantitative (a questionnaire) and qualitative data (participant interviews and participant observations). One hundred and nineteen questionnaires were collected of which 90 were used for this study. In addition, twelve first or second generation Tamil individuals were interviewed. Background for the study included reasons for emigration from the home country, Tamil diglossia, diaspora issues, identity issues, and language as a site of struggle. The theoretical framework included language as power, language as investment, and linguistic imperialism. Examining the language of instruction, participants interestingly evidenced a kline in English use from 67.1% in elementary grades, to 84.8% in the middle and high/secondary school, to 95.3% at the university level. Also, comparing language use as a child versus language use as an adult, there was a kline (continuum) moving from 'always using Tamil' in all domains as a child to 'equally in Tamil and English' in all domains as an adult. Participants were split as to why they used Tamil with some using it for privacy/secrecy and some using it for pride. A much smaller percent used Tamil for intimacy. Finally, with regard to language proficiency, participants evinced a declining kline from understanding, speaking, and reading, writing colloquial Tamil. The participants' proficiency in literary Tamil was also a declining kline with only 16.7% understanding, 17.8% reading, and even less speaking (8.9%) or writing (7.8%) literary Tamil. The results of this research study and an analysis of Moag’s 31 factors for maintenance/loss of Tamil, showed that the prospects for the continued maintenance of Tamil in Austin were limited. Finally, this study provided valuable sociolinguistic insight into this little-studied South Asian diasporic community in Austin, Texas.Item Recuperando nuestro idioma : language shift and revitalization of San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya Zapotec(2014-12) Miranda, Perla García; Romero, SergioThis thesis will discuss the factors that lead to language shift from Zapotec to Spanish in San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya (SJT), and the challenges faced by language revitalization efforts that have emerged in the home and migrant communities. Today hundreds of Indigenous languages are widely spoken across the Americas; however, in the last century an increasing amount of language shift to the nation-state language has taken place in many Indigenous communities. In the Zapotec community of San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya (SJT), located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, about 40% of the town’s population currently speaks Zapotec. However, the majority of speakers within this percentage are elders and adults. This means that the transmission of the Zapotec language to children has declined while Spanish language socialization has increased and is now the norm. Due to socioeconomic factors and neoliberal reforms in Mexico, many community members have migrated to other Mexican states and the United States which has furthered removed Zapotec speakers from the home community. The data for this research is based on 28 open-ended interviews with elders, adults, youth, children, and language activists and participant observation in SJT during the summer of 2013. I argue that the public education implemented by the Post-Revolutionary Mexican state in Tlacochahuaya during the 1930s influenced a language shift to Spanish. Many of those who had a negative schooling experience during this era, which prohibited and punished the use of the Zapotec language in the classroom, choose to raise their children with Spanish. In SJT from 2009-2011 Zapotec tutoring lessons for children were offered by a retired teacher, and since March 2013 migrants residing in Los Angeles, CA have been uploading Zapotec language tutorials on YouTube. Although there is awareness of language loss, I argue that these efforts have been hindered by the absence of a healing process regarding negative schooling experiences and dismantling the language ideologies that continue to devalue the Zapotec language. This case study contributes to the literature of languages shift and revitalization by suggesting that both home and migrant communities have crucial roles in Indigenous language maintenance.Item A tear in my eye but I cannot cry : an ethnographic multiple case study on the language ecology of Urumchi, Xinjiang and the language practices of Uyghur young adults(2012-05) Wilson, Robert Warren; Urrieta,, Luis; Dwyer, Arienne M; Horwitz, Elaine K; Nonaka, Angela M; Palmer, DeborahThis ethnographic study investigates the language ecology of Urumchi, Xinjiang with a focus on contextual factors as related to the language practices of Uyghur young adults. The thesis explores how the migration and settlement of Han Chinese, coupled with the expansion of Mandarin (and corresponding marginalization of Uyghur and other ethnic minority languages) in the Xinjiang education system has resulted in a punctuation of the linguistic equilibrium of the province. This study demonstrates how socio-political forces contribute to the devaluation of minority linguistic capital in a linguistic market, and how a language policy in the domestic field, as the primary structuring structure, may be utilized to stabilize diglossia and maintain the intergenerational transmission of a minority language. Participant observation, interview and documentary data were collected over an 18-month period of fieldwork in Urumchi. The analysis of interview data from 26 Uyghur adults, defined as early to mid-twenty years of age, who had been educated in Mandarin classes (mínkăohàn), Uyghur classes (mínkăomín), and bilingual Mandarin-Uyghur classes (shuāngyǔ) or a combination of these programs yielded four themes: context and language investments; expected returns; language choice; and linguistic anxiety. The data suggests a high degree of ambivalence among Uyghur young adults toward Mandarin; this form of cultural capital is conceived of as requisite for participation in the Han Chinese dominated economy, yet of a colonial nature and damaging to the demarcation of Uyghur social identity. Case study narratives are presented on four Uyghur young adults: one female educated in Mandarin classes (mínkăohàn); one male educated in Mandarin classes (mínkăohàn); one female educated in Uyghur primary and Mandarin-Uyghur secondary classes (mínkăomín/shuāngyǔ); and one male educated in Uyghur primary and Mandarin-Uyghur secondary classes (mínkăomín/shuāngyǔ). Each case study consultant completed a 94-item expressive vocabulary assessment. The data suggests that the expansion of Mandarin as the language of instruction in the Xinjiang education system has resulted in unstable diglossia among Uyghur communities, evidenced by Uyghur language attrition and Mandarin-Uyghur code-switching. Findings emphasize contextual factors that are contributing to the disruption of the intergenerational transmission of Uyghur and actions to support the vitality of this cultural heritage.