This essay honors the work of Joel Sherzer by using his discourse‐centered approach to language and culture as a way to investigate the place of speech play and verbal art in concerns with ...interpretative frameworks. An ethnographic and linguistic analysis of a brief poem by Navajo poet Rex Lee Jim is then presented as an example of such an approach. Sherzer's concern with ambiguity is highlighted as a way to contrast a discourse‐centered approach with Perspectivism.
This contribution considers the role of language as a prohibited ground of unfair discrimination in the workplace in South Africa, an area of law that has been somewhat neglected in the literature to ...date. It starts by setting out the constitutional and legislative framework for the protection of language rights and the prohibition of unfair discrimination based on language as a listed ground. It then, with brief comparative reference to other prominent jurisdictions, explains the potential ways in which an employer may unfairly discriminate against employees based on language, following which it considers the potential grounds for justification of language-based discrimination in the workplace. After consideration of the sparse case law on the topic in South Africa, it highlights a few specific issues regarding language and workplace discrimination, before concluding with some thoughts on potential future developments.
The treatment of cultural words in bilingual dictionaries has always been an aporia for lexicographers who differ greatly in their opinions and practices on methods and strategies used on cultural ...words. The present study, taking Chinese cultural speciality 粽子 (
) as an example, examined the treatment of this word in Chinese foreign dictionaries. Problems were found through both investigation on dictionaries and comparison with the data presented in a Chinese corpus: 1. inconsistent presentation; 2. insufficiently presented information; 3. difference in translation strategies. This paper gives suggestions to solve these problems by fully presenting cultural information and stressing the accuracy, sufficiency and the identity of 粽子 in Chinese foreign dictionaries in order to meet the consulting needs of foreign users of this cultural word.
The article focuses on language policy in Zimbabwe and argues that both the colonial and post-colonial governments advocated a unitary language policy in which English and the two major indigenous ...languages - ChiShona and IsiNdebele - were adopted as national languages. For the post-colonial government, this language policy was influenced by prevailing ideas about linguistic unity as a prerequisite for economic development and the construction of a cohesive national identity. This approach led to the marginalisation of minor languages and their associated cultures in education and the wider public sphere. The article shows how one marginalised linguistic community, the Kalanga of south-western Zimbabwe, responded to the government's exclusionary policies. It traces the resistance to such government policies and the promotion of the TjiKalanga language and culture by two organisations - the Kalanga Cultural Promotion Society, relaunched in 1980, and the Kalanga and Language and Cultural Development Association, founded in 2005. It also engages with the various activities and interventions carried out by the two groups, leading to the introduction of TjiKalanga in schools, among other achievements. Furthermore, the article argues that the rise and development of the two TjiKalanga language and cultural promotion organisations illustrate the pitfalls of centralising and unifying tendencies in both the colonial and post-colonial governments in Zimbabwe. It also demonstrates the agency and resistance of minority groups in relation to these flawed policies. By assessing the performance of the two organisations, the article views their activities as a form of cultural resistance to the hegemonic and exclusionist policies of post-independence Zimbabwean government. Cultural resistance is used as a conceptual approach through which the limits of the impact of hegemonic monolithic language policies on minority groups, such as the Kalanga in the post-colonial Zimbabwean context, are illustrated and illuminated.
English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction faces many challenges in Asia because of many cultural and environmental factors, such as the lack of interactive speaking environments, emphasis ...placed on test scores, and foreign language anxiety. The purpose of this research is to conduct an EFL instructional course by integrating Facebook (asynchronous online discussion) and Skype (synchronous online discussion) as platforms through which students perform role-playing based learning activities and to observe the effects of the course on the challenges mentioned above. The study consists of 42 participants who are enrolled in an English conversation course in a business college in Taiwan. This study conducted a learning performance analysis, correlation analysis, and qualitative content analysis of the learning process. The results indicate that the learners improved their speaking and writing skills through the learning tools and role-playing activities. The content analysis also demonstrated that learners could improve their speaking and writing skills via peer-to-peer and self-correction behaviors. We also provide several recommendations for EFL educators and researchers.
This study examined the effects of participation in a community service‐learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative ...and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service‐learning activities as part of the Spanish heritage language program afforded students transformative experiences that enhanced the work done within the classroom walls.
The article first presents the theory of "linguistic imaginary" and its model characterized by norms which are both "subjective norms" (communicative, fictive, and prescriptive ones) and "objective ...norms" (systemic and statistic ones). The objective is to describe a linguistic dynamics. The extension of the linguistic imaginary model since 30 years to other social objects has revealed the notion of "cultural imaginary" here studied by diverse examples (feminization, translation, etc.).
It may seem something of a paradox that in a globalised age where notions of interdependence, interconnectedness and common destinies abound, the 'local', with its diversity of cultures, languages, ...histories and geographies, continues to exercise a powerful grip on the human imagination. The ties that bind us have global connections but are anchored in a strong sense of locality. This paper explores the theoretical foundations of place-based education (PBE) and considers the merits and limitations of current approaches with particular reference to Australian studies. The authors argue that there is a place for PBE in schools but contend that it must be informed by a far more critical reading of the notions of 'place', 'identity' and 'community'. The implications of pursuing a critical pedagogy of place-based education are discussed with reference to curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education.
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