LANGUAGE AND CULTURE REVITALIZATION

KIND 240

 

SUZANNE ROMAINE

Office Hours:  EKH 269   Mon & Wed 2-3, or by appointment

Telephone: 974-7479 

e-mail: romaine@hawaii.edu

 

Brief description of class content and objectives:

Language and culture revitalization activities have been going on with varying degrees of success or failure in different locations around the world for a number of years as a response to the threat of the impending loss of many languages and cultures. This class will examine the social and historical circumstances in which language and culture loss occurs and the kinds of support needed to reverse it.

 

Course Requirements:

Required Reading:

Nettle, D. & Romaine, S. 2000. Vanishing Voices. The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford University Press. [plus articles on reserve in the library]

 

Attendance and participation in class, four quizzes, two homework assignments, and one project involving an oral report in class and a written paper of 10 pages. The dates for these are given in the outline below. You will receive further written and oral instructions in class about the project, which will be a case study of language and culture revitalization. Each quiz counts 10 points (for a total of 40), each homework assignment counts 10 points (for a total of 20), the project counts 40 points (20 points for the oral presentation and 20 for the written). 

 

Policy Matters

I expect students to attend each class. Because the class meets only once a week, you will miss a lot if you are absent. Every absence will be reflected in your understanding of the material, and thus in your grade. Missing more than one or two classes may lower your grade by one letter. If you have to miss a class for circumstances beyond your control (e.g. illness or emergency), you need to speak to me (preferably beforehand). You will need to get class notes from another student, but you can get any handouts, etc. for that class from me. If at any time there are things you don't understand, please ask me, either in class, or after class, during office hours, make an appointment to see me at some other time, or e-mail (romaine@ hawaii.edu). I am always happy to explain things and help if I can.

   No makeup quizzes are allowed. Please make sure you are there. Handing in late assignments is not allowed. Please speak to me beforehand if you are having difficulty with an assignment. Any student with a documented disability who would like to request accommodations should contact the University Disability Services Office at 933-0816(V), 933-3334(TTY), Campus Center Room 311, as early in the semester as possible.

 

Website: The class has a website which contains links to some internet sites and other important resources. The syllabus is also posted there, a mailbox where you can send messages to me and other class members, as well as a bulletin board where we can all post things of interest that come up as the class progresses.  Instructions for registration are attached to this syllabus.

 

    COURSE OUTLINE

 

27 August: Introduction and overview of issues

Reading: Nettle & Romaine, Chapter 1

-First homework assignment given out

 

3   September: Labor Day

Reading: Nettle & Romaine, Chapter 2

 

10   September: Language, culture, and biodiversity

Reading: Nettle & Romaine, Chapter 4

-First homework assignment due

-Form working groups for project

 

17   September: Some causes and consequences of language shift

Reading: Nettle & Romaine, Chapters 5 & 6

-Quiz 1

 

24   September: Theoretical Foundations of RLS (Reversing Language Shift)

Reading: Fishman, Joshua 1991. Reversing Language Shift, Chapter 4: "How threatened is 'threatened'? A typology of disadvantaged languages and ameliorative priorities". [on reserve]

 

1 October: Language, Culture and Identity: Ideological Clarification

Reading: Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Dauenhauer, Richard 1998. "Technical, emotional, and ideological issues in reversing language shift:examples from southeast Alaska". In Grenoble, Lenore and Whaley, Lindsay J. eds. Endangered Languages. Chapter 3, pp. 57-99. [on reserve]

 

8 October: Hawaiian Language Revitalization

Reading: Wilson, William and Kamana, Kauanoe 2001. "Mai loko mai o ka 'i'ini:Proceeding from a dream". In Hale, Kenneth and Hinton, Leanne eds. The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. pp. [on reserve].

 

15 October: Linguistic Aspects of RLS

Reading: Fishman, Joshua 1991. Reversing Language Shift, Chapter 11: "On RLS-Focused Language Planning and on Dialect-Standard issues and Corpus Planning in Particular". [on reserve]

-Hand in map showing the geographical location of the language/people you are studying

-Quiz 2

 

22 October: Teaching and Learning Endangered Languages

Reading: Hinton, Leanne 2001. "The Master-Apprentice language learning program." In Hale, Kenneth and Hinton, Leanne eds. The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. [on reserve].

Marainen, Johannes 1988. "Returning to Sami identity". In Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and Cummins, Jim eds. Minority Education. From Shame to Struggle. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. pp. 179-189.

Batchelder, Ann 2000. "Teaching Diné language and culture in Navajo schools:Voices from the Community". In Reyhner, Jon et al. Learning in Beauty. Indigenous Education for a New Century. Ch. 1. pp. 1-8. [on reserve]

 

29 October: Endangered languages and indigenous knowledge

Reading: Nettle & Romaine, Chapters 3 & 7

 

5 November: Language Policy and Planning:Language, Culture, Education and Human Rights

Reading: Lucas, Paul F. Nahoa 2000. "E ola mau kakou i ka 'olelo makuahine: Hawaiian language policy and the courts". Hawaiian Journal of History 34:1-28. [on reserve]

Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove 2001. "Linguistic human rights in education for language maintenance". In Maffi, Luisa ed. 2000. On Biocultural Diversity. Linking Language.Knowledge, and the Environment. pp. 397-412. [on reserve]

-Second homework assignment given out

-Hand in list of references consulted or intending to be used in project

-Quiz 3

 

12 November: Veterans Day

Reading:Drapeau, Lynn and Corbeil, Jean-Claude 1996. "The aboriginal languages in the perspective of language planning". In Maurais, Jacques ed. Quebec's Aboriginal Languages. History, Planning and Development. [on reserve]

 

19 November: Language and culture revitalization and the media

Reading: Cotter, Colleen 2001. "Continuity and vitality: Expanding domains through Irish-language radio." In Hale, Kenneth and Hinton, Leanne eds. The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. [on reserve].

Peterson, Leighton C. "Tuning in to Navajo:The role of radio in native language maintenance". In Reyhner, Jon ed. 1997. Teaching Indigenous Languages. [on reserve]

-Second homework assignment due

 

26 November: Case Studies

Reading: Nettle and Romaine, Chapter 8

 

3 December: Case Studies

Reading: Spolsky, Bernard 1996. "Conditions for language revitalization: A Comparison of the case of Hebrew and Maori." In Wright, Sue ed. Language and the State. Revitalization and Revival in Israel and Eire. pp. 5-50.

 

10 December: Case Studies

Reading: Lo Bianco, Joseph and Rhydwen, Mari 2000. "Is the extinction of Australia's indigenous languages inevitable?" Fishman, Joshua A. ed. 2000. Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Reversing language shift, revisited:A 21st Century Perspective.

-Quiz 4