Diese Ausgabe präsentiert 6 Artikel, die sich mit der linguistischen und kulturellen Diversität in der Republik Uganda befassen. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit gilt der Frage, wie sich Sprache, Sprachvielfalt und Multilingualismus in öffentlichen und kulturellen Bereichen des täglichen Lebens widerspiegeln. Die Artikel basieren auf Daten und Erfahrungen, die im März 2003 in Uganda gesammelt wurden.

Research has shown that cultural differences and the lack of experiences in the lives of young children can affect the rate of vocabulary development. In particular, children from different ability, socioeconomic status, and culturally and linguistically diverse groups are considered at risk for later academic achievement because their home experiences and word usage may be incongruent with that of the mainstream school cultural environment. Therefore, it has been suggested that to decrease the gap between children in need of vocabulary development and their typically achieving peers, instruction in vocabulary should systematically provide information about words and their uses. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a systematic vocabulary instructional technique in children with clinically depressed vocabulary skills. An additional goal was to examine the role of book type in the retention of novel vocabulary words among young African American children. Using an Adapted Alternating Treatments Design, five children were read two storybooks in the context of robust vocabulary training. Storybooks were used as a source for contextualizing novel vocabulary words. One book depicted an African American theme and images and the other depicted a Caucasian theme and images. Robust vocabulary instruction consisted of frequent and varied opportunities for word usage in meaningful contexts that stressed the relations between target words and previously acquired vocabulary. Childrens productive definitions were used to assess developing word knowledge at 4 periodic probes. Definitions were scored using a 4-stage continuum ranging from no knowledge to full concept knowledge. Results showed significant gains in word learning for novel words two weeks following conclusion of the study. The difference in scores between the instructional and control word sets resulted in a large effect size attributable to robust vocabulary instruction. African American children appeared to learn words at a deeper level from a storybook that displayed sociocultural images and experiences different from their own.

At least since the Neolithic, humans have largely lived in networks of small, traditional communities. Often socially isolated, these groups evolved distinct languages and cultures over microgeographic scales of just tens of kilometers. Population genetic theory tells us that genetic drift should act quickly in such isolated groups, thus raising the question: do networks of small human communitiesmaintain levels of genetic diversity over microgeographic scales? This question can no longer be asked in most parts of the world, which have been heavily impacted by historical events that make traditional society structures the exception. However, such studies remain possible in parts of Island Southeast Asia and Oceania, where traditional ways of life are still practiced. We captured genome-wide genetic data, together with linguistic records, for a case-study system-eight villages distributed across Sumba, a small, remote island in eastern Indonesia. More than 4,000 years after these communities were established during the Neolithic period, most speak different languages and can be distinguished genetically. Yet their nuclear diversity is not reduced, instead being comparable to other, evenmuch larger, regional groups. Modeling reveals a separation of time scales: while languages and culture can evolve quickly, creating social barriers, sporadic migration averaged over many generations is sufficient to keep villages linked genetically. This loosely-connected network structure, once the global norm and still extant on Sumba today, provides a living proxy to explore fine-scale genome dynamics in the sort of small traditional communities within which the most recent episodes of human evolution occurred.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates teachers' language practices in multilingual classrooms with regard to their attitudes, skills and strategies in their management of linguistic diversity among learners in their first year of primary school. Both the critical interpretive theoretical paradigm adopted and the qualitative research approach employed in the execution of the study presupposed gathering rich data, which a case study design of research assured. The data for the study was gathered from four year one classrooms purposively selected based on parameters that were deemed of interest in this study. These included, but were not limited to, the location of the school, the linguistic diversity among learners in the classrooms and the literacy traditions of the first languages spoken by the learners in the target classrooms. Although the specific context provided real input to the study, the findings may be relevant to language-in-education issues in many other African countries, and even in multilingual communities beyond. The study reveals yawning discrepancies between language policy and practice; between teachers' beliefs about linguistic diversity and their actual language behaviour in the classrooms; and between the definitions of mother tongue provided by the Ministry of Education and teachers' re-interpretations of these definitions in the various contexts studied. The study further indicates that teachers are working in an environment that is not supportive of effective policy implementation. This very limited policy implementation support is reflected in teacher training and preparation, teacher placement criteria, text book production and school examinations. This study indicates that even a sound understanding of linguistic diversity among teachers and their best intentions to give learners a sound foundation, is only the beginning of literacy development of young learners in Kenya. It recommends a new and incisive look at critical aspects of the education system in an effort to synchronise the different levels at which policy and practice need to meet. Various well-informed choices need to be made in the creation of a supportive environment for effective policy implementation. This should include among other things a change in the language-in-education policy to move away from early-exit to late-exit mother tongue education, and more first language maintenance in bilingual or multilingual classrooms. If learners are to benefit from mother tongue instruction in line with current research in the field, much needs to be done. Based on the insights gained in this study, a revision of teacher education curricula to include the management of linguistically diverse learners and improved language awareness is suggested, as is flexible curriculum delivery, scrapping of formal examinations in the early years and introduction of alternative assessment methods in these levels. In later years, bilingual (in some cases even multilingual) tests are bound to lower the drop-out rate and produce more understanding and less rote learning. The aim should be to assure multilingual, multiliteracy development and academic achievement for all learners regardless of their particular linguistic backgrounds. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek onderwysers se taalpraktyke in veeltalige klaskamers ten opsigte van hulle houdings, vaardighede en strategieë in die hantering van talige diversiteit onder leerders in hulle eerste jaar van primêre onderrig. Sowel die vertolkende teoretiese paradigma wat gevolg word as die kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering wat die studie aanneem, het daarop gereken dat ingesamelde data ryk sou wees aan inligting; die navorsingsontwerp, naamlik dié van gevallestudie, verseker die verkryging van sulke data. Die studie is gebasseer op inligting wat ingesamel is in vier klaskamers van leerlinge in die eerste skooljaar. Die betrokke navorsingsterreine is telkens doelbewus gekies op grond van die parameters wat belangrik was vir die studie. Dit sluit in, maar is nie beperk tot, die ligging van die skool, die talige diversiteit van die leerders in die klaskamers en die geletterdheidstradisies van die onderskeie eerstetale van die leerders in die geteikende klaskamers. Alhoewel hierdie spesifieke konteks verseker het dat die studie in 'n werklike situasie geanker is, is die bevindinge waarskynlik relevant tov taal-in-onderrig kwessies in verskeie ander Afrikalande, en selfs ook in veeltalige gemeenskappe elders. Hierdie studie onthul gapende ongerymdhede in die verhouding tussen taalbeleid en praktyk; tussen onderwysers se oortuigings rakende talige diversiteit en hulle werklike taalgebruik in die klaskamers; en tussen die omskrywings van moedertaal wat deur die Ministerie van Onderwys voorsien word en die onderwysers se herinterpretasie van hierdie omskrywings binne die verskillende kontekste wat ondersoek word. Die studie dui verder daarop dat onderwysers in ʼn omgewing werk wat nie die effektiewe implementering van beleid ondersteun nie. Sodanige beperkte ondersteuning in die implementering van die beleid word weerspiëel in die opleiding en voorbereiding van onderwysers, die plasingkriteria van onderwysers, die publikasie van handboeke en skooleksamens. Hierdie studie toon aan dat selfs 'n goeie begrip van talige diversiteit onder onderwysers en hulle beste voornemens om aan leerders ʼn vaste grondslag te bied, net 'n eerste tree is in die geletterdheidsontwikkeling van jong leerders in Kenia. Dit stel ʼn nuwe en indringende ondersoek van kritiese aspekte van die onderwyssisteem voor as ʼn poging om die verskillende vlakke waar beleid en praktyk mekaar behoort te ontmoet, te sinchroniseer. Verskeie goed ingeligte besluite sal geneem moet word in die skep van ʼn omgewing wat bevorderlik is vir effektiewe beleidimplementering. Dit sou onder andere ʼn verandering in die taal-in-onderwys beleid insluit om weg te beweeg van die vroeë wegbeweeg moedertaalonderrig na later wegbeweeg van moedertaalonderrig, sowel as meer instandhouding van die eerstetaal in twee- of veeltalige klaskamers. Vir leerders om baat te vind by moedertaalonderrig in oorstemming met huidige insigte uit navorsing in die veld, moet nog baie gedoen word. Gebaseer op die insigte wat in hierdie studie verkry is, word onder andere hersiening van die onderrigkurrikula vir onderwysers voorgestel sodat die hantering van talig-diverse groepe leerders asook verbeterde taalbewustheid daarby ingesluit is. Dieselfde geld ontwikkeling van buigbare kurrikula, die skrapping van formele eksaminering in die vroeë skooljare en die instelling van alternatiewe assesseringsmetodes op hierdie vlakke. In die later jare sal tweetalige (in sommige gevalle selfs veeltalige) toetse beslis die uitvalsyfer verlaag, asook meer begrip en minder leë memorisering tot gevolg te hê. Die doel moet wees om veeltalige, multi-geletterheidsontwikkeling en akademiese prestasie vir alle leerders te verseker ongeag hulle spesifieke talige agtergrond. / The African Doctoral Academy (ADA) at Stellenbosch University through the Partnership for Africa's Next Generation of Academics (PANGEA), for providing the funds

This dissertation documents the work of two teacher collaborators who brought a focus on linguistic and cultural diversity into their literacy teaching even while teaching in English medium schools. The research was carried out during eighteen months utilizing collaborative case study methodology in conjunction with two teachers in highly multilingual and multicultural public elementary schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). This study explores the pedagogical possibilities that are made available by teaching for transfer and highlights the resource that students’ linguistic diversity can be even when the instructional setting is monolingual. The dual language literacy pedagogies of the two teachers provide the basis for an analysis of the paths for knowledge construction and identity development that were made available for students through this work. I examine the role that teacher identity and societal influences play in enabling or constraining a redefinition of literacy for the increasingly globalized context of schools. The image of the child, of literacy and of bilingualism projected by the work of the two participating teachers shape the analysis of their identity and role definition as educators. By examining teaching practices that integrate students’ linguistic and cultural identities into the fabric of the literacy curriculum several themes are considered: (a) the role of teacher identity and choice in creating learning contexts that draw on students’ interests and prior knowledge, (b) the link between student engagement and a classroom ecology that values students’ identities and, (c) the different types of knowledge that are generated in the process of participating in the dual language literacy work. Results suggest that students were able to utilize their first language skills in the service of learning English. They also experienced a renewed motivation to extend their first language skills into the sphere of literacy as a result of its affirmation within the classroom. In the case of both first and second language development, students’ ability to engage cognitively and affectively in their literacy work was heightened by virtue of the integration of their language and culture into the curriculum.

Over the last few decades, minority language issues have been attracting increasing attention in the media, among academics, and in the affairs of national governments and international organizations. Nowhere has this been truer than in the European Union, where concern over the ‘endangered languages crisis’ has led to an increasing awareness of Europe’s small languages and of the challenges they face in a globalised, English-dominated linguistic marketplace. A more tangible outcome of this concern has been a growth in rhetoric within EU institutions advocating a general respect for multilingualism and linguistic diversity, and a series of support measures and resolutions designed to guarantee this. Despite the widespread rhetoric of concern and support, however, in terms of concrete legislation there is still a wide gap between debate and policy in Europe, and until now it has been left unclear to what extent this gap is actually affecting the vitality and prospects of individual minority languages. This dissertation addresses this question by analysing how the European Union, both in the by-products of the integration process and in its deliberate rhetoric of support, is impacting the vitality of three specific minority language communities: Galician in Spain, Corsican in France and Sorbian in Germany. Drawing upon research collected via sociolinguistic surveys in these communities, it attempts to gauge whether Europe as an integrated entity is positively or negatively affecting the prospects of minority languages within its borders; if member state policies toward their minorities have been positively swayed by European rhetoric; if minority language speakers themselves see a positive effect on language use from European policy and promotion; and whether the role of English as a necessary lingua franca inside and outside Europe is eroding the position of the minority languages as the second language of choice. Quantitative and qualitative analysis on the survey results indicate that unfortunately, despite the amount of attention these minority languages receive from both government and media, language decline seems to show no sign of abating in any of these communities, and indeed the actions of the EU are apparently having very little impact on individual language situations. In addition, the survey indicates that hostile or indifferent member state policy is continuing to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to minority language maintenance in Europe. From this perspective it seems reasonable to assess that the EU has in effect failed at what it claims to be trying to achieve, namely to provide a social and political climate that is favourable to minority language maintenance, and to assume that if this is the case in these three communities it is likely to be the case across Europe. With this in mind, the study concludes with the recommendation that the EU reconsider its involvement in language matters across the board, particularly in its current working-language structure and the reluctance to put some force of law behind its minority language support, and cautions that without this, the EU will likely face the imminent erosion of much of the very diversity upon which it has been built.

Compounding in the world’s languages is a complex word-­‐formation process that is not easily accounted for. Moreover, incorporation is equally complex and problematic. This examination of compounding and incorporation in the Ket language seeks to identify the underlying logic of these processes and to work towards a typology that captures generalizations among the numerous ways in which languages expand their lexicons through these processes. Canonical Typology provides a framework that does just this. A preliminary canonical typology of compounds is proposed here, one that subsumes a range of compounds as well as incorporation. For this reason, the Ket language, which relies heavily on compounding and incorporation, will be used as a test case. The aim is to define the canonical com

Shawnee is a language whose alignment system is of the type first proposed by Nichols (1992) and Siewierska (1998): hierarchical alignment. This alignment system was proposed to account for languages where distinctions between agent (A) and object (O) are not formally manifested. Such is the case in Shawnee; there are person-marking inflections on the verb for both A and O, but there is not set order. Instead, Shawnee makes reference to an animacy hierarchy and is an inverse system. This thesis explores how hierarchical alignment is accounted for by Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and also applies Paradigm Function Morphology to LFG’s m(orphological)-structure as most of the alignment system in Shawnee is realized in the inflectional morphology.

Thesis advisor: Mariela Paez / With the continued growth of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, it is necessary for teachers to be intentional about serving students whose backgrounds are assets but nonetheless different from the dominant culture and language in American society. Because most research on teaching practices has focused on the academic development of children in preschool, this study tries to fill a gap in the literature by examining teaching practices that respond to and affirm cultural diversity. After conducting interviews and observations in three Head Start classrooms, four core teacher beliefs (reciprocal relationships with family, importance of home language, social emotional emphasis, and inclusion of culture) were identified across the sites; these beliefs impacted how teachers created a multicultural space and tailored instruction for students. The findings contribute to the field by providing insight for how teachers can continue to foster inclusive classrooms that value and celebrate children’s unique identities. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Education.

A dissertação analisa experiências de ensino bilíngue nos Centros de Experimentação de Educação e Formação (CEEF) e no Projeto de Apoio ao Ensino Bilíngue no Arquipélago de Ilhas Bijagós (PAEBB), em Bubaque, região de Bolama Bijagós, Guiné-Bissau. Aborda a problemática da relação entre línguas e saberes locais, no processo de alfabetização e no currículo do Ensino Básico, com finalidade de reconhecer suas vantagens para a aprendizagem das crianças em escolarização inicial. Esta discussão é baseada na institucionalização do kriol e abre a possibilidade de integrar os conteúdos e práticas culturais no currículo local. A finalidade da introdução do kriol como língua de ensino é reduzir a distância entre a escola e a comunidade, assim como descolonizar o próprio currículo, saber e poder (QUIJANO, 2005). O ensino bilíngue dos CEEF e PAEBB integra saberes comunitários para estimular aprendizagens, utilizando e reconhecendo as línguas locais na escola. Essa premissa sustenta que as escolas devem associar-se à cultura autóctone e ao seu valor intrínseco. Entende-se que a inclusão dos saberes locais na escola pode facilitar aprendizagem e contextualizar os conhecimentos socioculturais locais. Com a introdução da língua local, o kriol, cria-se um espaço de convivência dos saberes local e universal e lança-se um repto aos educadores no sentido de serem responsáveis na produção e disseminação de conhecimento. A base teórica do trabalho é fundada no pensamento de Paulo Freire (1978), acerca da relação entre educação e cultura nos processos de alfabetização; Michael Apple (2000), base para pensar o currículo; Clifford Geertz (1997), para o conceito de cultura. O material empírico foi produzido em pesquisa de campo, com busca documental no Ministério de Educação e no escritório da Fundação para o Apoio ao Desenvolvimento dos Povos dos Arquipélagos de Bijagós (FASPEBI), na Guiné-Bissau, com recorte temporal entre 1986 e 2017. A produção documental para análise incluiu questionários sociolinguísticos e entrevistas semiestruturadas com professores e estudantes de duas escolas vinculadas à FASPEBI. A partir da análise das experiências que agregam as línguas locais, destaca-se positivamente a integração do kriol como língua de ensino e a fusão de conteúdos disciplinares com saberes da tradição local. No entanto, ressalta-se a falta de formação superior e diplomada de professores no domínio de ensino bilíngue, a heterogeneidade de turmas, as dificuldades metodológicas e didáticas dos docentes. / The present pos-graduation dissertation analyzes bilingual education experiences in the Education and Training Experimentation Centers (CEEF) and the Bilingual Education Support Project in the Bijagós Islands (PAEBB), in Bubaque, Bolama region of Bijagós, Guiné-Bissau. It addresses the issue of the relationship between languages and local knowledge, in the literacy process and in the Basic Education curriculum, in order to recognize its advantages for the learning of children in initial schooling. This discussion is based on the institutionalization of kriol and opens the possibility of integrating cultural content and practices into the local curriculum. The purpose of introducing Kriol as a teaching language is to reduce the distance between school and community, as well as decolonize one's own curriculum, knowledge and power (QUIJANO, 2005). The bilingual education of CEEF and PAEBB integrates community knowledge to stimulate learning, using and recognizing local languages in school. This premise maintains that schools must associate themselves with the indigenous culture and its intrinsic value. It is understood that the inclusion of local knowledge in school can facilitate learning and contextualize local socio-cultural knowledge. With the introduction of the local language, kriol, a space is created for the coexistence of local and universal knowledge, and a challenge is presented to educators in order to be responsible for the production and dissemination of knowledge. The theoretical basis of work is based on the thinking of Paulo Freire (1978), about the relationship between education and culture in literacy processes; Michael Apple (2000), basis for thinking the curriculum; Clifford Geertz (1997), for the concept of culture. The empirical material was produced in field research, with documentary search in the Ministry of Education and in the office of the Foundation for the Support to the Development of the Peoples of the Bijagós Archipelagos (FASPEBI), in Guinea-Bissau, with temporal cut between 1986 and 2017. The documentary production for analysis included sociolinguistic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with teachers and students from two schools linked to FASPEBI. From the analysis of the experiences that add the local languages, the integration of kriol as a teaching language and the fusion of disciplinary contents with local traditions are positively highlighted. However, there is a lack of superior and qualified teacher training in bilingual education, the heterogeneity of classes, the methodological and didactic difficulties of teachers.