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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style=""
lang="EN-US">The Eleventh Conference of the
Foundation for Endangered Languages: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b style=""><span
style="" lang="EN-US">Working Together for Endangered Languages:
Research Challenges and Social Impacts<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b style=""><span
style="" lang="EN-US"></span></b><span style="" lang="EN-US">University
of Malaya<o:p></o:p><br>
Kuala
Lumpur<o:p></o:p><br>
Malaysia<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style=""
lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> Dates:
</span><span style="" lang="EN-US">26-28 October 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style=""
lang="EN-US"><b style=""><br>
Call for Abstracts:</b></span><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-US">
FEL XI - New submission deadline - 31 May 2007<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b style=""><span
style="" lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </span></b><span
lang="EN-US">Globalisation has an impact on societies on various
levels. One of its implications is the further endangerment of
languages, especially those of minority communities. The looming threat
of language loss and death is due to the hegemony of more dominant
languages in sociopolitical and economic domains. Linguists therefore
have an important role in documenting, projecting, and providing
information on, languages which face extinction.<br>
<br>
Linguists undertaking such research must tread carefully in any
community which faces language endangerment. The researcher by his or
her very presence can disturb the established social relations, the
socio-economic organisation, and the power relations within a
community, bringing in more globalisation, and more awareness of and
exchange with the outside world. Researchers must be made aware of the
impact of their presence.<br>
<br>
Communities facing language endangerment may not be cooperative towards
outsiders and may view them with suspicion. In some communities
breaking such barriers requires tact, effort, and strategic planning.
Members of the community facing endangerment should be perceived and
treated by the researchers as experts in their heritage language. Such
a view inevitably reduces the power inequality between researchers and
members of the endangered language and eases collaboration. Cooperation
and collaboration may be impeded if the linguist sees him/herself or is
seen as someone who is more authoritative and linguistically more
‘correct’ than members of the community facing endangerment. Such a
perception may result in the infamous observer’s paradox where subjects
become less natural in the presence of the researcher.<br>
<br>
When researchers do not take members of the studied communities
seriously, collaborative work is impeded as the input provided may be
distorted due to the researchers’ belief that they are the language
experts. Linguists must be objective and this can be a challenge as
prior knowledge may interfere in their objectivity. Lack of trust and
collaboration may result in information not being provided. One way of
combating the failure to share information is to ensure that
researchers are aware that different members of the community facing
language shift are responsible for different kinds of information.<br>
<br>
If communities are informed of the dangers of losing their languages,
they may be inclined to collaborate with the linguists to provide
information of the language they speak as on them is entrusted the onus
of transmitting their heritage to family members. Promoting the
popularity of an endangered language in domains such as the workplace,
at home and at school may prove to be difficult, as endangered
languages face many obstacles namely from the economic functionalities
of more dominant languages and the attitudes of younger speakers. At
worst, linguists could be seen as counter-productive by the very
community whose language they want to save, because the shift away from
an endangered language is at times motivated by upward economic and
social mobility. <br>
<br>
The task of the linguist in this is by no means simple. To penetrate
and immerse oneself in an ethnolinguistic speech community whose
language may be on the verge of death provides the linguist many
challenges on the social and relationship levels. While the linguist is
required to collect data as a researcher, s/he must also form a
relationship with the members of the community so as to collaborate
with them in efforts to promote and preserve the language, in ensuring
its revival, in establishing devices and procedures to stop
endangerment etc. Given that the endangerment of languages can be
handled sensitively through collaboration between researchers and
members of a community facing language extinction, this Conference will
address the research challenges and social impacts of such
collaborations. Amongst the questions raised in this Conference are: <br>
<br>
· What can researchers do to ensure collaboration with members
of the language community? What should the researcher do to find a way
into the community through proper and accepted channels? What benefits
can a language community expect from such collaboration?<br>
<br>
· What are the boundaries that the researcher should not cross
in order to protect the rights and privacy of the subjects and to
safeguard collaborative ties between community and researcher? What are
the limits of researchers’ duties to the language community, and vice
versa?<br>
<br>
· What is ‘best practice’ for researchers in order to be
accepted and trusted as in-group members of the community? Does this
require the linguist to reduce his/her role as an expert, in order to
build trust and collaboration with the community? Can cultural
immersion act as a collaborative means in data collection, creating the
notion that the researcher is part of the community’s in-group? Are
there any advantages in maintaining distance between researcher and
community?<br>
<br>
· What options do researchers have if they encounter
non-collaborative behaviour from their target subjects?<br>
<br>
· Can support for maintenance of an endangered language actually
be socially counter-productive, when the shift away from an endangered
language is seen as progress in economic and social mobility? In such
conditions, can the community be made aware of the importance of
language maintenance? How can the researcher convince the community of
the negative impact of language loss on their culture and history and,
conversely, of the benefits of recovery, preservation, promotion?<br>
<br>
· How can language documentation work, and its fruits, be
integrated into community activities and community development? In what
other ways can linguistic research benefit language maintenance and
revitalization?<br>
<br>
· How can the researcher guard against personally causing damage
to existing social and political structures? In particular, how can the
researcher avoid disturbing established social relations and
organization by seemingly conferring favours on specific members of the
community?<br>
<br>
· How can the researcher ensure that s/he is not unwittingly the
agent of globalisation within the community and thereby the cause of
further socio-economic and cultural disruption?<br>
<br>
Abstracts should make reference to actual language situations , and
ideally should draw on personal experience. The aim of the conference
is to pool experience, to discuss and to learn from it, not to theorize
in the abstract about inter-cultural relations.<br>
<br>
<br>
Abstract and Paper Submission Protocols<br>
<br>
In order to present a paper at the Conference, writers must submit in
advance an abstract of not more than 500 words before 31 May 2007.
Abstracts
submitted, which should be in English, must include the following
details:<br>
<br>
· Title of the paper<br>
<br>
· Name of the author(s), organisation to which each belongs<br>
<br>
· Postal address of the first author<br>
<br>
· Telephone number (and fax number if any)<br>
<br>
· Email address(es)<br>
<br>
· Abstract text (not more than 500 words)<br>
<br>
The abstracts should be sent via e-mail to <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:waninda2001@um.edu.my">waninda2001@um.edu.my</a>
and
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:fel@chibcha.demon.co.uk">fel@chibcha.demon.co.uk</a> with
the subject of the e-mail stating: “FEL
Abstract: <last name of author(s)>: <title of paper>”
Abstracts will acknowledged on receipt.<br>
<br>
The name of the first author will be used in all correspondence.
Writers will be informed once their abstracts have been accepted and
they will be required to submit their full papers for publication in
the proceedings before 1 September 2007 together with their
registration fee. Failure to do so will result in the disqualification
of the writers to present their papers. Once accepted, full papers can
be submitted in English or Malay. Each standard presentation at the
Conference will last twenty minutes, with a further ten minutes for
discussion and questions and answers. Plenary lectures will last
forty-five minutes each; these are awarded by invitation only.<br>
<br>
Important Dates<br>
<br>
· <b>Abstract </b>arrival deadline: <b>31 May 2007 </b>(extended
from 15 May)<br>
<br>
· Committee's decision: <b>25 June 2007</b><br>
<br>
· In case of acceptance, the <b>full paper</b> should be sent
by <b>1 September 2007.</b> (Further details on the format of text
will be specified to the authors)<br>
<br>
· Conference dates: <b>26-28 October 2007</b><br>
<br>
The site for the 2007 conference of the Foundation of Endangered
Languages, hosted jointly this year with SKET, University of Malaya,
will be Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.<br>
<br>
University of Malaya is the oldest university in Malaysia, and SKET is
responsible for 80 co-curricular courses, including “Ethnic Relations.”
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.um.edu.my">http://www.um.edu.my</a>).<br>
<br>
The Foundation for Endangered Languages is a non-profit organization,
registered as Charity 1070616 in England and Wales, founded in 1996. It
exists to support, enable and assist the documentation, protection and
promotion of endangered languages. (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.ogmios.org">http://www.ogmios.org</a>).<br>
<br>
Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia, in an enclave within the state
of Selangor. Besides the Malay peninsula Malaysia includes the Sarawak
and Sabah regions of Borneo. It has 140 indigenous languages. The
indigenous people of Malaya, the orang asli, numbered 105,000 in 1997,
0.5 per cent of the nation's population. By contrast in 1990 there were
900,000 indigenous people in Sabah, and 1.7 million in Sarawak. As the
country's largest city, K.L. hosts spectacular modern buildings,
notably the Petronas Twin Towers, and most recently, the ‘Eye of
Malaysia’ Ferris wheel. K.L.'s best-preserved colonial buildings are
mostly in Merdeka Square, and its Chinatown is also famous. The Batu
Caves, 272 steps below ground, house the Hindu Lord Muruga. K.L.'s
climate is equatorial: warm, sunny and often wet, year-round. <br>
</span></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Nicholas Ostler
Chairman, Foundation for Endangered Languages
Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath, BA1 7AA, England
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:nostler@chibcha.demon.co.uk">nostler@chibcha.demon.co.uk</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ogmios.org">http://www.ogmios.org</a>
</pre>
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