School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 26
-
ItemVideoconferencing and the networked provision of language programs in regional and rural schools(Cambridge Core, 2019-05-01)The use of videoconferencing technology to support the delivery of language programs shows great potential in regional and rural settings where a lack of access to specialist teachers limits equitable access to education. In this article, we investigate the establishment of two regional and rural primary school networks in Australia for videoconferenced language learning. Adopting a perspective taken from the discipline of information systems called structuration theory, we examine how the technology they use both changes and is changed by its use in language learning, and how schools and teachers take control of technology and adapt their educational approaches. Case studies were carried out on the two networks using multiple data sources, including interviews and observation of language classes. The findings reveal that even with the same conceptual foundations and aims, divergent models of practice emerge as sustainable adaptations to localised factors. These differences are shaped by, among other things, an interplay between the quality of infrastructure, prior knowledge, and the "material properties" of the technology, including its functions, limits, and deployment in physical space. A closer look at these practices illustrates limitations and possibilities specifically for language education, but also more broadly illustrates how the success of these videoconferencing initiatives are influenced by a nuanced combination of social, educational, and technological factors.
-
ItemDistance education for languages: the role of technology(Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association (AFMLTA), 2019)Although distance models for languages programs have shifted in recent years from a marginalised practice to being regarded as innovative (White, 2017), questions persist about what knowledge schools and teachers need to deliver them successfully. In this article we explore these questions through a study of using videoconferencing to provide access to specialist language teachers in primary schools in regional and remote areas in Australia. To frame the issues, we draw on the ‘technological pedagogical content knowledge’ (TPACK) framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2005; Mishra, 2018) which places emphasis on understanding the relationship between three areas of teachers' knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. Based on our case study findings, we argue that a deeper understanding is needed of the relationship between technological and pedagogical knowledge, and that the understanding of technology needs to encompass the role of infrastructure and infrastructural planning (Garrett, 2009) in order to best attend to the specific nature of language learning and teaching.
-
ItemLanguage programming in rural and regional Victoria: Making space for local viewpoints in policy development(John Benjamins Publishing, 2019-12-10)Despite decades of often ambitious policies in Australia, languages education is still characterized by intermittent commitment to the teaching of languages, with inequitable access particularly entrenched in rural and regional contexts. While research has focused on the practical and material constraints impacting on policy implementation, little research has investigated the role of the discursive terrain in shaping expectations and limitations around what seems achievable in schools, particularly, from the school principal perspective. Beginning with an overview of policy interventions and an analysis of contemporary challenges, we use Q methodology to identify and analyze viewpoints at work in similarly-positioned rural and regional schools. In doing so, we seek to determine what seems possible or impossible across settings; the role of principals in enabling and constraining pathways for the provision of school language programs, and the need for macro-level language policy to be informed by constraints specific to rural and regional contexts.
-
ItemLa inmigración italiana en Santa Fe: español e italiano en contacto. Motivaciones, metodologías y primeros resultados de un proyecto internacional(Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 2019-01-01)La inmigración italiana en Santa Fe y alrededores presenta un fenómeno de contacto e hibridación lingüística entre el español local y el italiano y los dialectos de los inmigrantes. Este campo de estudio hasta la fecha se presenta como una notable área de vacancia. El artículo constituye un avance sobre las motivaciones, metodologías y resultados de una primera etapa de trabajo en el marco de un proyecto internacional entre estudiosos de la Universidad del Litoral y la Universidad de Melbourne, Australia, tendiente a describir y analizar las características y las consecuencias del contacto. English Abstract Italian immigration in and around Santa Fe presents a phenomenon of contact and linguistic hybridization between the local Spanish and the Italian and the Italian dialects of immigrants —a field of study that to date remains open for study. This contribution outlines the motivations, methodologies and results of the first stage of work within the framework of an international project between scholars from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral and the University of Melbourne, Australia, aimed at describing and analyzing the characteristics and consequences of contact.
-
ItemRefocussing on community languages(Afmlta, 2019)
-
ItemMisperception of Italian singleton and geminate obstruents by native speakers of Japanese.(The Phonetic Society of Japan, 2019)Misperception of voiced and voiceless obstruent length in Italian by native Italian and native Japanese speakers was compared. Both Italian and Japanese use consonant length contrastively. This may lead to the expectation that there is a positive first language transfer for the native Japanese speakers. While the native Japanese listeners’ misperception of Italian length categories was limited, they still made significantly more errors than the native Italian listeners. The native Japanese listeners’ length misperception was more noticeable when the word-medial obstruent was short than when it was long and when it was voiced than when it was voiceless.
-
ItemLanguage contact and gender in Tetun Dili: What happens when Austronesian meets Romance?(University of Hawaii Press, 2019)Tetun Dili is an Austronesian language and one of the two official languages in Timor-Leste, alongside Portuguese with which it has been in contact for centuries. In this detailed study, we describe various aspects of gender in Tetun Dili, in both native and borrowed vocabulary. We identify marked differences between gender marking in native and borrowed Portuguese words, with Tetun prioritizing the feminine, and Portuguese the masculine. We show that through contact with Portuguese, Tetun Dili has also developed “marginal”gender, with grammatical gender agreement being optional but increasingly common for Portuguese loans, mainly in the acrolect. Grammatical agreement is also spreading to a handful of non-Portuguese words, to which there is evidence of incipient grammatical gender assignment. Some comparisons are made with developments in Chamorro and Tagalog, two Austronesian languages heavily influenced by Spanish (closely related to Portuguese), for which gender contact effects have previously been described in some detail. We conclude with a set of more general typological observations.
-
ItemRepresenting language education in Australian universities: An analysis of press reporting (2007-2016)(De Gruyter, 2019)Educational issues are a regular feature in mainstream media, and the ways in which particular issues are represented can influence public perceptions of the various discipline areas and, in turn, policy decisions that affect them. While the research literature includes media coverage analyses of a wide range of educational disciplines and sectors, missing is an understanding of the media representations of language education in the tertiary setting, despite languages being seen as a key pathway to generalised national multilingualism, social harmony, and economic prosperity. The authors address this gap using Australia as a case study, a country that has seen considerable policy and media attention to language education in general over many years. A content analysis of print newspaper coverage from 2007-2016 was conducted, revealing that the coverage of the discipline area at the tertiary level is extremely limited, is generally superficial in depth, narrow in scope, and negative in tone. This representation perpetuates the already precarious position of language education in Australian universities, and there is little support for a more positive and visible public agenda.
-
ItemLanguage contact and functional expansion in Tetun Dili: The evolution of a new press register(De Gruyter, 2018-02-14)Tetun Dili, an Austronesian language spoken in East Timor, was until 1999 primarily an oral language of intercultural communication. Since the 1999 vote on independence from Indonesia, Tetun Dili has become the dominant language of public life, including the government, education and the media, as well as becoming an official language alongside Portuguese, a former colonial language. The rapidly evolving press register of Tetun shows significant impact from language contact. Portuguese influence is seen primarily in extensive lexical borrowing, brought in by the Portuguese-educated elite as well as by translators and writers. Indonesian influence is seen in several calques for expressing anaphora, brought in by Indonesian-educated writers, and an adversative passive. Other new constructions, including a more general passive and final quote margins, have come about through the combined influence of Portuguese, Indonesian and English, the last as a source language for much literal translation into Tetun. Some discourse features of press Tetun, such as high information density and events being told out of chronological order, are the results of international journalistic style. While a rapid evolution of new written registers is not uncommon, the East Timor situation is unique in its combination of contact languages, and the significant number of grammatical innovations.
-
ItemMixing numeral systems in Timor-Leste(Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2018)Speakers of Tetun Dili, in Timor-Leste, commonly use three sets of numerals, namely native Tetun as well as numerals from the languages of the two former colonial powers, Portuguese and Indonesian. Tetun numerals can modify nouns from any language, within native Tetun constructions. In contrast, borrowed numerals modify only nouns from the same source language, using source language order. Functional and sociolinguistic differences were sought based on an extensive corpus of texts as well as two surveys of numeral use. The choice of numeral language is complex. Contributing factors include the language of the head noun for attributive adjectives, the size of the number, the topic, and sociolinguistic factors such as formality, lectal type, and language of education of the speaker and of the preceding generation. Tetun numerals are primarily used for small numbers within traditional contexts, while Indonesian and Portuguese vie for position for larger numbers and modern contexts.