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Vorwort
(2021)
This chapter starts out by giving a brief overview of the main priorities of international and German studies in the area of linguistic landscape research. The contributions to this volume are then embedded in current debates and developments in the field. Finally, we outline important desiderata of linguistic landscape research that focus on German and address challenges of knowledge transfer and application as well as possible contributions to international lines of research.
When we first started the project of looking at minority languages through a linguistic landscape lens, we felt that the visibility of minority languages in public space had been insufficiently dealt with in traditional minority language research. A linguistic landscape approach, as it had developed over the last years, would constitute a valuable path to explore, by looking at the ‘same old issues’ of language contact and language conflict from a specific angle. We were convinced that fresh linguistic landscape data would be able to provide innovative and useful insights into ‘patterns of language […] use, official language policies, prevalent language attitudes, [and] power relations between different linguistic groups’ (Backhaus 2007, p. 11). The linguistic landscape approach, as presented by the different authors in this volume, has clearly proven to be a heuristic appropriate and relevant for a wide range of minority language situations. More specifically, the ideas and analyses in the different chapters do contribute to a further understanding of minority languages and their speakers. They deepen our comprehension of language policies, power relations and ideologies in minority language settings.
Resistance and adaptation to newspeakerness in educational institutions: two tales from Estonia
(2019)
The term ‘new speaker’ has recently emerged as an attempt by sociolinguists not only to understand the diferent types of speaker profles that can be found in contemporary societies, but also to grasp the underlying processes of becoming a legitimate speaker in a given society. In this article, we combine the results from two studies situated in two educational institutions in Estonia in order to fnd out about speakers’ language attitudes and experiences in connection to learning and using Estonian. We concentrate on members of the international community who have relatively recently arrived to the country. Our results indicate that these speakers fuctuate between two prototypical discourses, which we broadly dub as ‘resistance’ and ‘adaptation’ to newspeakerness. Our study thereby adds to current debates on ‘new speaker’ and language policy issues by illustrating how tensions around language legitimacy are played out on the ground in a small nation state such as Estonia.
Over the past decades, problems related to linguistic minorities and their well-being, as well as to minority languages and their maintenance, have developed as an independent branch of minority studies. Studies of language in society and sociolinguistics, strategies of minority language survival and the empowerment of their speakers have produced a considerable output of case studies and theoretical writings.In this multifaceted field of investigation, language use, language practices, language policies and language politics represent interrelated aspects of social and linguistic relations that cannot be meaningfully addressed from a point of view of one scientific discipline only. This is specially the case when one wants to understand processes of language loss and maintenance, or the revitalization and empowerment of a language community. Such processes are linguistic expressions of complex social settings, and reflect group and individual identities that in turn express changing systems of collective values, human networks, fashions and social practices.
Sprachliche Zeichen im öffentlichen Raum (Linguistic Landscape - LL) tragen neben ihrer primären Bedeutung und Funktion wie Auskunft und Werbung auch sekundäre Informationen zur Sprachenhierarchie, zur Repräsentation von Minderheitensprachen, zur sprachlichen Toleranz gegenüber der Mehrsprachigkeit in diesem Raum, etc. Diese Vielschichtigkeit macht die sprachlichen Zeichen im öffentlichen Raum zu wertvollen Lernobjekten, an denen die im Berufsleben so bedeutende diskursive Lesefähigkeit der Studierenden trainiert werden kann. Der Beitrag öffnet Perspektiven auf die Möglichkeiten der Verknüpfung der LL-Analyse mit den Inhalten der traditionellen germanistischen Curricula wie auch benachbarter Fachbereiche und verweist auf bisherige Studien in diesem Bereich.
Lingvistiskās ainavas metode – netradicionāls ceļš multilingvisma jautājumu izpētē un mācīšanā
(2008)
Šī raksta mērķis ir iepazīstināt ar lingvistiskās ainavas metodi un izskaidrot tās priekšrocības ne tikai valodnieku pētījumos, bet arī tās ieviešanā mācību procesā skolās un augstskolās. Pēc šī nelielā ievada vēlamies jums parādīt ne tikai metodes ieviešanas gaitu, bet arī pašreizējo attīstības stadiju. Mēs iepazīstināsim arī ar 2008. gada sākumā izstrādāto projektu ,,Latvijas lingvistiskā ainava Baltijas valstu kontekstā”, kuru arī šobrīd realizējam Rēzeknes Augstskolā (maģistra studiju programmas ,,Filoloģija” studenti un divi docētāji). Tāpat tiks dots neliels ieskats par projektā gūtajiem rezultātiem un problēmām, ar kurām saskārāmies pētījuma laikā, kā arī iepazīstināsim ar jauniegūto pieredzi.
Aims and objectives:
Language debates in Latvia often focus on the role of Latvian as official and main societal language. Yet, Latvian society is highly multilingual, and families with home languages other than Latvian have to choose between different educational trajectories for their children. In this context, this paper discusses the results of two studies which addressed the question of why families with Russian as a home language choose (pre)schools with languages other than Russian as medium of instruction (MOI). The first study analyses family narratives which provide insight into attitudes and practices which lead to the decision to send children to Latvian-MOI institutions. The second study investigates language attitudes and practices by families in the international community of Riga German School.
Methodology:
The paper discusses data gathered during two studies: for the first, semi-structed interviews were conducted with Russian-speaking families who choose Latvian-medium schools for their children. For the second study, a survey was carried out in the community of an international school in Riga, sided by ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and the school leadership.
Data and analysis:
Interviews and ethnographic observations were subjected to a discourse analysis with a focus on critical events and structures of life trajectory narratives. Survey data were processed following simple statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis.
Findings/conclusions:
Our data reveal that families highly embrace multilingualism and see the development of individual plurilingualism as important for integration into Latvian society as well as for educational and professional opportunities in the multilingual societies of Latvia and Europe. At the same time, multilingualism and multiculturalism, including Russian, are seen as a value in itself. In addition, our studies reflect the bidirectionality of family language policies in interplay with practices in educational institutions: family decisions influence children’s language acquisition at school, but the school also has an impact on the families’ language practices at home. In sum, we argue that educational policies should therefore pay justice to the wishes of families in Latvia to incorporate different language aspects into individual educational trajectories.
Originality:
Language policy is a frequent topic of investigation in the Baltic states. However, there has been a lack in research on family language policy and school choices. In this vein, our paper adds to the understanding of educational choices and language policy processes among Russian-speaking families and the international community in Latvia.
Every Regional Dossier begins with an introduction about the region in question, followed by six chapters that each deal with a specific level of the education system (e.g. primary education). Chapters 8 and 9 cover the main lines of research into education of the minority language under discussion, and the prospects for the minority language in general and in education in particular, respectively. Chapter 10 provides a summary of statistics. Lists of (legal) references and useful addresses regarding the minority language are given at the end of the dossier.
This dossier consists of an introduction to the region under study, followed by six sections each dealing with a specific level of the education system. These brief descriptions contain factual information presented in a readily accessible way. Sections eight to ten cover research, prospects, and summary statistics. For detailed information and political discussions about language use at the various levels of education, the reader is referred to other sources with a list of publications.