New Languages of the State

New Languages of the State
Author: Bret Gustafson
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2009-07-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0822391171

During the mid-1990s, a bilingual intercultural education initiative was launched to promote the introduction of indigenous languages alongside Spanish in public elementary schools in Bolivia’s indigenous regions. Bret Gustafson spent fourteen years studying and working in southeastern Bolivia with the Guarani, who were at the vanguard of the movement for bilingual education. Drawing on his collaborative work with indigenous organizations and bilingual-education activists as well as more traditional ethnographic research, Gustafson traces two decades of indigenous resurgence and education politics in Bolivia, from the 1980s through the election of Evo Morales in 2005. Bilingual education was a component of education reform linked to foreign-aid development mandates, and foreign aid workers figure in New Languages of the State, as do teachers and their unions, transnational intellectual networks, and assertive indigenous political and intellectual movements across the Andes. Gustafson shows that bilingual education is an issue that extends far beyond the classroom. Public schools are at the center of a broader battle over territory, power, and knowledge as indigenous movements across Latin America actively defend their languages and knowledge systems. In attempting to decolonize nation-states, the indigenous movements are challenging deep-rooted colonial racism and neoliberal reforms intended to mold public education to serve the market. Meanwhile, market reformers nominally embrace cultural pluralism while implementing political and economic policies that exacerbate inequality. Juxtaposing Guarani life, language, and activism with intimate portraits of reform politics among academics, bureaucrats, and others in and beyond La Paz, Gustafson illuminates the issues, strategic dilemmas, and imperfect alliances behind bilingual intercultural education.

New Languages of the State

New Languages of the State
Author: Bret Gustafson
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2009-07-10
Genre: Education
ISBN:

DIVAnalyzes bilingual intercultural education in Bolivia to show how indigenous-backed proposals to reform the all-Spanish education system to include indigenous languages and knowledges challenged neoliberal models of education and became part of the transf/div

Literacy Across Languages and Cultures

Literacy Across Languages and Cultures
Author: Bernardo M. Ferdman
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1994-03-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780791418161

This book examines the linkage between literacy and linguistic diversity, embedding them in their social and cultural contexts. It illustrates that a more complete understanding of literacy among diverse populations and in multicultural societies requires attention to issues of literacy per se as well as to improving an educational process that has relevance beyond members of majority cultures and linguistic groups. The focus of the book is on the social and cultural contexts in which literacy develops and is enacted, with an emphasis on the North American situation. Educators and researchers are discovering that cognitive approaches, while very valuable, are insufficient by themselves to answer important questions about literacy in heterogeneous societies. By considering the implications of family, school, culture, society, and nation for literary processes, the book answers the following questions. In a multi-ethnic context, what does it mean to be literate? What are the processes involved in becoming and being literate in a second language? In what ways is literacy in a second language similar and in what ways is it different from mother-tongue literacy? What factors must be understood to better describe and facilitate literacy acquisition among members of ethnic and linguistic minorities? What are some current approaches that are being used to accomplish this? These are vital questions for researchers and educators in a world that has a large number of immigrants, a variety of multi-ethnic and multi-lingual societies, and an increasing degree of multinational activity. Beyond addressing applied concerns, attending to these questions can provide new insights into basic aspects of literacy.

Speaking Two Languages

Speaking Two Languages
Author: Allen J. Frantzen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 1991-02-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1438403240

This book is designed for the medievalist interested in contemporary criticism but cautious about its limits. The volume's essays are not designed to offer rereadings of familiar texts, but to address the problems of articulating tradition and contemporary theory. Each contributor interprets critical methods as consciously chosen and spoken "languages," and explores the consequences of combining a traditional and a contemporary method, and hence, speaking two languages. Each essay includes a critical bibliographical note pointing to further reading in the languages it employs.

Language in Louisiana

Language in Louisiana
Author: Nathalie Dajko
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1496823885

Contributions by Lisa Abney, Patricia Anderson, Albert Camp, Katie Carmichael, Christina Schoux Casey, Nathalie Dajko, Jeffery U. Darensbourg, Dorian Dorado, Connie Eble, Daniel W. Hieber, David Kaufman, Geoffrey Kimball, Thomas A. Klingler, Bertney Langley, Linda Langley, Shane Lief, Tamara Lindner, Judith M. Maxwell, Rafael Orozco, Allison Truitt, Shana Walton, and Robin White Louisiana is often presented as a bastion of French culture and language in an otherwise English environment. The continued presence of French in south Louisiana and the struggle against the language's demise have given the state an aura of exoticism and at the same time have strained serious focus on that language. Historically, however, the state has always boasted a multicultural, polyglot population. From the scores of indigenous languages used at the time of European contact to the importation of African and European languages during the colonial period to the modern invasion of English and the arrival of new immigrant populations, Louisiana has had and continues to enjoy a rich linguistic palate. Language in Louisiana: Community and Culture brings together for the first time work by scholars and community activists, all experts on the cutting edge of research. In sixteen chapters, the authors present the state of languages and of linguistic research on topics such as indigenous language documentation and revival; variation in, attitudes toward, and educational opportunities in Louisiana’s French varieties; current research on rural and urban dialects of English, both in south Louisiana and in the long-neglected northern parishes; and the struggles more recent immigrants face to use their heritage languages and deal with language-based regulations in public venues. This volume will be of value to both scholars and general readers interested in a comprehensive view of Louisiana’s linguistic landscape.

Native Languages of the Southeastern United States

Native Languages of the Southeastern United States
Author: Janine Scancarelli
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 584
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780803242357

"Contributing linguists draw on their latest fieldwork and research, starting with a background chapter on the history of research on the Native languages of the Southeast. Eight chapters each provide an overview and grammatical sketch of a language, basing discussion on a narrative text presented at the beginning of the chapter. Special emphasis is given to both the fundamental grammatical characteristics of the language - its phonology, morphology, syntax, and various discourse features - and those sociolinguistic and cultural factors that affect its structure and use. Two additional chapters explore the various Muskogean languages (Creek, Alabama, Choctaw, Chickasaw), the only language family confined entirely to the Southeast.".

The State of Minority Languages

The State of Minority Languages
Author: W. Fase
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2013-12-19
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1134379498

Many regional languages across the world are threatened by modernization and urbanization whilst the universal and rapid rise of migration has created new and unprecedented forms of multilingualism. Aspects of education, national policies and attitudes towards minority languages are documented.

Language Policy and Language Planning

Language Policy and Language Planning
Author: Sue Wright
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1137576472

This revised second edition is a comprehensive overview of why we speak the languages that we do. It covers language learning imposed by political and economic agendas as well as language choices entered into willingly for reasons of social mobility, economic advantage and group identity.