Conference Presentations by Hauke Heyen
Part of the Panel: "Virtual communities: a breathing space for minority languages"
The Internet ... more Part of the Panel: "Virtual communities: a breathing space for minority languages"
The Internet and computer mediated communication are quickly becoming significant tools in the lives of minority language speakers and researchers. The effects of these new media on endangered languages and their speakers are evolving alongside their platforms and allow scholars to study in real time the effects internet mediated communication have on pedagogy, language policy and planning, ethnography and discourse analysis among others (Cormack & Hourigan, 2007; Jones & Uribe-Jongbloed, 2013).
Internet users can easily contribute to social media platforms, blogs and fora, creating new communities of practice, facilitating linguistic developments, bridging learner difficulties, supporting activism and, simply, using one’s language of choice across spatial and temporal limitations. These ‘virtual communities’ are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Moriarty, 2015; Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017).
Language use online, however, is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages often blur. These are also characteristics of ‘translanguaging’ practices, based on the view that different communication systems form a single integrated system in which languages become fluid codes framed within social practices (Cenoz & Gorter, 2017). In this panel, the speakers will look at current ‘virtual communities’ and analyze whether they can be considered ‘breathing spaces’ for the minority languages in question, following up on Cenoz and Gorter’s idea (2017) that in order to achieve ‘sustainable translanguaging’ practices, minority languages need ‘breathing spaces’.
Guillem Belmar Viernes (University of Groningen) and Hauke Heyen (University of Flensburg) open the panel with an introduction to the notion of ‘virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages’, illustrating it with a comparative analysis of two online communities of practice of West and North Frisian speakers.
17th International Conference on Minority Languages. Ljouwert, May 2019.
Papers by Hauke Heyen
Multilingual Matters eBooks, Dec 31, 2024
Language Documentation & Conservation, Jun 1, 2021
Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has br... more Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has brought about new platforms of identification and opened possibilities that were out of reach for many minoritized communities. As they represent an increasing percentage of the media we consume, these sites have been considered crucial for revitalization processes. However, the growing importance of social media may also pose a problem for minoritized languages, as the need for communication with a wider audience seems to require the use of a language of wider communication. One way in which this apparent need for a global language can be avoided is by creating virtual communities where the minoritized languages can be used without competition, a virtual breathing space. This study analyzes language practices of eight communities: four North Frisian and four West Frisian virtual communities. The analysis focuses on the languages used in each community, the topics discussed, as well as the status of the minoritized language in the community. A total of 1,127 posts are analyzed to determine whether these communities function as breathing spaces, the factors that may foster or prevent the emergence of these spaces, and the similarities and differences between these two sociolinguistic contexts.
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Conference Presentations by Hauke Heyen
The Internet and computer mediated communication are quickly becoming significant tools in the lives of minority language speakers and researchers. The effects of these new media on endangered languages and their speakers are evolving alongside their platforms and allow scholars to study in real time the effects internet mediated communication have on pedagogy, language policy and planning, ethnography and discourse analysis among others (Cormack & Hourigan, 2007; Jones & Uribe-Jongbloed, 2013).
Internet users can easily contribute to social media platforms, blogs and fora, creating new communities of practice, facilitating linguistic developments, bridging learner difficulties, supporting activism and, simply, using one’s language of choice across spatial and temporal limitations. These ‘virtual communities’ are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Moriarty, 2015; Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017).
Language use online, however, is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages often blur. These are also characteristics of ‘translanguaging’ practices, based on the view that different communication systems form a single integrated system in which languages become fluid codes framed within social practices (Cenoz & Gorter, 2017). In this panel, the speakers will look at current ‘virtual communities’ and analyze whether they can be considered ‘breathing spaces’ for the minority languages in question, following up on Cenoz and Gorter’s idea (2017) that in order to achieve ‘sustainable translanguaging’ practices, minority languages need ‘breathing spaces’.
Guillem Belmar Viernes (University of Groningen) and Hauke Heyen (University of Flensburg) open the panel with an introduction to the notion of ‘virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages’, illustrating it with a comparative analysis of two online communities of practice of West and North Frisian speakers.
17th International Conference on Minority Languages. Ljouwert, May 2019.
Papers by Hauke Heyen
The Internet and computer mediated communication are quickly becoming significant tools in the lives of minority language speakers and researchers. The effects of these new media on endangered languages and their speakers are evolving alongside their platforms and allow scholars to study in real time the effects internet mediated communication have on pedagogy, language policy and planning, ethnography and discourse analysis among others (Cormack & Hourigan, 2007; Jones & Uribe-Jongbloed, 2013).
Internet users can easily contribute to social media platforms, blogs and fora, creating new communities of practice, facilitating linguistic developments, bridging learner difficulties, supporting activism and, simply, using one’s language of choice across spatial and temporal limitations. These ‘virtual communities’ are no longer restricted by traditional geographical boundaries of language, emerging into the cyber-sphere and allowing people to perform in such communities regardless of their physical location (Moriarty, 2015; Kelly-Holmes & Atkinson, 2017).
Language use online, however, is often described as hybrid, and boundaries across languages often blur. These are also characteristics of ‘translanguaging’ practices, based on the view that different communication systems form a single integrated system in which languages become fluid codes framed within social practices (Cenoz & Gorter, 2017). In this panel, the speakers will look at current ‘virtual communities’ and analyze whether they can be considered ‘breathing spaces’ for the minority languages in question, following up on Cenoz and Gorter’s idea (2017) that in order to achieve ‘sustainable translanguaging’ practices, minority languages need ‘breathing spaces’.
Guillem Belmar Viernes (University of Groningen) and Hauke Heyen (University of Flensburg) open the panel with an introduction to the notion of ‘virtual communities as breathing spaces for minority languages’, illustrating it with a comparative analysis of two online communities of practice of West and North Frisian speakers.
17th International Conference on Minority Languages. Ljouwert, May 2019.