Conference Presentations by Willemijn Miedema
The definition of nativeness in a minority context is often controversial, and it may differ grea... more The definition of nativeness in a minority context is often controversial, and it may differ greatly depending on the language and the community researched. As seen in the case of Corsican (Jaffe 2015), for instance, there is not always a clear set of social uses of the language that can be labelled as authentic or native, even when most teaching methods measure success with reference to authentic native speakers. In such contexts, then, how can nativeness be essential for the sense of belonging to the community?
Both motivation and attitude have been found key for the existence of new speakers of minority languages. Negative attitudes towards the minority language often translate to a smaller number of new speakers/learners and a greater amount of difficulty to learn the language. Moreover, views on language interaction differ strongly between new speakers and native speakers, and the former tend to promote the language more actively than native speakers do in conversations among them (Wilson & O'Rourke 2015, p. 260-285).
As for motivation, we will analyze it as a two-part model based on the work developed by Lambert and Gardner in the late 1950s, as phrased by Robert (2009, p. 113): "Motivation is instrumental if the learning of a language is seen as a means of achieving personal gain such as increased opportunities for employment. Motivation is integrative if it follows from a wish to learn about the language group's culture, or to integrate within the group".
Location: Frisian Humanities Conference: Multilingualism (Leeuwarden). Conference dates: April 2018
'New speakers' have become quite a common field of study, especially in research concerning minor... more 'New speakers' have become quite a common field of study, especially in research concerning minority or 'lesser-used' languages. The survival of these languages very often depends on non-speakers learning the language and adopting it as their own, or at least being able to understand it.
Much of this research has been done on Celtic languages (e.g. Hornsby 2015 on Breton; Nance et al 2016 on Scottish Gaelic; Ó hIfearnáin 2014 on Manx; O'Rourke & Walsh on Irish; Robert 2009 on Welsh), Basque (e.g. Ortega et al 2014), Catalan (e.g. Pujolar & Puigdevall 2014), Galician (e.g. O'Rourke & Ramallo 2014) and Occitan (e.g. Costa 2014). However, there has been little research done on new speakers of other languages, particularly of Frisian. Therefore, this (still ongoing, it will be completed by the end of January 2018) research aims to fill this gap in the literature by tackling some issues commonly linked in the literature to new speakers of minority languages from the Frisian context.
This presentation will first outline some general characteristics of the Frisian context as well as a basic profile of the new speaker of Frisian. After that, the results of an ongoing qualitative research project will be presented. This project consists of a series of open-ended interviews to learners of Frisian as well as teachers of the language (both native and non-native). Through the analysis of these interviews, the challenges and perspectives of new speakers of Frisian will be discussed. Issues like motivation, authority and legitimacy will be dealt with, as well as the multiple indexicalities often linked to them and the consequences these have for social identities and hierarchies.
Motivation will be analysed based on the work developed by Lambert and Gardner in the late 1950s suggesting a two-part model to explain the motivation for learning a second language (i.e. instrumental or integrative), relating both motivations to the globalized world of today and the increasingly multilingual and multicultural nature of current societies (as cited in Robert 2009, p. 113).
Location: 3rd edition of Contested Languages in the Old World (UvA, Amsterdam). Conference dates: 4th and 5th of May.
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Conference Presentations by Willemijn Miedema
Both motivation and attitude have been found key for the existence of new speakers of minority languages. Negative attitudes towards the minority language often translate to a smaller number of new speakers/learners and a greater amount of difficulty to learn the language. Moreover, views on language interaction differ strongly between new speakers and native speakers, and the former tend to promote the language more actively than native speakers do in conversations among them (Wilson & O'Rourke 2015, p. 260-285).
As for motivation, we will analyze it as a two-part model based on the work developed by Lambert and Gardner in the late 1950s, as phrased by Robert (2009, p. 113): "Motivation is instrumental if the learning of a language is seen as a means of achieving personal gain such as increased opportunities for employment. Motivation is integrative if it follows from a wish to learn about the language group's culture, or to integrate within the group".
Location: Frisian Humanities Conference: Multilingualism (Leeuwarden). Conference dates: April 2018
Much of this research has been done on Celtic languages (e.g. Hornsby 2015 on Breton; Nance et al 2016 on Scottish Gaelic; Ó hIfearnáin 2014 on Manx; O'Rourke & Walsh on Irish; Robert 2009 on Welsh), Basque (e.g. Ortega et al 2014), Catalan (e.g. Pujolar & Puigdevall 2014), Galician (e.g. O'Rourke & Ramallo 2014) and Occitan (e.g. Costa 2014). However, there has been little research done on new speakers of other languages, particularly of Frisian. Therefore, this (still ongoing, it will be completed by the end of January 2018) research aims to fill this gap in the literature by tackling some issues commonly linked in the literature to new speakers of minority languages from the Frisian context.
This presentation will first outline some general characteristics of the Frisian context as well as a basic profile of the new speaker of Frisian. After that, the results of an ongoing qualitative research project will be presented. This project consists of a series of open-ended interviews to learners of Frisian as well as teachers of the language (both native and non-native). Through the analysis of these interviews, the challenges and perspectives of new speakers of Frisian will be discussed. Issues like motivation, authority and legitimacy will be dealt with, as well as the multiple indexicalities often linked to them and the consequences these have for social identities and hierarchies.
Motivation will be analysed based on the work developed by Lambert and Gardner in the late 1950s suggesting a two-part model to explain the motivation for learning a second language (i.e. instrumental or integrative), relating both motivations to the globalized world of today and the increasingly multilingual and multicultural nature of current societies (as cited in Robert 2009, p. 113).
Location: 3rd edition of Contested Languages in the Old World (UvA, Amsterdam). Conference dates: 4th and 5th of May.
Both motivation and attitude have been found key for the existence of new speakers of minority languages. Negative attitudes towards the minority language often translate to a smaller number of new speakers/learners and a greater amount of difficulty to learn the language. Moreover, views on language interaction differ strongly between new speakers and native speakers, and the former tend to promote the language more actively than native speakers do in conversations among them (Wilson & O'Rourke 2015, p. 260-285).
As for motivation, we will analyze it as a two-part model based on the work developed by Lambert and Gardner in the late 1950s, as phrased by Robert (2009, p. 113): "Motivation is instrumental if the learning of a language is seen as a means of achieving personal gain such as increased opportunities for employment. Motivation is integrative if it follows from a wish to learn about the language group's culture, or to integrate within the group".
Location: Frisian Humanities Conference: Multilingualism (Leeuwarden). Conference dates: April 2018
Much of this research has been done on Celtic languages (e.g. Hornsby 2015 on Breton; Nance et al 2016 on Scottish Gaelic; Ó hIfearnáin 2014 on Manx; O'Rourke & Walsh on Irish; Robert 2009 on Welsh), Basque (e.g. Ortega et al 2014), Catalan (e.g. Pujolar & Puigdevall 2014), Galician (e.g. O'Rourke & Ramallo 2014) and Occitan (e.g. Costa 2014). However, there has been little research done on new speakers of other languages, particularly of Frisian. Therefore, this (still ongoing, it will be completed by the end of January 2018) research aims to fill this gap in the literature by tackling some issues commonly linked in the literature to new speakers of minority languages from the Frisian context.
This presentation will first outline some general characteristics of the Frisian context as well as a basic profile of the new speaker of Frisian. After that, the results of an ongoing qualitative research project will be presented. This project consists of a series of open-ended interviews to learners of Frisian as well as teachers of the language (both native and non-native). Through the analysis of these interviews, the challenges and perspectives of new speakers of Frisian will be discussed. Issues like motivation, authority and legitimacy will be dealt with, as well as the multiple indexicalities often linked to them and the consequences these have for social identities and hierarchies.
Motivation will be analysed based on the work developed by Lambert and Gardner in the late 1950s suggesting a two-part model to explain the motivation for learning a second language (i.e. instrumental or integrative), relating both motivations to the globalized world of today and the increasingly multilingual and multicultural nature of current societies (as cited in Robert 2009, p. 113).
Location: 3rd edition of Contested Languages in the Old World (UvA, Amsterdam). Conference dates: 4th and 5th of May.