<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.600" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dear
colleagues,</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I wish to announce a new study which has been
funded by the Australian Research Council for the period 2003-6. Its title
is</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>How mixed
language input affects child language development: case studies from Central
Australia<BR><BR>We are keen to hear from other people carrying out studies
involving Indigenous and endangered languages, with code mixing a significant
factor, and 'bush' settings and cultures significantly different from those in
most language acquisition studies involved.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>We are just
tooling up and want to learn more about CHILDES so if there are any CHILDES
experts in Australia or the region who could perhaps help us with a workshop,
let us know. We are having a meeting in March in Melbourne where we hope to
discuss these issues.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Most field
linguists here tend to use SHOEBOX for transcription so if anyone has any
experience or knowledge of the interaction of CHILDES and SHOEBOX that would be
a big help.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Here is a little more about the aims of the
project:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR>This project will involve case studies of three Aboriginal communities
designed to address the following questions:<BR>RQ1: what kind of language input
do indigenous Australian Aboriginal children receive from traditional indigenous
languages, Kriol and varieties of English, and from code-switching involving
these languages as used by adults and older children?<BR>RQ2: what effect
does this have on the childrens language acquisition and how the input is
reflected in their productive output?<BR>RQ3: what are the processes of language
shift, maintenance and change which may be hypothesised to result from this
multilingual environment,as evidenced by the childrens input and output and the
degree to which this reflects transmission of the target languages, the loss
of<BR>traditional languages, or the emergence of new mixed languages?<BR>To
address the complexity of these questions, this project brings together people
with expertise in three different, but related, fields: Central Australian
languages (Simpson, Charola and Moses), first language acquisition
(Wigglesworth), and historical change and language maintenance (Simpson).
They will collect the data for the study by identifying the kinds of
interactions young children are involved in, the language they use at different
ages, and the breadth and variety of language the children are
hearing.</FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Patrick McConvell</DIV>
<DIV>Research Fellow, Language and Society</DIV>
<DIV>Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Studies</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>