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The article considers the issues of preserving and updating the ethnocultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation within the framework of the activities of museums, houses of folk art, higher educational institutions, academic research institutes. Institutions for which the preservation of cultural heritage is not the main essential activity, but has recently been actively developing, are characterized. These are federal and national universities and research institutes of the Russian academy of sciences. Universities integrate successfully knowledge related to intangible cultural heritage into educational programs. Research institutes have become reference bases in their regions in the study and preservation of national languages as objects of intangible cultural heritage, national literature and ethnography. The prospects for such activities of libraries are considered, a new role of which is given in the Federal Law N 402-FL “On the intangible ethnocultural property of the Russian Federation”. The possibility of digitizing and forming digital collections of objects of intangible cultural heritage recorded in the form of texts and static images in libraries, as well as information objects existing in the form of temporary representation (recording of musical works, dances, folklore) has been identified. Particular attention in digitization in libraries should be paid to funds on national languages, collections of audio recordings of folk music and ethnographic collections. Examples of the practice of presenting intangible ethnocultural heritage on federal and regional portals/sites are given.

Copyright of Journal of Language & Law / Revista de Llengua i Dret is the property of Revista de Llengua i Dret and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Language is a critical tool for individual and collective identity. It is also a powerful Instrument of nation-building and national identity. For a long time, homogeneity has been presented as a prerequisite for better harmony and togetherness, which has made nations across the globe design language policies geared towards harmonization at any cost. This was implemented the most by the imposition of language considered "national" in decisions made by political office holders who come from that particular language group and have a direct association with it. So, social status and power interplay in the decisions. In their naïve wish or hidden interest, they have placed national unity through one language, religion, and culture as the only option. Historical accounts of many countries around the globe, including that of the Horn of Africa, where linguistic diversity is a dominant feature, are documented. This research presents the shadowed sociolinguistic diversity in the Somali language coated by the persistently narrated linguistic homogeneity of Somali language-speaking communities. The article states that linguistic diversity, both in dialectical variation and the presence of minority languages, is an attested reality in the Somali language, which demands practical policy and implementation strategies to ensure social justice and inclusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this note is to present a brief approach of the national languages in Mauritania based on a literature review which shows how ethnic tensions have been at the heart of the country's linguistic and educational policy: an issue still relevant today. For this purpose, the status of Mauritanian languages in relation to other neighboring countries is first presented. Secondly, the sociolinguistic situation in Mauritania is discussed, underlining a diversity of linguistic and social practices. A third point addresses the historical overview of the linguistic and educational reforms of the country (which have always focused on Arabic and French downsizing national languages such as Pulaar, Wolof and Soninké) is given. Finally, the dynamism and the complexity of linguistic practices in Mauritania, as well as their social significance, are highlighted, a reality that is not always reflected in the linguistic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present text analyzes the place of local languages in Cameroon's war of independence. Firstly, it will present the elements of local culture which structured the political communication of nationalist fighters. In the process, the text will analyze the uses and practices of vernacular languages in the maquis, in this case languages such as the Basaa, Fe'fe', Ghómala', Yámba, Ngomba and Médúmba which were the most common used ones. From the examination of archival documents, historical monographs and oral testimonies which will serve as materials for this work it emerges that local languages were used by Cameroonian nationalists in order to raise awareness among the populations as a whole (both scholars and non-literates), to express themselves outside the values and references imposed by colonization, to articulate nationalist demands with local cultures and to achieve total independence through a "decolonization of the mind". Local languages, which had a particular status compared to colonial languages, thus provided a political, symbolic and a cultural function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Caucasian region is called the Russian Babylon due to its polyethnicity, multilingualism, religious syncretism, ancient mountain ethical codes coexisting along with state institutions of self-organization. Compared to other locales, it still manages to preserve many archaic forms of socio-normative and spiritual culture, although here, too, the first signs of a systemic crisis due to globalization processes are already visible. According to the articles presented in this journal issue, one can judge the current state and prospects for the development of the national languages and literatures of the Abkhaz, Balkars, Dagestanis, Kabardians, Karachays, Chechens, South and North Ossetians. Philosophers, literary scholars, folklorists, linguists raise and try to solve many urgent problems related to oral folk art, the status of the Russian language in the region, mass and literary bilingualism, the quality of literary translation, ethno-gender stereotypes, intertextuality mechanisms, as well as the possibility of using digital technologies in modern philological research.

Nowadays, many polysemantic terms that are widely used in history, such as Russification, should be studied in detail and have their meanings clarified. This article analyzes the concept of Russification in the works of Pyotr Vasilyevich Znamensky (1836–1917), a historian and professor of the Kazan Theological Academy. The main structural components that are, to some extent, characteristic of Russification are revealed: linguistic community, unity of faith, and political loyalty. P.V. Znamensky’s attitude toward each of these elements in the context of the national policy problem in the Russian Empire is considered. The results obtained show that he did not support the idea that small-numbered peoples should have immediately switched to the Russian language in their liturgical life and education. Instead, he was a consistent supporter of N.I. Ilminsky’s system, entailing that non-Russian-speaking peoples should have been educated in their national languages. For P.V. Znamensky, Russification most often implied the Christianization of these peoples. According to him, Russification meant that the peoples of the Russian Empire loved the state and the emperor and were loyal to the authorities. At the same time, with the Russians over time.

Copyright of Studies in Contrastive Grammar / Studii de Gramatica Contrastiva is the property of Universitatea din Pitesti and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Superdiversity is a key term that has taken hold in macro sociolinguistic commentary over the last decade. It has been used to explore the increasing linguistic diversity, particularly in major urban centres in the West, brought about by changing patterns of migration and transmigration. Within sociolinguistics, this has led to an increasing focus on the complex multilingualism that can now be found in diverse urban contexts. The focus on multilingualism that superdiversity brings is a welcome, albeit belated, recognition of the normalcy of mutilingualism, thus challenging the inherent monolingualism still underpinning much language policy, pedagogy, and practice. However, the rise of superdiversity as a theoretical framework has also led to an increasingly deconstructivist view of languages by its proponents – questioning and/or rejecting distinctions between so called named languages, particularly national languages, while also critiquing standard language registers. In this commentary, I outline the benefits that superdiversity has brought to sociolinguistics over the last decade but also highlight, and critique, its explanatory limits. The latter include, among others, its ahistoricity, its almost exclusive focus on migrants in urban contexts, its dimissal of non-urban, often Indigenous, language contexts, and its rejection of language rights and standard language varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an innovative bilingual education program developed and implemented in 208 primary classes in Senegal from 2009 to 2018 by a Senegalese NGO working with the national Ministry of Education to address issues of quality in primary education. L'approche simultanée or simultaneous approach, also known as bilinguisme en temps réel or real-time bilingualism, developed organically through a consultative process between NGO development actors, university linguists and educators. Unlike the early-exit transitional bilingual programs previously piloted in Senegal that are common throughout West Africa, this program taught literacy, mathematics and the sciences in both a national language (Wolof or Pulaar) and French from the first year of primary school. Using data collected for an external evaluation conducted in 2018, along with follow-up research conducted in 2019 with designers and implementers of the simultaneous approach, this paper analyzes the effectiveness of the program and its implications for Senegal, where the Ministry of Education appears close to adopting a national language-in-education policy. There are also implications for the field of L1-based multilingual education, as ARED's simultaneous approach provides a refreshing new perspective on teaching and learning non-dominant and dominant languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language used in school represents a crucial and polemic question in multilingual societies. Sub-Saharan Africa represents a world region with a significant linguistic diversity. Until recently, most of these countries were European colonies. During colonial times, the colonizer language generally dominated in schools. After their independence, many countries have continued using that language as the instructional language. It is observed that quite often, children are schooled in a second language, and teachers must teach in a foreign language. This situation results in potentially negative consequences affecting school learning. The specific example of Ghana is examined. It is pointed out that in Ghana during recent years frequent changes have been introduced in school language. Commonly, English is used as the primary school language. Because this association between language and school learning, speaking English provides not only significant social prestige, but also results in better working opportunities. The question of so-called “international schools” in Ghana is also examined; most of these schools do not teach any of the Ghanaian languages, but a foreign language, such as French, Spanish, or Portuguese. It is argued that these international schools may have adverse consequences on Ghanaian children who attend them. Ghana, however, has been a strong advocate of the so-called “African personality” and the use of English as the medium of instruction is in overt opposition to this ideology. It is concluded that children schooled in a second language, and teachers teaching in language that they do not master well enough may represent a potential barrier for the social, scientific, and economic development of sub-Saharan African countries, such as Ghana.

This article deals with the issue of the evolution of literacy in African national languages. It is about the existence/non existence of local literacy systems in black Africa. Findings show that there exist ancient unknown or neglected hieroglyphics which have been hidden by foreign languages. The history of literacy in national languages is a process that cannot be separated from the cultural and sociopolitical context which is not only related to latin characters borrowed from the colonizer. Black South Sahara Africa has also known a literacy system in national language based on a borrowal of Arabic characters.

Copyright of Darbai ir Dienos is the property of Vytautas Magnus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Expanding on the contemporary lines of thought about the precarious situation of Africa and her youth, and based on linguistic, sociolinguistic and didactic facts, this papers postulates that the command of quality French is an essential component for the development of the French-speaking African youth and even the Francophone world, as French is definitely a language of science and technology; a window on modernity. Based on the Cameroon case study, this article came to the conclusion that if decision-makers fail to take appropriate actions against the ongoing distortion of the French language, Cameroon youth will continue its inexorable journey toward (social, political, economic).

The article is devoted to the study of the languages of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East living in the Russian Federation. An accent is made on the identity of national languages in terms of the destruction of the traditionalnomadic way of life, a breach of centuries-old family relations.

Between November 2018 and 2020, residents of New Caledonia will have three opportunities to vote on whether to become an independent state. Residents of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will vote on the same issue in June 2019. Should the residents of either territory vote for independence, the issue of whether a language shall be designated the national and / or official language for the new state will arise. If the decision is to designate a language for the new state, the choice of which language will also surface. This chapter considers the language choices made by a number of countries across the linguistically diverse Asia Pacific region post-independence and in so doing, provides some models for the language configurations which may eventuate should either territory become independent. The linguistic configurations discussed here are divided into Category 1 - countries where a national and / or official language are legally specified or have de jure legal status. - and Category 2 – countries where no language is legally named but at least one language may be de facto national or official. Examples of Category 1 countries include Indonesia where Bahasa Indonesia is the only de jure national and official language and Vanuatu where Bislama is the de jure national language and is also a de jure co-official language with both English and French, the languages of the former colonial powers. Examples of Category 2 countries discussed here include Papua New Guinea where Tok Pisin is named as one of the possible languages needed for an applicant to become a Papua New Guinean citizen but does not have de jure national language status and the Solomon Islands where Pijin is the de facto national language and English is the de facto official language. Whilst the results of either the Bougainville and New Caledonian referenda are not clear, the different configurations already in place serve as a pointer to what may eventuate should the residents of either territory vote for independence.

As a significant factor in social relationships, language attitudes of students are important to explore when building a school culture of tolerance. This study examines the language attitudes of university students from Turkey towards Cypriot Turkish (CT) and Standard Turkish. A mixed methods approach was adopted where 94 Turkish university students studying in the northern part of Cyprus where the two varieties are spoken, responded to a questionnaire in the first phase. The results of the analysis of this survey showed that the participants had somewhat negative attitudes towards CT. In the second phase of the study, where three focus groups were conducted, the findings of the first phase were confirmed. Intertwined with discourses of class, the participants specifically referred to "correctness" and "intelligibility" as important issues for their evaluations of CT and its speakers. CT was also perceived as an important marker of Turkish Cypriotness by the participants and was projected to be lower than any other variety of Turkish spoken in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper was raised as support to the rescue of the indigenous language called hñähñu (Otomí) existing in Mexico, in order to further develop the learning of this language in children's basic level, providing a teaching tool different from usual that children interact. The UNESCO marks that the countries should cultivate three languages: a native or local, in this case is hñähñu, or a national which is the Spanish, and the third is the implementation with another international language (English). The intelligent tutor system via web based on Joomla and PHP programming for learning the hñähñu or Otomí to the new generations and thus rescue the language from extinction. This research originates from an extensive and exhaustive collection of information from different bibliographic sources until the construction of intelligent tutoring system. The research work is designed to teach the basis of the Otomi language which is focused on the children of basic level in the region of the Mezquital Valley which is located in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History of Church service in national languages is studied within the article. The author shows it’s developement in the early Christianity, however, brought to a close within Catholic latinatisation and revealed through Reformation. Peculiar attention is paid to Luther’s views on the subject. The example of the Lutheran Church has led to change in Catholic attitude to the use of national languages and might cause changes in the Ortodox tradition.

This article describes the structures of the three Nigerian national languages at the morphophonological level with a view to showing the aspects of convergence and divergence in them. This will help determine the possibility of evolving a pocket of pronounceable words, as a stepping stone towards a national language formed from the three languages to foster national unity like wá, zó and bìá, meaning 'come' in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo respectively as widely suggested. Using descriptive analysis of data collected from Hausa and Igbo students at the National Institute for Nigerian Languages, we discovered that coinage is easier between Igbo and Yoruba (Niger-Congo/Kwa) than it is between these two languages and Hausa (Chadic). This article suggests the use of Nigerian Pidgin English (a natural language) which is English-based with widest acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of this new journal provides opportunity to review the many contexts which need to be taken into account in reflecting upon foreign language teaching. These contexts include the educational, the fact that much language teaching takes place within general educational and often compulsory educational settings and institutions. Learners thus encounter foreign languages alongside other languages – their language of the home, the official language of the country, languages of minorities and others – and this needs to be part of the thinking about learning and teaching. Furthermore, since language is the tool for learning throughout life and especially in educational institutions, where the languages of other subjects are languages in themselves which learners have to learn if they are to be successful in education, teachers of all subjects need to be aware of language as the tool of learning. Yet another issue is the relationship of language teaching with citizenship education and the development of ‘intercultural citizenship’. The title of the journal also refers to ‘research’ and here too there is potential for reflection on the modes and paradigms of research which are relevant to investigating language teaching and learning. Distinctions of quantitative and qualitative research are misleading and need to be reviewed. The higher order distinctions are between research which seeks explanation, that which seeks understanding and that which involves advocacy.

A major characteristic of Cameroon's language policy during the colonial era as well as during the first four decades of the postcolonial era, is discrimination against all indigenous Cameroonian languages. This began when German was introduced after the arrival of the first colonisers in 1844 and lasted until the end of the First World War, after which the policy was continued by the French (in eastern Cameroon) and the English colonial administrators (in western Cameroon). Even after Independence in 1960, this policy was perpetuated and defended, now by the Cameroonian government who fostered so-called "Official Bilingualism", a policy securing the development of French and English as languages of education, and of administration and general public use in the entire country. The first attempt to put an end to this aspect of colonial policy occurred in 1996. Since then, a lot has been done to overcome and correct the policy of banishment of local languages, so that the Cameroonian languages are now being introduced into the educational system.

According to the 2006 national census 71,06% of Burkina Faso’s estimated 14 million inhabitants are functionally illiterate. This staggering number is referred to in explaining the slow social, economical and political development of the country; it is also linked to the high incidence of poverty in Burkina Faso. The government is aware of these connections between literacy and social circumstances and thus is determined to combat poverty through a literacy campaign. This article describes some of theseattempts and critically reflects on the importance of the mastery of literacy in national languages, linking this also to the teaching and learning of foreign languages.

The objective of this paper is to outline the importance of transition between national languages (NL) and foreign languages (FL) within the framework of interactional perspective in multilingual Africa (J. Poth, 1997), taking the example of Ghana. Ghana is an African country whose official language is English; however several other national and foreign languages share the language landscape. French is one of these and is taught as a foreign language in many Ghanaian schools. Therefore, in this multilingual context, the French teacher at the primary, secondary or even the tertiary level is confronted with managing this triple language situation in the same class: Ghanaian national languages, English (the official language) and French (a foreign language). The teaching of French therefore poses many problems from a pedagogical and didactic point of view. Indeed, the mere diversity of languages spoken by the students is a difficulty for the teaching/learning of French as a Foreign Language (FFL). In addition there are other problems such as the lack of teaching materials and of resources. In such an environment, the teacher has to innovate in order to engage students in learning (P. Bange, 1996). He needs to enable the student to move from what he knows how to do as an individual to what he can do in collaboration with others (Vygotsky, 1997). Consequently, using a communicative approach in context, based on linguistic transition, the French teacher in this multilingual environment uses a variety of teaching strategies including ICT. This paper gives us the opportunity to share our personal experience as well as the results of a cross-sectional research undertaken on 30 teachers of FFL at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Ghana. The main research question here is the following: how does multilingualism in schools influence the FFL teacher's methodologies and what solutions are possible in a diversified sociolinguistic context in Africa in general and Ghana in particular? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]