[RNLD] Melbourne Linguistics in the Pub Tuesday 19th May 2015

[Ruth Singer]

*Announcement: Melbourne Linguistics in the pub Tuesday 19th May 2015 -
Literacy in the field*

*Literacy in the field: how do the communities we work with use vernacular
literacy?*
In 2011, Felix Ameka (Leiden U) led a great discussion of whether we need
literacy at all for language documentation. Given how it ultimately
enforces standardization where there may not have been any before, he asked
whether we can perhaps just bypass literacy and use audiovisual recordings
as our documentation product. However, some communities already engage in
literacy in the language that we are documenting (Kral 2015). In addition,
most linguists find we need to develop our own literacy in the target
language for research purposes.  And communities often expect linguists to
produce artefacts such as dictionaries. This LIP will touch on a range of
questions that literacy raises for linguists such as:

   1. How if at all, do the communities we work with participate in
   literacy activities in the language which is the target of the language
   documentation project ?
   2. How can outputs of language documentation designed for the community
   bypass vernacular literacy? These are useful for communities who are not
   literate in the target language and have no great desire to be.
   3. Why do we make dictionaries and how do the we work with communities
   use them?

Background readings:

Kral, Inge. 2015. Pedagogy or practice? Indigenous youth and language
maintenance in out of school settings. ICLDC 2015, Hawai'i', online
proceedings: (audio file)
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/25386

Guérin, Valérie. 2008. Writing an Endangered Language. LD&C journal: (text:
pdf file)
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/1804

Felix Ameka's talk on literacy and language documentation at La Trobe
University: (audio file)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/linguistic-diversity-in-globalised/id588549143?mt=10

Date:             Tuesday 19th May 2015
Time:             6:00 - 8:00 pm
Venue:           Upstairs room, Prince Alfred Hotel

191 Grattan St, Carlton

(corner of Bouverie St)

ph (03) 9347-3033


Food and drinks available at the venue

LIP is an occasional gathering of language activists and linguists in
Melbourne and is coordinated by Ruth Singer (Melbourne Uni), Harriet
Sheppard, Jonathan Schlossberg, Alan Ray, Giordana Santosuosso and Jonathon
Lum (Monash Uni)

Contact Ruth Singer (University of Melbourne) with any questions:
rsinger at unimelb.edu.au
You can receive these announcements by signing up to the RNLD mailing list:
http://www.rnld.org/node/5
Dr Ruth Singer
DECRA Postdoctoral Fellow
Linguistics Program and Research Unit for Indigenous Language
School of Languages and Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
University of Melbourne 3010
Tel. +61 3 90353774
http://languages-linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/academic-staff/ruth-singer
http://indiglang.arts.unimelb.edu.au/
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