School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 8 of 8
-
ItemThe role of community language radio for understanding creativity and wellbeing in migrant communities in Australia(International Journal of Wellbeing, 2020-12-16)Community radio—and community language radio specifically—occupies an important place in Australia’s multicultural landscape. Members of many language communities arriving in Australia have been denied important opportunities in their home countries including outlets for self-representation and public creativity in their languages. Within Australia, radio provides an accessible means of creative expression, provides vital social connection for community members of all ages and generations, and supports social cohesion on a wider scale. This article explores how community language radio in Australia can play a critical role in supporting the wellbeing of both individuals and communities by providing an accessible and adaptable outlet for creative expression. This case study examines the practices of presenters from Australia’s largest community language radio station, 3ZZZ, which reports broadcasting in around 70 languages weekly. A sample of 16 presenters from the station completed an online, mixed-methods survey. The results afford discussion of the format and composition of community language programs as a form of cultural and language maintenance, the perceived role of creativity in program design and delivery, the perceived impact of the programs for the community, and the perceived role of the program for individual and community wellbeing. The findings are considered with respect to pertinent theoretical frameworks, exploring the implications concerning creativity, community, and wellbeing. The multifaceted results we present highlight how creative community language radio participation is able to contribute positively to wellbeing in the Australian migrant context.
-
ItemRemembering Language Studies in Australian Universities: An Italian Case Study(Springer Nature, 2020-11-01)Language studies in Australian universities have a long and complex history—that differs according to such things as language, institution, national imperative, etc… One essential but often overlooked part of the discipline of languages and cultures in our universities is recording and understanding precisely that history. Recording how and why specific language programs were established, for instance, is important for establishing a permanent record of historical continuity and for understanding the past and the present of language programs in the Australian tertiary sector, as well as their possible interconnections and differences. In this chapter we describe a pilot study exploring the beginnings of Italian language teaching and programs in tertiary institutions in Melbourne—and especially their somewhat inorganic expansion across the city from the late 1950s, into the 1980s and beyond. We are specifically interested in trying to understand how and why Italian language (and Italian Studies more generally) came to be taught in different universities in that city. While we present some of our early findings, including: (a) the effect of institutional type; and (b) the useful assistance of colleagues in other languages, at the same time we also have an interest in mapping out and reflecting on the methodology adopted and the challenges faced. It is hoped that our pilot study might in this way assist and encourage colleagues at other institutions to record the history of language studies in their individual institutions or cities, but who might wonder how to approach the issue in terms of possible data collection and analysis.
-
ItemEastern Andalusian Spanish(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2020)Eastern Andalusian Spanish (henceforth EAS), is spoken in the east of Andalusia, the southernmost autonomous region of Spain. EAS is most similar to Western Andalusian Spanish (WAS) and to Murcian Spanish, the latter spoken in the autonomous region of Murcia, immediately to the east of Andalusia, and it shares some phonetic traits with EAS, such as vowel lowering. Geographically, Eastern Andalusia includes the provinces of Almería, Granada, Jaén and Málaga, although the precise linguistic delimitation of this area is somewhat more complicated (Figure 1). The main criterion to differentiate EAS from WAS is the lowering or opening of vowels preceding underlying /s/ (Villena Ponsoda 2000). More detailed information on the differences between EAS and WAS can be found in Jiménez Fernández (1999), Villena Ponsoda (2000), Moya Corral (2010) and Valeš (2014). According to Alvar, Llorente & Salvador (1973: map 1696), Cádiz and Huelva in the west are the only Andalusian provinces where vowel lowering before underlying /s/ is not found. As the geographical extent of this phenomenon is widely debated, it is difficult to calculate the precise number of speakers of EAS, but we can assert that this geolect is the native variety of Spanish of approximately 2,800,000 speakers if we take into account the figures from the last census of Andalusia in 2011 (Instituto de Estadística y Cartografía de Andalucía 2011).
-
ItemDouble agent, double cross? Or how a suffix changes nature in an isolating language: dór in Tetun Dili(Benjamins - John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2020-12-15)This volume should be of interest not only to Austronesianists and historians of Insular Southeast Asia, but also to grammarians, typologists, historical linguists, creolists, and specialists in language contact.
-
ItemPerception of consonant length in familiar and unfamiliar languages by native speakers of Mandarin, Italian and Japanese(ISCA, 2020)This study builds on our previous research and provides additional analyses to determine if there is a relationship between the ability to process consonant length in familiar and unfamiliar languages for learners of Japanese whose native language is Italian or Mandarin. The emphasis is on L2-L3 (second-third language) phonetic influence. Japanese and Italian use consonant length contrastively, but not Mandarin. We thus asked if Mandarin learners with higher proficiency in Japanese are more or less accurate in length identification than Italian learners with first language (L1) experience of consonant length. Specifically, we focused on finding out if learners who accurately identify Japanese consonant length might also be accurate in their identification of the length category in Italian. Four groups of listeners differing in their L1 (Italian x 2 groups, Japanese, Mandarin) and experience with consonant length participated in forced-choice identification experiments. L1 Japanese and L1 Italian listeners identified the length category more accurately in their L1 than in the foreign language (FL). The ability to identify consonant length in Japanese and Italian by 18 advanced Mandarin-speaking learners of Japanese seemed unrelated. This suggests that speech processing skills acquired in one FL may not automatically transfer to another FL.
-
ItemSocial deixis at international conferences: Austrian German speakers’ introduction and address behaviour in German and English(Elsevier BV, 2020-11)Based on a qualitative and quantitative survey of introduction and address and naming behaviour of Austrian academics at international conferences in linguistics and language studies, we compare reported strategies in Austrian German and in English as a lingua franca (ELF). The scenarios asked about are self-introduction, introduction of others and when being introduced by others. Overall, the qualitative data demonstrate that Austrian academics are well aware of the social and linguistic complexities of introductions at international conferences as well as of cross-cultural differences in introduction and address conventions in academia. Quantitative results show important differences across scenarios and between the two languages of communication. Elements of the cohort's L1 introduction behaviour, such as high frequency of title use when introducing others, confirm previous studies. To determine if there are any transfer effects from their L1, the ELF introduction behaviour of the Austrian German L1 speakers is also compared to the L1 behaviour of speakers of US English. The frequency of reported first name use in ELF introductions by our Austrian respondents is similar to that reported by their American counterparts. However, title use by Austrians in ELF scenarios is consistently higher than among US English L1 speakers, indicating pragmatic transfer.
-
ItemProbability of Heritage Language Use at a Supportive Early Childhood Setting in Australia(FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2020-07-16)Despite well-established research that documents the intellectual, linguistic, sociocultural and familiar benefits of early childhood bilingualism, Australia's provision of heritage language (HL) support in early childhood (EC) settings is fairly minimal, resulting in little to no access to the HL outside of the home. We report on language data from a long day care preschool that has an open bilingual policy, where two languages (HL and English) are used in naturalistic interactions between children and educators. While the quantity of language input and output is known to impact on language proficiency, there are no prior studies which focus on establishing the quantitative nature of naturalistic language production in a bilingual preschool. Our goal was to document the relative language input and output of HL and English and to examine whether there are differences across age groups in the EC setting, and during different activity types. We followed a quantitative approach in data analysis, with child and educator observations over a period of 8 weeks and an analysis of targeted videos amounting to close to an hour of recordings per child. We used Bayesian modeling to test the probability of HL use in the different age groups and per activity type. Overall, HL input was higher for toddlers than preschoolers and toddlers received more HL input than English, while preschoolers received comparable input in both languages. The higher probability of HL input in toddlers was particularly evident during story time and playing activities. Our results indicate a high level of HL use in this EC setting, suggesting success in HL maintenance and promotion of early bilingualism. Further research should explore the children's relative language output in relation to their input, individual differences, as well as extending the current methodology to other similar settings in Australia.
-
ItemThe East Timorese in Australia: multilingual repertoires, language attitudes, practices and identity in the diaspora(Taylor & Francis, 2020)This article explores language repertoires, attitudes, and practices amongst members of the East Timorese diaspora in Australia. It relies on quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a recent sociolinguistic survey, ethnographic observation, as well as on general observations of online language use. Our study reveals a complex multilingualism that reflects in the first instance specific sociolinguistic conditions and changing language policies in East Timor, leading to a reshaping of language repertoires over generations in that country. Participants, mostly raised in East Timor, are more multilingual than their parents, but their children raised in Australia show signs of shift to English, as well as evidence of reduced multilingualism. An increasing emphasis on English is coupled with a rise in the importance assigned, more generally, to Tetum amongst most East Timorese at the expense of Portuguese and other languages. Tetum is most strongly linked to East Timorese identity whilst Portuguese and other languages show signs of restricted use and status, if not decline, in the Australian context. At the same time, the Hakka Chinese sub-group of East Timorese maintain in Australia, as in East Timor, a different linguistic patterning coupled with a strong sense of their own ethnic and linguistic identity.