Through Global Initiatives for Academic Networks (GIAN) initiated by the Ministry of Human Resour... more Through Global Initiatives for Academic Networks (GIAN) initiated by the Ministry of Human Resources, India, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad invited Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (TSK) and Prof Robert Phillipson (RP) to organise a two-week course titled ―Language policy, language in human rights, language imperialism, languages and linguistic genocide in education, language ecology‖. This course addressed the question: WHY DO LANGUAGES DISAPPEAR? The course explored some of the drivers such as globalisation, growthism, military, economic and other structural inequalities, linguistic imperialism as one dimension of neo-imperialism, and internal colonialism for rationalizing global and local injustices. The interview that follows this introduction was documented during the two-week course. The Interview: Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Prof Robert Phillipson need no formal introduction. Researchers in Language politics, Bilingualism, SLA and Teacher education, Language Rights and Educat...
Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, 2020
This paper presents the adaptation of MAIN to Gondi (Dantewada), Halbi and Hindi for Gondi-Hindi ... more This paper presents the adaptation of MAIN to Gondi (Dantewada), Halbi and Hindi for Gondi-Hindi and Halbi-Hindi bilinguals. The Gondi and Halbi communities and the context in which Gondi-Hindi and Halbi-Hindi bilingual children are growing up are described, and the adaptation process is outlined together with its theoretical underpinnings. Finally, results from a study of 54 Halbi-Hindi bilinguals from Grade 3 (Mean age = 8.5 years), Grade 5 (Mean age = 10.9 years) and Grade 7 (Mean age = 12.9 years) are presented. The results showed that, for the macrostructure of Grade 3 and Grade 5, L1 retelling was significantly better than L2 retelling, though this pattern was not found in Grade 7 where the performance was at the same level across languages for retelling. Narrative macrostructure was consistently higher in tellings than in the retellings regardless of languages and grades.
Translation of MAIN to Hindi incorporated the modifications from the Halbi-Gondi versions and the... more Translation of MAIN to Hindi incorporated the modifications from the Halbi-Gondi versions and the Revised MAIN (2019). Additionally, this time round, we were conscious of the variations that exist in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi. So the need for Hindi version of MAIN that would be sensitive to the variations in Hindi Narratives was felt. Census India projects Hindi to be spoken by about 41% of the Indian population as its mother tongue. And to this extent 43 dialects (number varies) are designated as dialects of Hindi under the broad category of ‘Hindi-speaking-belt’ or Hindi continua. Chhattisgarhi which is the official language of the State of Chhattisgarh is shown as a dialect of Hindi; therefore, the decision as to whether the ‘Chhattisgarhi’ variations had to be included in the scoring sheets had to be taken. We constructed a words list (with nouns, verbs, adjectives and IST) in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi and noticed differences like the following: goat in Hindi is ‘bakari’/ bhakari/ (female: singular) but in Chhattisgarhi the word would be /bhokhari:/ (male: singular) and ‘cheri’ /ʧeri:/ (female: singular).
Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languag... more Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languages) and Hindi (the official language of India) spoken in the district of Dantewada in the State of Chhattisgarh, India. First, the specific context of the district of Dantewada, India, operationalizes a residential education planning that aspires for early exposure to the dominant L2 as the medium of instruction from class 1 onwards. The residential arrangement, where the child lives in the school except for during vacation and school-breaks, impacts the child’s community engagement and familial interactions which means that child’s home language development is not supported in school and through family interactions. It is possible that the child’s HL and SL development may not be age appropriate. As a result, typically developing bilingual children run the risk of being branded as affected by DLD. Secondly, while in the literature (for instance, in Armon-Lotem, De Jong & Meir, 2015), there are intensive discussions on over-diagnoses and under-diagnosis of DLD in bilingual and atypically developing monolingual and bilingual children, there is little discussion or even awareness of DLD specifically with the indigenous children. Exacerbating the situation is the general lack of culturally-appropriate and monolingualy unbiased instruments (Mohanty & Perragaux, 1996) especially in the case of Gondi and Halbi children (see Fig 1 for the State and district in which these ITM languages are spoken in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh). This humble attempt to adapt MAIN in order to disentangle bilingualism from DLD could be the beginning.
Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languag... more Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languages) and Hindi (the official language of India) spoken in the district of Dantewada in the State of Chhattisgarh, India (Fig 1). First, the specific context of the district of Dantewada, India, operationalizes a residential education planning that aspires for early exposure to the dominant L2 as the medium of instruction from class 1 onwards. The residential arrangement, where the child lives in the school except for during vacation and school-breaks, impacts the child’s community engagement and familial interactions which means that child’s home language development is not supported in school and through family interactions. It is possible that the child’s HL and SL development may not be age appropriate. As a result, typically developing bilingual children run the risk of being branded as affected by DLD. Secondly, while in the literature (for instance, in Armon-Lotem, De Jong & Meir, 2015), there are intensive discussions on over-diagnoses and under-diagnosis of DLD in bilingual and atypically developing monolingual and bilingual children, there is little discussion or even awareness of DLD specifically with the indigenous children. Exacerbating the situation is the general lack of culturally-appropriate and monolingualy unbiased instruments (Mohanty & Perragaux, 1996) especially in the case of Gondi and Halbi children (see Fig 1 for the State and district in which these ITM languages are spoken in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh). This humble attempt to adapt MAIN in order to disentangle bilingualism from DLD could be the beginning.
... Search result page. Title: Learning to Read: Training My ESL Learners. Author: ChimiralaUma M... more ... Search result page. Title: Learning to Read: Training My ESL Learners. Author: ChimiralaUma Maheshwari. Abstract: Journal: Humanising Language Teaching. Issn: 17559715. EIssn: Year: 2010. Volume: 12. Issue: 3. pages/rec.No: Key words, ...
Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Prof Robert Phillipson need no formal introduction. Researchers in ... more Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Prof Robert Phillipson need no formal introduction. Researchers in Language politics, Bilingualism, SLA and Teacher education, Language Rights and Educational Cultural Studies, Language Policy and Planning, and so on will be familiar with their writings and their perspectives on language and educational access and equity. We wish to highlight candidly right at the beginning that the issues raised in this interview have been poignantly addressed by the experts in several of their writings along their illustrious careers. The experts express this view at several points in the interview as well and hence the readers are warned against expecting any earth-shaking questions being asked. What the interviewers did attempt earnestly was to localise issues that ranged from the effect of seemingly innocent looking language legislations (promoting/ restricting languages) to language death to political stand on the Rohingya to concerns on traditional knowledge – all of which are directly/indirectly implicated to or by language. Two reasons necessitate this attempt to localise issues: 1) to refute denial of the presence of some of the issues highlighted in the interview in Asian contexts in a generic sense; and 2) to raise awareness on language as a discriminating factor (something that Indian constitution is yet to realise).
Further, the questions asked are based on the opinions of the interviewers alone and are aimed at gaining insightful responses from the two experts. Interested readers can access the interview at:https://youtu.be/cye3lA-Gpik
Through Global Initiatives for Academic Networks (GIAN) initiated by the Ministry of Human Resour... more Through Global Initiatives for Academic Networks (GIAN) initiated by the Ministry of Human Resources, India, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad invited Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (TSK) and Prof Robert Phillipson (RP) to organise a two-week course titled ―Language policy, language in human rights, language imperialism, languages and linguistic genocide in education, language ecology‖. This course addressed the question: WHY DO LANGUAGES DISAPPEAR? The course explored some of the drivers such as globalisation, growthism, military, economic and other structural inequalities, linguistic imperialism as one dimension of neo-imperialism, and internal colonialism for rationalizing global and local injustices. The interview that follows this introduction was documented during the two-week course. The Interview: Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Prof Robert Phillipson need no formal introduction. Researchers in Language politics, Bilingualism, SLA and Teacher education, Language Rights and Educat...
Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, 2020
This paper presents the adaptation of MAIN to Gondi (Dantewada), Halbi and Hindi for Gondi-Hindi ... more This paper presents the adaptation of MAIN to Gondi (Dantewada), Halbi and Hindi for Gondi-Hindi and Halbi-Hindi bilinguals. The Gondi and Halbi communities and the context in which Gondi-Hindi and Halbi-Hindi bilingual children are growing up are described, and the adaptation process is outlined together with its theoretical underpinnings. Finally, results from a study of 54 Halbi-Hindi bilinguals from Grade 3 (Mean age = 8.5 years), Grade 5 (Mean age = 10.9 years) and Grade 7 (Mean age = 12.9 years) are presented. The results showed that, for the macrostructure of Grade 3 and Grade 5, L1 retelling was significantly better than L2 retelling, though this pattern was not found in Grade 7 where the performance was at the same level across languages for retelling. Narrative macrostructure was consistently higher in tellings than in the retellings regardless of languages and grades.
Translation of MAIN to Hindi incorporated the modifications from the Halbi-Gondi versions and the... more Translation of MAIN to Hindi incorporated the modifications from the Halbi-Gondi versions and the Revised MAIN (2019). Additionally, this time round, we were conscious of the variations that exist in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi. So the need for Hindi version of MAIN that would be sensitive to the variations in Hindi Narratives was felt. Census India projects Hindi to be spoken by about 41% of the Indian population as its mother tongue. And to this extent 43 dialects (number varies) are designated as dialects of Hindi under the broad category of ‘Hindi-speaking-belt’ or Hindi continua. Chhattisgarhi which is the official language of the State of Chhattisgarh is shown as a dialect of Hindi; therefore, the decision as to whether the ‘Chhattisgarhi’ variations had to be included in the scoring sheets had to be taken. We constructed a words list (with nouns, verbs, adjectives and IST) in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi and noticed differences like the following: goat in Hindi is ‘bakari’/ bhakari/ (female: singular) but in Chhattisgarhi the word would be /bhokhari:/ (male: singular) and ‘cheri’ /ʧeri:/ (female: singular).
Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languag... more Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languages) and Hindi (the official language of India) spoken in the district of Dantewada in the State of Chhattisgarh, India. First, the specific context of the district of Dantewada, India, operationalizes a residential education planning that aspires for early exposure to the dominant L2 as the medium of instruction from class 1 onwards. The residential arrangement, where the child lives in the school except for during vacation and school-breaks, impacts the child’s community engagement and familial interactions which means that child’s home language development is not supported in school and through family interactions. It is possible that the child’s HL and SL development may not be age appropriate. As a result, typically developing bilingual children run the risk of being branded as affected by DLD. Secondly, while in the literature (for instance, in Armon-Lotem, De Jong & Meir, 2015), there are intensive discussions on over-diagnoses and under-diagnosis of DLD in bilingual and atypically developing monolingual and bilingual children, there is little discussion or even awareness of DLD specifically with the indigenous children. Exacerbating the situation is the general lack of culturally-appropriate and monolingualy unbiased instruments (Mohanty & Perragaux, 1996) especially in the case of Gondi and Halbi children (see Fig 1 for the State and district in which these ITM languages are spoken in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh). This humble attempt to adapt MAIN in order to disentangle bilingualism from DLD could be the beginning.
Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languag... more Two primary concerns necessitate the adaptation of MAIN into Gondi, Halbi (two Indigenous languages) and Hindi (the official language of India) spoken in the district of Dantewada in the State of Chhattisgarh, India (Fig 1). First, the specific context of the district of Dantewada, India, operationalizes a residential education planning that aspires for early exposure to the dominant L2 as the medium of instruction from class 1 onwards. The residential arrangement, where the child lives in the school except for during vacation and school-breaks, impacts the child’s community engagement and familial interactions which means that child’s home language development is not supported in school and through family interactions. It is possible that the child’s HL and SL development may not be age appropriate. As a result, typically developing bilingual children run the risk of being branded as affected by DLD. Secondly, while in the literature (for instance, in Armon-Lotem, De Jong & Meir, 2015), there are intensive discussions on over-diagnoses and under-diagnosis of DLD in bilingual and atypically developing monolingual and bilingual children, there is little discussion or even awareness of DLD specifically with the indigenous children. Exacerbating the situation is the general lack of culturally-appropriate and monolingualy unbiased instruments (Mohanty & Perragaux, 1996) especially in the case of Gondi and Halbi children (see Fig 1 for the State and district in which these ITM languages are spoken in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh). This humble attempt to adapt MAIN in order to disentangle bilingualism from DLD could be the beginning.
... Search result page. Title: Learning to Read: Training My ESL Learners. Author: ChimiralaUma M... more ... Search result page. Title: Learning to Read: Training My ESL Learners. Author: ChimiralaUma Maheshwari. Abstract: Journal: Humanising Language Teaching. Issn: 17559715. EIssn: Year: 2010. Volume: 12. Issue: 3. pages/rec.No: Key words, ...
Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Prof Robert Phillipson need no formal introduction. Researchers in ... more Prof Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Prof Robert Phillipson need no formal introduction. Researchers in Language politics, Bilingualism, SLA and Teacher education, Language Rights and Educational Cultural Studies, Language Policy and Planning, and so on will be familiar with their writings and their perspectives on language and educational access and equity. We wish to highlight candidly right at the beginning that the issues raised in this interview have been poignantly addressed by the experts in several of their writings along their illustrious careers. The experts express this view at several points in the interview as well and hence the readers are warned against expecting any earth-shaking questions being asked. What the interviewers did attempt earnestly was to localise issues that ranged from the effect of seemingly innocent looking language legislations (promoting/ restricting languages) to language death to political stand on the Rohingya to concerns on traditional knowledge – all of which are directly/indirectly implicated to or by language. Two reasons necessitate this attempt to localise issues: 1) to refute denial of the presence of some of the issues highlighted in the interview in Asian contexts in a generic sense; and 2) to raise awareness on language as a discriminating factor (something that Indian constitution is yet to realise).
Further, the questions asked are based on the opinions of the interviewers alone and are aimed at gaining insightful responses from the two experts. Interested readers can access the interview at:https://youtu.be/cye3lA-Gpik
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1) to refute denial of the presence of some of the issues highlighted in the interview in Asian contexts in a generic sense; and
2) to raise awareness on language as a discriminating factor (something that Indian constitution is yet to realise).
Further, the questions asked are based on the opinions of the interviewers alone and are aimed at gaining insightful responses from the two experts.
Interested readers can access the interview at:https://youtu.be/cye3lA-Gpik
1) to refute denial of the presence of some of the issues highlighted in the interview in Asian contexts in a generic sense; and
2) to raise awareness on language as a discriminating factor (something that Indian constitution is yet to realise).
Further, the questions asked are based on the opinions of the interviewers alone and are aimed at gaining insightful responses from the two experts.
Interested readers can access the interview at:https://youtu.be/cye3lA-Gpik