Broadcasting: RadPed

[Greg Dickson]

I hear what you guys are saying about the f-you factor.  I see it in my 
work where of the two communities I work in, the one that had a 
missionary school banning traditional language now has a strong group 
of middle aged people who are keen for language revitalisation and 
working at it whereas the other one that didn't seems to have a lot 
more apathy about their language.

However, I still have the feeling the even more powerful than the f-you 
factor is being educated about your language: having metalinguistic 
awareness about your language and learning how to read and write your 
traditional language.  I believe that pencil, paper and the written 
word are still very much 'technologies' for indigenous languages that 
don't have an extensive written tradition.

My two cents.

Greg Dickson
Linguist
Ngukurr Language Centre
CMB 6
via Katherine  NT  0852
Ph/Fax: 08 8975 4362
Email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
On 15/03/2006, at 5:31 AM, Anggarrgoon wrote:

> Hi Mia,
> I read something somewhere once about what I'll call the F* you factor 
> in language maintenance. I can't remember where I read this, and 
> that's my paraphrase (sorry if it offends anyone, but it's catchy). 
> Basically the idea was that some communities under pressure from 
> English (this was in Australia and the US) went to extraordinary 
> lengths to make sure the kids learnt the language as a type of protest 
> - the "you might try to kill our language but you can't and we'll 
> spite you by learning it anyway" fighting philosophy. But now there's 
> (some) funding and people don't get beaten up in the street on a 
> regular basis for speaking an Indigenous language, the threat isn't 
> perceived as quite as urgent, and the danger is actually greater.
> Claire
>
> Mia Kalish wrote:
>> Hi, Claire :-) It's that "repetitive" thing you know: Experts . . . . 
>>  Language dead . . .
>> And we hear it over and over and over, like a mantra. When I saw that 
>> thing
>> come in about Cherokee today, I really wanted to peak over the edge 
>> of my
>> cubicle and say, Nope, that's not true. We are doing all these things 
>> over
>> here to make sure its not true. Hope you are well. Mia
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Indigenous Languages and Technology 
>> [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
>> On Behalf Of Anggarrgoon
>> Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 1:00 PM
>> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [ILAT] Broadcasting: RadPed
>> Mia's theory of a self-fulfilling prophecy implies that people listen 
>> to experts, which I'm not convinced about at all :)
>> Claire
>> Mia Kalish wrote:
>>> I would like to propose a radical pedagogy of language 
>>> revitalization.
>>>
>>>
>>> You know how "experts" are always saying X language could be extinct 
>>> in Y generations, setting up a situation for a self-fulfilling 
>>> prophecy?
>>>
>>>
>