The thesis deals with the current situation of minority languages in Peru, focusing on language shift as a sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is seen as a transition from the use of one language to another language. The first part conceives the topic from a broader perspective and points out certain weaknesses in the subject. Some Peruvian minority languages, ie the native languages of the Amazon region, have not been adequately documented, individual languages have not been given sufficient attention by linguists, and therefore we encounter inconsistent terminology, classifications and varying estimates of the number of the languages. Many of the languages are in danger of extinction because they are replaced in everyday use by Spanish. The thesis analyzes the individual extralinguistic and other factors that have contributed to accelerating the language shift, and on the basis of empiric data obtained during field research in 2013, describes the progress of the shift in selected communities in the languages Bora and Huitoto murui. The third part introduces the sociolinguistic profile of the settlements Pucaurquillo and Ancon Colonia, which were the center of the research. The main part of the thesis analyzes the topic "behaviour towards language", focused on the intergenerational transmission of...

Arabic as a minority language in Israel The objective of this diploma thesis is the analysis of the status of arabic as a minority language within the specific circumstances of the arabic-hebrew contact in Israel. In this context the language carries symbolic values that participate in forming identity of the native Arabic speakers. Their language is constantely exposed to the influence of hebrew and this study investigates this influence practically. The theoretical part provides the sociolinguistic foundation of the research and characterise the locus of the study. The core of the practical part is the analysis of tha data obtained during the field research in the Israeli city of Tira.

La politique de la langue azerbaïdjanaise doit être étudiée en suivant quatre aspects différents mais très liés : la politique linguistique à l’égard de la langue officielle, la politique linguistique à l’égard des langues minoritaires en Azerbaïdjan, la politique linguistique à l’égard de la Turcophonie et la politique linguistique à l’égard des minorités azerbaïdjanaises vivant surtout dans les pays frontaliers tels que l’Iran, la Géorgie ou bien la Fédération de Russie (également la République du Daghestan de la Fédération de Russie). Cet ensemble constitue pour la politique linguistique de l’Azerbaïdjan à la fois une intervention sur la langue officielle mais aussi sur les langues minoritaires de la part de l’Etat et un domaine de coopération internationale dans le cas de la Turcophonie. Par conséquence, l’aspect régional de cette politique est considéré comme une action ayant des enjeux essentiels pour le développement et le rayonnement de l’azerbaïdjanais comme langue minoritaire. / Policy Azerbaijani language must be studied in four different but closely related aspects : the language policy towards the official language, the language policy towards minority languages in Azerbaijan, the language policy towards the Turcophonie and the language policy against Azerbaijani minorities especially in neighboring countries such as Iran, Georgia or Russia (also the Republic of Dagestan of the Russian Federation). This set is for the language policy of Azerbaijan in both the official language intervention but also on minority languages from the state and an area of international cooperation in the case of Turcophonie. Consequently, the regional aspect of this policy is considered as an action that key issues for the development and influence of Azerbaijani as a minority language.

Ce travail de recherche s'appuie sur une analyse discursive de productions narratives orales (contes de fées) de trois types de population en scolarité primaire du Pays-Basque Nord : des élèves bilingues basque L1 et issus d'un milieu sociolinguistique majoritairement bascophone, des élèves bilingues français L1 et issus d'un milieu sociolinguistique majoritairement francophone, et des élèves monolingues français. Le but de cette étude consiste à étudier les quelles capacités linguistiques que développent les élèves bilingues en basque comme en français au cours de leur scolarité. Les élèves monolingues nous serviront de référence quant à l'acquisition du français. Les élèves bilingues sont scolarisés dans un modèle d'enseignement dont la langue d'instruction est le basque - langue minoritaire au Pays-Basque Nord - et le français est une matière enseignée. L'analyse a été menée de manière transversale (il y a des enfants de 6, 9 et 11 ans dans chaque groupe d'élèves), et elle se base sur trois aspects discursifs : l'autonomie narrative, la planification des contenus de l'histoire et la production des organisateurs textuels. Les résultats montrent une progression similaire des capacités langagières chez les trois populations étudiées, ceci en basque comme en français (pour les bilingues). Les capacités en français sont mêmes parfois supérieures chez les élèves bilingues. Nous en concluons donc qu'une scolarisation en basque permet non seulement le développement de cette langue chez les élèves basque L1 et basque L2, mais qu'elle favorise aussi un bon apprentissage du français. / This research is a discourse analysis of oral storytelling produced by three groups of primary schools students in the Northern Basque Country: Basque L1 bilingual pupils from a mostly Basque-speaking sociolinguistic environment, French L1 bilingual pupils from a mostly French-speaking sociolinguistic environment, and French monolingual pupils. The aim of the sudy is to see the linguistic skills that bilingual children develop during schooling, in basque and in french. Monolingual French pupils are used as referents for the acquisition of French. The bilinguals students are educated in a teaching program where Basque - the minority language of the Northern Basque-Country - is the language of instruction, and French is a subject matter. The analysis of the stories is transversal (they are 6, 9 and 11 years old children in each group of pupils), ans is focused on three discourse aspects : the narrative autonomy, the planning of the contents of the stories and the production of text organizers. Results show a similar progress in the linguistics skills for the three populations studied, both in Basque and French (for the bilinguals). Skills in French are in some cases more advanced for bilinguals than for monolinguals. We conclude that Basque-medium education not only permits the development of Basque for both Basque L1 and Basque L2 students, but it also fosters the development of French. / Ikerketa lan honek Ipar Euskal Herriko lehen hezkuntzan diren hiru ikasle perfilen ahozko ekoizpen narratiboak (ipuin kontaketak) aztertzen ditu. Lehenak etxetik euskaldunak eta ingurune euskaldun batekoak dira, bigarrenak etxetik erdaldunak eta ingurune erdaldun batean bizi. Bi lehen perfil hauek ikasle elebidunenak dira, euskarazko murgilketazko hezkuntza eredu batean eskolatuak direnak. Hirugarren ikasle perfila frantses elebakarrena da, hauek eredu frantses elebakarrean eskolatuak direla. Lanaren helburua haur elebidunek lehen hezkuntzan garatzen dituzten hizkuntza gaitasunak aztertzea da, euskaraz zein frantsesez. Haur hauek euskarazko hezkuntza eredu batean eskolatuak dira, hau da, euskara – Ipar Euskal Herriko hizkuntza gutxitua - erabilia da instrukzio hizkuntza gisa eta frantsesa irakatsia zaien gai bat da. Haur elebakarrak erreferentziatzat hartuko ditugu frantsesaren jabekuntzari doakionaz. Azterketa molde transbertsalean egina izan da (ikasle talde bakoitzean 6, 9 eta 11 urteko ikasleak badira), eta hiru gaitasun diskurtsibotan oinarritzen da : autonomia narratiboa, istorioaren edukien planifikazioa eta testu antolatzaileen ekoizpena. Emaitzek hizkuntza gaitasunen antzeko garapen bat erakusten dute, aztertu diren hiru ikasle perfilengan, bai euskaraz bai frantsesez (ikasle elebidunentzat). Batzuetan gertatu ere da frantsesezko gaitasunak hobeak zirela ikasle elebidunengan. Ondorioztatzen dugu euskarazko hezkuntza batek hizkuntza honen garapena bermatzen duela etxetik euskaldunak zein etxetik erdaldunak diren ikasleengan, eta are gehiago frantsesaren ikasketa ona ere laguntzen duela.

This master thesis is a study on identity construction of a group of 9-14 year old children with Finnish origin in Sweden. In 2000 Sweden granted a special status of a national minority to five indigenous minorities, of which the Sweden-Finns are one, by ratifying European council’s framework convention for protection of national minorities. The status was further strengthened in 2010 with law 2009:724 giving Sweden’s five national minorities right to preserve and promote their own cultures and languages considered to be endangered due to centuries-long marginalisation, discrimination and forced assimilation to the Swedish society. The law emphasises particularly children’s right to a cultural identity and the minority language. Majority of the Sweden-Finnish children today are second or third generation decendants of the large group of work-related immigrants who migrated from Finland to Sweden during the 1960s-70s. Due to various socio-political reasons, the Sweden-Finns have assimilated culturally and linguistically to the Swedish society and children are predominantly Swedish-speaking. The theoretical framework in this thesis is a constructionist view on identity and ethnicity as ever-changing and in a constant process of being reproduced. There is an aspect of hybridity in identity; one person can have different identities during his or her lifetime. By using qualitative group interviews as a research method this thesis studies how a group of eleven Sweden-Finnish children relates to and identifies with “Finnishness” or “Sweden-Finnishness”. The study focuses on how these identity categories are reproduced by children and how they are used to mark and symbolise different aspects of the children’s identities. According to the sociology of childhood, children are seen as active social actors. Therefore this thesis presents a child’s perspective and it is the children’s own stories, opinions and insights to identity construction that form the basis to the analysis. The conclusion drawn is that the Sweden-Finnishness is constructed through children’s relations to Finland and how they relate to their Finnish origin even though their lives are preconditioned in a Swedish-speaking environment. Children describe Sweden-Finnishness as a relatively new identity category that is still under construction but a majority identify themselves as Sweden-Finns for their lives are in Sweden. Children have a limited access to other Finnish-speaking children and children’s cultures outside the group meetings where the interviews were conducted and Finnish language is mostly used with the Finnish-speaking parent or more seldom with relatives. The children consider their bilingualism as an advantage but the limited contacts to Finnish-speaking friends and the dominance of Swedish, and increasingly English, through social media in their daily lives decreases the possibilities to use Finnish in social relations. / Det här examensarbetet skrivs inom barn och ungdomsvetenskap och handlar om sverigefinska barns identitetsarbete. Sverigefinnar är i Sverige bosatta personer med finsk härkomst och en av de fem nationella eller historiska minoriteterna som Sverige erkände i februari 2000. Lagen (2009:724) om nationella minoriteter och minoritetsspråk fastställer bland annat att allmänheten ska särskilt främja minoritetsbarns rätt till utveckling av en kulturell identitet och användningen av det egna språket. Majoriteten av dagens sverigefinska barn och unga tillhör den andra- eller tredje generationen av den stora arbetskraftsinvandrargruppen som emigrerade från Finland till Sverige under 1960-70-talet. Dåtidens minoritetspolitik och bristen på finsk kulturell- och språklig kontext i vardagen har gjort att inte bara en, utan flera generationer sverigefinska barn saknar idag kunskaper om den finska kulturen samt kunskaper i det finska språket. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt utgörs av begreppen identitet, etnicitet och kultur. Studien använder sig av ett konstruktionistiskt perspektiv, att identiteter konstrueras hela livet i olika korsade och även motsatta diskurser. Identitetens hybriditet betyder att en och samma person kan uppleva och anamma olika identiteter under sitt liv. Inom barndomssociologi anses barn vara aktiva aktörer som själva konstruerar sin verklighet och det är därför att barnens egna funderingar och berättelser får företräde i redovisningen av den insamlade empirin. Med kvalitativ gruppintervju som forskningsmetod har en grupp av 11 sverigefinska barn i åldersgrupp 9-14 år intervjuats i syfte att kunna presentera ett sverigefinskt barns perspektiv som belyser hur barnen själv upplever och uppfattar sin identitet samt hur den kan kopplas till sverigefinskhet eller finskhet. Självidentifikation är en strategisk positionering som görs i relation till andra människor och att identifiera sig som finsk eller sverigefinsk är därmed en högst individuell uppfattning eller upplevelse om vem man är. Forskningsresultaten fastställer att sverigefinskhet skapas genom barnens relationer till Finland och den finska härkomsten trots att barnens levnadsmiljö huvudsakligen är svenskspråkig. De flesta kan identifiera sig med sverigefinskhet även om den uppfattas som en relativ ny identitetskategori som håller på att utvecklas och fyllas med innebörd. Barnen upplever att det finns få möjligheter att skapa sverigefinska kamratkulturer utöver den fritidsverksamheten där intervjuerna genomfördes och det finska språket används nästan uteslutande med den finskspråkiga föräldern eller mer sällan med släktingar. Flerspråkighet anses som en resurs som gynnar barnen i olika livssituationer men kompisrelationer är till stor del svenskspråkiga och användning av social media på engelska minskar tillfällena och möjligheterna till att använda finska.

Cette thèse met l’accent sur les paroles des enfants-acteurs colligés alors qu’ils vivaient le processus de choix scolaire durant le moment de transition entre paliers élémentaire et secondaire en milieu minoritaire. Ce choix de problématique est motivé par le fait que le domaine du choix scolaire est dominé par des adultes qui décident, qui parlent pour les enfants concernés ou bien qui les catégorisent par ce processus sans pour autant inclure les enfants dans les recherches sur un processus qui les concerne directement. Par ailleurs, l’intérêt particulier pour le choix de la langue d’instruction du projet m’a incitée à mener une étude comparée internationale pour mieux comprendre les particularités et similarités des vécus des enfants de la Corse et de l’Ontario, deux territoires fortement marqués par les questions sociolinguistiques. La question de recherche principale de cette thèse est la suivante : quels processus conduisent les enfants de l’Ontario et de la Corse à poursuivre ou non leur scolarité dans une école ou une filière de langue minoritaire ou majoritaire? Ma position épistémologique de chercheure interprétative, critique et réflexive encadre mon intérêt scientifique aux paroles des enfants-participants. La méthodologie du projet constitue une étude de cas comparative de type ethnographique. En outre, les outils de collecte de données, soit l’observation participante, le questionnaire et l’entrevue semi-dirigée, ainsi qu’une analyse des contextes scolaire, familial et national permettent une analyse plus rigoureuse et holistique des cas étudiés. L’analyse dévoile que le processus de choix scolaire représente une convergence des métiers d’élève, d’enfant et d’enfant-citoyen dans la construction du projet personnel de chaque enfant quant à son avenir scolaire et social. Qui plus est, cette analyse fait poindre le besoin de mieux accompagner les enfants au cours des processus de choix et de transition scolaire qu’ils vivent, de mieux outiller, voire informer, les parents quant à ces processus et à repenser l’éducation civique en milieu minoritaire. La contribution au domaine éducationnel de cette thèse est importante à plusieurs égards, notamment par rapport 1) à la place centrale qu’occupent les paroles des enfants-participants; 2) au regard particulier sur le choix de la langue d’instruction en milieu minoritaire et 3) à la visée comparative et au rapprochement des cas de l’Ontario et de la Corse qui font progresser la compréhension des enjeux de l’éducation en milieu minoritaire. / This thesis focuses on the voices of children, accessed as they were living the school choice process during the transition between elementary and secondary school in minority language contexts. The aforementioned research agenda is motivated by the fact that the field of school choice is dominated by adults who decide, who speak for children or who categorize children without including children in research regarding a process that concerns them directly. Moreover, my particular interest in the choice of language of instruction in minority language communities has prompted me to conduct an international, comparative educational research project to better understand the similarities and particularities of experiences lived by children in Corsica and in Ontario, two contexts strongly influenced by sociolinguistic issues. The following principal research question guides this thesis : what processes lead children of Ontario and Corsica to pursue, or abandon, their education in the minority or majority language?My interpretive, critical, and reflexive epistemological position frames my scientific interest in the voices of child participants. The project’s methodology is a comparative case study that is influenced by an ethnographic lens. The data collection tools, participant observation, questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews—as well analyses of school, family and national contexts—allow for a holistic and rigorous analysis of the cases studied. These analyses reveal that the process of school choice represents a convergence of student, child, and child-citizen occupations (or métiers) in the construction of the child’s personal project regarding his or her own academic and social future. Furthermore, this analysis illuminates the need to better support children during the school choice and transition processes, to better equip and to better inform parents concerning these processes, and to rethink civic education in minority language communities. The contribution of this thesis to the field of education is important in several respects, particularly in relation to 1) its placement of child voice at the forefront of the research; 2) its particular focus on the choice of language of instruction in minority language contexts; and, 3) its comparative element which connects the cases of Ontario and Corsica and, so doing, advances the understanding of minority language education.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This research investigated the effect of frequency of language use on the production of consonant gradation by non-dominant speakers of Finnish in the immigrant community of Sointula, BC. Three types of frequency – word-frequency, suffix-frequency, and stem-frequency – were tested. It also investigated whether quantitative or qualitative gradation is more successful in producing gradation than the other and, finally, whether immigrant generation can explain the variation between participants. A translation task was administered to the six participants across three generations. Based on the framework of exemplar-driven cognitive grammar (Bybee 2001; Pierrehumbert 2001), the frequency-effects were assumed to be contingent upon the mode of lexical access; frequent complex words, presumably accessed as wholes thanks to frequent usage, would not exhibit as many gradation errors as infrequent words, which would be accessed via their composite parts due to infrequency. The anticipated frequency-effects were not found. Both frequent and infrequent words manifested some gradation loss as an analogical change. This suggests that all words are infrequent. While Bybee’s model assumes high-volume language use over time in dominant language contexts, lack of volume appears to suppress the differential behavior between frequent and infrequent words in Sointula. However, correct gradation was predictable based on suffix-use, which in turn was determined partly by semantics of suffixes; those Finnish suffixes that are semantically mappable to equivalent morphemes in English were better preserved than GEN object-markers, which do not have corresponding morpheme in English. With the atrophy of the GEN object-marker also gradation becomes redundant. This may arise from the tendency to mark syntactic constituency with word-order alone in English-influenced Finnish. Thus, semantics of suffixes proves to be a better predictor of gradation than frequency. Gradation loss increased with each generation born abroad; by G3, it has all but disappeared. Consonant gradation is not preserved through the generations. Qualitative gradation disappears before quantitative gradation. The above findings are sensible in a context of reduced language-functionality. Against expectation, little evidence for storing sub-word morphemes and decomposed access was found. Instead, the data suggests that most stored lexical items are whole words and that gradation is associated with whole complex forms.

L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de connaitre les caractéristiques du genre textuel de l’exposé oral en basque, en prenant appui sur des données empiriques, soit un corpus de textes produits par des étudiants bilingues français-basque de Licence Etudes basques, futurs enseignants. Ainsi cette étude met en évidence les acquis et les carences rencontrés dans les textes produits, le compte rendu de lecture critique d’une œuvre littéraire, défini comme sous genre de l’exposé oral, qui est une pratique très courante dans l’institution scolaire. L'analyse prend appui sur l’architecture interne des textes (Bronckart, 1996) qui étudie plusieurs aspects discursifs : l’analyse de la situation de communication, la planification textuelle et les contenus thématiques, les éléments de cohésion et de connexion, la prise en charge énonciative. Cette étude s’achève sur une proposition de pistes didactiques et notamment une séquence didactique (Dolz et Schneuwly, 1998), à partir des résultats obtenus, en vue d’un apprentissage de l’exposé oral comme genre textuel. Des ateliers permettent l’étude des organisateurs textuels, des articulations temporelles, des recours de modalisations, de l’interlocution orale, etc. / The main objective of this thesis is to know how the textual genre of the oral presentation in Basque works. This explanation will be based on empiric data: a texts' corpus produced by bilingual (French-Basque speakers) students from the Basque Studies' Department, teachers-to-become. Thus, this study shows the benefits and the lacks encountered in the productions which can be defined as a sub-gender of the oral presentation exercise: the report of a critical reading concerning a piece of literature which is a common practise in the educational institution. This analysis relies on the internal texts' structure (Bronckart, 1996) which considers several aspects of the speech: to analyse the communication situation, the textual planification and the thematic contents, the cohesion and connexion elements and how the enonciation are taken over. This study will end up on a suggestion of didactic solutions and more precisely a didactic sequence (Dolz and Schneuwly, 1998), where the obtained results will enable to improve the oral presentation as a textual genre. Some working groups can make the textual organisation tools, time articulations, modalisation skills or oral interlucations be developed.

Family language policy (FLP) focusses on how languages are dealt with within the home; typically how languages are used and how they are maintained or promoted by family members. The present study investigates families living in the UK, where one parent is a native English speaker, and the other a native speaker of another language, the minority language. By use of a mixed-methods design, utilising questionnaires, interviews and logs, this paper answers the questions: what are the reported language practices of children and parents in bi- or multilingual families, what ideologies about FLP do parents in these families possess and what strategies do families reportedly employ in their homes. Through a nexus analysis approach, the paper establishes connections between the historical bodies, the interaction orders and the DIP of the families in order to account for their language behaviours in the home. The nexus analysis suggests that although parents show positive attitudes towards minority language use, it is the macro-level societal factors that are most powerful in determining language use within the home. That is, space plays an important role in choice of language practices. This finding suggests that children need more minority language exposure outside the home, therefore this paper suggests that the UK government could promote and encourage minority language maintenance through the implementation of language policy.