ELL: announcement - Australian Linguistics Institute

[Margaret Florey]

Hello all:

This is to let you know about a class - "Issues in training linguists to
work with endangered languages" - which will be taught by Margaret Florey
(University of Newcastle, Australia) and Nick Thieberger (University of
Melbourne) as part of the Australian Linguistics Institute, to be held at
the University of Melbourne, Australia, 3-14 July 2000. The class will be
taught in the first week of the Institute, from 9.00-10.30am, Monday 3 -
Thursday 6 July.

Our working outline of the class is as follows:

Although the primary goal of a linguist undertaking field research may not
be to investigate and analyse issues concerning language endangerment,
researchers in the field increasingly find themselves working with minority
languages which are under threat. Endangered languages (ELs) commonly exist
in a socio-political environment of conflict, transition and
transformation. Thus the fieldworker is often confronted by a wide range of
issues beyond the scope of her academic task and training. The linguist may
be perceived as a means through which the aspirations of the community
might be realised or as a target for community frustrations. On the one
hand, she may find herself involved in advocacy and community development
while on the other hand may be confronted by the enormity of the task of
trying to record the wide range of knowledge encoded in an EL.

It is clear that linguists need more specific training to work with ELs. In
this course we will discuss key issues which are encountered in working
with ELs. The presenters draw on their experience in working in both
indigenous and immigrant settings with minority (Austronesian and
Australian) languages ranging from those represented by very few remaining
speakers to more vibrant speech communities.Topics will include:

Professional issues
        - Our responsibility as a profession to ELs
        - What skills do we need to work with ELs?
        - How do we encourage people to go out and work with ELs?
        - How we train our students?
        - Revaluing the role of linguists in language maintenance activities
Endangered knowledge
        - Rethinking linguistics as a discipline
        - Interdisciplinary and teamwork approaches
        - Extending our research to incorporate fields such as
ethnobiology, musicology, anthropology
Data management
        - Well-formed data
        - Return of materials
        - Intellectual property
        - Archiving of data and long-term data management
        - Computer-based tools

Further information about the Australian Linguistics Institute, including
registration details, can be found at the ALI website
<http://www.ali.unimelb.edu.au/>.

Best wishes,
Margaret Florey



Dr. Margaret Florey
Linguistics
School of Humanities
University of Newcastle
PO Box 127
Ourimbah NSW 2258
Australia

Phone: +61 (0)2 4348-4122
Fax: +61 (0)2 4348-4075

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/department/ln/florey.html


----
Endangered-Languages-L Forum: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Web pages http://carmen.murdoch.edu.au/lists/endangered-languages-l/
Subscribe/unsubscribe and other commands: majordomo at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
----