This article investigates language educators’ regard for linguistic variation in a minority language context. It argues that teachers function as language norm authorities who may influence the ...linguistic practices and ideologies of students, and that this role takes on added significance in minority language contexts where access to the target language may be limited. Data are presented from a study on the linguistic ideologies of Irish language educators – ‘new speakers’ who acquired the language mainly thorough the education system. Participants’ ideologies on variation in modern spoken Irish were explored using semi‐structured interviews incorporating a speaker evaluation design. Although participants valorise traditional dialectal varieties of Irish, in line with established hierarchies, ideological frameworks are contested so that new ways of using Irish are beginning to gain overt acceptance. The results reveal the manner in which hierarchies of language variation in the Irish language are in flux in our contemporary late‐modern period.
Dírítear san alt seo ar aird oideachasóirí teanga ar an éagsúlacht teangeolaíochta i gcomhthéacs mionteanga. Maítear gur údaráis ar noirm teanga iad múinteoirí a mbíonn tionchar acu ar chleachtais agus ar idé‐eolaíochtaí foghlaimeoirí. Áitítear go mbaineann tábhacht faoi leith le ról múinteoirí i gcomhthéacsanna mionteangacha, ceal deiseanna cumarsáide sa mhionteanga. Cuirtear sonraí i láthair ó thaighde ar idé‐eolaíochtaí teanga múinteoirí Gaeilge, nuachainteoirí a shealbhaigh an teanga tríd an gcóras oideachais. Cíoradh idé‐eolaíochtaí na n‐oideachasóirí ar éagsúlacht teanga na Gaeilge labhartha in agallaimh leathstruchtúrtha a raibh measúnú cainteoirí san áireamh iontu. Bíodh is go molann rannpháirtithe canúintí traidisiúnta na Gaeilge, faoi mar a dhéantar san idé‐eolaíocht sheanbhunaithe, ceistítear an múnla sin chomh maith céanna agus chítear go bhfuil aitheantas á fháil de réir a chéile ag saghsanna Gaeilge úra. Tugann na torthaí léargas ar idé‐eolaíochtaí na rannpháirtithe agus léiríonn siad guagacht ordlathais ar éagsúlacht teanga na Gaeilge sa nua‐aoiseacht dhéanach. Irish
Aims and objectives:
This article reports the ideologies on linguistic variation among a cohort of new speaker teachers (NSTs) of Irish. It investigates responses to the three main traditional ...dialects of Irish and a post-traditional variety common among new speakers.
Design and methodology:
An experimental design was employed. Participants responded to 15-second samples of four speakers, first on adjective items referring to speakers’ characteristics (speaker phase) and second on statements referring specifically to the type of Irish in the samples (speech phase). Background information was also gathered, for example, school type, place of origin, and type of Irish spoken.
Data and analysis:
We present the responses of a subset of 88 NSTs of Irish, focusing specifically on participants’ responses in the speech phase where they evaluated the type of Irish in the samples. Data were analysed to determine whether there were significant differences in the ratings of samples within different respondent subgroups.
Findings and conclusions:
Some significant differences were found among subgroups. Teachers working in Irish-medium schools align more closely with established native speaker language ideologies than those in English-medium institutions. Participants did not distinguish significantly between their local Gaeltacht variety and other Gaeltacht areas, but did rate all three Gaeltacht samples more positively than the new speaker variety. Finally, participants who self-identify as speakers of ‘standard’ Irish and those who describe themselves as practising a Gaeltacht variety rated the Gaeltacht samples more positively.
Originality:
While experimental investigations of linguistic ideologies are central to sociolinguistics, this article is original in its focus on the ideologies of NSTs of Irish.
Significance and implications:
This research illustrates the robustness of established ideologies in the responses of some participants but shows that others challenge these ideologies. Results speak to the complexities and contradictions of identity and speakerness among NSTs of a minority language.
Violence is essential to religion, while religion holds the promise of transcending violence. The designation religious refers not to a type of violence, but to a specific issue of violence, namely ...the claim to higher (theodical) justification. This religious aspect is not confined to religion; it is also evident in the secular domain. A critique of religious violence needs to show the gap between violence and its justifications, experienced affectively in horror. This horror in response to the unspeakable is structurally akin to mystical experience, the temporal structure of which indicates the failure of the theodical justification for violence.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have the potential to produce the particle energies (up to 10{sup 21} eV) and energy budget (10{sup 44} erg yr{sup -1} Mpc{sup -3}) to accommodate the spectrum of the highest ...energy cosmic rays; on the other hand, there is no observational evidence that they accelerate hadrons. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope recently observed two bursts that exhibit a power-law high-energy extension of a typical (Band) photon spectrum that extends to {approx}30 GeV. On the basis of fireball phenomenology we argue that these two bursts, along with GRB941017 observed by EGRET in 1994, show indirect evidence for considerable baryon loading. Since the detection of neutrinos is the only unambiguous way to establish that GRBs accelerate protons, we use two methods to estimate the neutrino flux produced when they interact with fireball photons to produce charged pions and neutrinos. While the number of events expected from the two Fermi bursts discussed is small, should GRBs be the sources of the observed cosmic rays, a GRB941017-like event that has a hadronic power-law tail extending to several tens of GeV will be detected by the IceCube neutrino telescope.
Ideologies on linguistic variation among teachers of the Irish language are the focus of this article. Participants completed an experiment in which they responded to speech samples representing ...traditional dialectal varieties in the Irish‐speaking communities (the Gaeltacht) and a sample representing the Irish of new speakers outside the Gaeltacht (the post‐Gaeltacht). When participants directly rate the speech varieties, the traditional Gaeltacht samples are rated significantly more positively than the post‐Gaeltacht sample. However, the post‐Gaeltacht new speaker variety is on top for standardness. When participants rate the speakers’ characteristics, a more levelled, destandardised value system is also evident. The results are related to the official regimentation of Irish today, where authority is increasingly nebulous and negotiable. The results illustrate how teacher ideologies can develop in late modernity, whether in a minority context, in a context where authority is based on authenticity and a dialect ideology is established, or where language transmission occurs largely through education and substantial numbers of new speakers use the language.
Achoimre
Idé‐eolaíochtaí múinteoirí Gaeilge ar an éagsúlacht teanga is ábhar don alt seo. Ghlac rannpháirtithe páirt i dtástáil inar éist siad le míreanna fuaime le canúintí traidisiúnta Gaeltachta agus mír eile le nuachainteoir ón iar‐Ghaeltacht. Nuair a dhein na rannpháirtithe measúnú ar na canúintí féin, dheineadar measúnú níos dearfaí ar na canúintí tradisiúnta Gaeltachta i gcomparáid leis an urlabhra iar‐Ghaeltachta agus bhí an difríocht sin suntasach ó thaobh staitistice de. Ach, is í urlabhra an nuachainteora iar‐Ghaeltachta a bhí in uachtar ó thaobh chaighdeánacht na hurlabhra de agus, nuair a d'fhreagair na rannpháirtithe do thréithe pearsantachta na gcainteoirí, tá córas luachála leibhéalaithe le feiscint. Mínítear na torthaí i gcomhthéacs réimeas teanga na Gaeilge sa lá inniu agus i gcomhthéacs dhinimicí na Gaeilge mar mhionteanga i gcomhthéacs na nua‐aoiseachta déanaí agus an domhandaithe.
We discuss the radio emission from high-energy cosmic-ray induced air showers hitting Earth’s surface before the cascade has died out in the atmosphere. The induced emission gives rise to a radio ...signal which should be detectable in the currently operating Askaryan radio detectors built to search for the GZK neutrino flux in ice. The in-air emission, the in-ice emission, as well as a new component, the coherent transition radiation when the particle bunch crosses the air–ice boundary, are included in the calculations.
Accessible Summary
Learning a second language can provide people with more opportunities to be included in society. For example, they could have more opportunities for employment, social activities ...and travel.
However, people with intellectual disabilities are typically not given the opportunity to learn a second language because people think they do not have the ability to learn more than one language.
This study looked at the experiences of university students with intellectual disabilities who took part in an Irish Sign Language course.
The study used a focus group (a group interview) to speak to six university students with intellectual disabilities and found that students spoke about their experience with learning Irish Sign Language, the class design and the importance of learning Irish Sign Language.
This study showed that people with intellectual disabilities critically reflected on their experience of learning a second language. More research is needed to see if this finding is common amongst individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Background
Opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to become bi/multilingual tend not to be widely available despite demonstrated linguistic and extralinguistic advantages associated with an ability to use more than one language. This article focuses on the learning experiences of students with intellectual disabilities in learning Irish Sign Language (ISL) as part of a university course tailored for students with intellectual disabilities.
Methods
The sample consisted of six adults with intellectual disabilities who were enrolled in a full‐time university programme in Ireland. Students were required to take a 12‐week course entitled Language and Society, which included ISL lab sessions. A focus group was conducted asking questions that focused on the students’ experience of taking part in a formalided ISL class.
Findings
Three themes were generated in the analysis of the data: learning ISL, class design and implications of taking an ISL course. Findings showed that participants reflected critically on their learning experiences, their expectations of learning ISL, class content and social implications of learning ISL.
Conclusion
This study demonstrates the potential of people with intellectual disabilities to be able to critically engage in second language learning.
How does Christian philosophy address phenomena in the world? Felix Ó Murchadha believes that seeing, hearing, or otherwise sensing the world through faith requires transcendence or thinking through ...glory and night (being and meaning). By challenging much of Western metaphysics, Ó Murchadha shows how phenomenology opens new ideas about being, and how philosophers of "the theological turn" have addressed questions of creation, incarnation, resurrection, time, love, and faith. He explores the possibility of a phenomenology of Christian life and argues against any simple separation of philosophy and theology or reason and faith.
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