Two seminars in Langauge Teaching and Learning:
10.15–11.15
Behavioural Sciences Building BET.F.202
Haley de Korne Oslo universitet, Center for Multilingualism in Society across the life span
While top-down policies and declarations have yet to establish equal status and opportunities for speakers of all languages in practice, activists and advocates at local levels are playing an increasingly significant role in the creation of new social imaginaries and practices in multilingual contexts. This presentation examines how social actors across multiple domains contribute to the elusive goal of linguistic equality or justice through their language activism practices in a multilingual context. Through an ethnographic account of Indigenous Isthmus Zapotec language activism in Oaxaca, Mexico, this presentation illuminates the (sometimes conflicting) imaginaries of what positive social change is and how it should be achieved, and the repertoire of strategies through which these imaginaries are being pursued. Ethnographic and action research in the multilingual Isthmus of Tehuantepec brings to light the experiences of teachers, students, writers, scholars and diverse cultural activists whose aspirations and strategies of social change are significant in shaping the future language ecology. Their repertoire of strategies may inform and encourage language activists, scholars, and educators working for change in other contexts of linguistic diversity and inequality.
13.15–15.15
NAT.D.200
his dissertation in language teaching and learning focusses on the Indigenous South Saami language, in particular on spaces for language use in educational contexts. Learning of South Saami can take place in various places, by various people and in various settings. Teachers and students and schools and preschools are examples that quickly come to our mind. However, the learning of this indigenous language, which is in a minoritized position, is a challenge that any child with a Saami heritage from this area is faced with, regardless of where he or she grows up.
In this dissertation, the construction of spaces in which learning of South Saami is made possible are explored. Four separate studies are presented as part of the dissertation. The different studies shed light on various aspects of these spaces, how they are constructed, how they are used, by whom and for what purposes. Furthermore, the studies investigate the opportunities for and obstacles against further development of spaces in which the language is spoken and used; in effect I explore conditions around language teaching and learning of South Saami. Much of the focus is on how Saami individuals act in a way that centres their agency i.e. how individuals seek to take responsibility for and challenge the current educational situation. Finally, I am concerned with the spaces’ role in language teaching and learning. The spaces looked upon in the light of the theoretical concept Indigenous Efflorescence and are thus explained as unexpected and serendipitous; part of a global trend in the Indigenous moment. A trend in which these spaces for Saami language use emerge as somewhat of a surprise to the many. However, to the agents involved in the process: teachers, co-ordinators, school officials, parents, activists and other stakeholders, this comes not as a surprise but as a relief; hope is reawakened where there conscious hard and persistent labour bear fruit.
