To ensure smooth communication and collaboration, here are some troubleshooting tips to address common issues:
Check Internet Connection: Verify that you have a stable and reliable internet connection. Use a wired connection when possible, as it tends to be more stable than Wi-Fi. If using Wi-Fi, make sure you have a strong signal.
Update the Browser or App: Ensure that you are using the latest version of the web browser. Developers frequently release updates to address bugs and improve performance.
Clear Browser Cache: Sometimes, cached data can cause conflicts or issues. Clear the browser cache and cookies before joining the meeting.
Test Audio and Video: Before the meeting, check your microphone and camera to ensure they are working correctly. If you are a speaker, you can click on "Start Practice Session" button test to ensure audio and video devices are functioning.
Close Other Applications: Running multiple applications in the background can consume system resources and lead to performance issues. Close unnecessary apps to free up resources for the Dryfta meeting platform.
Restart Your Device: If you encounter persistent issues, try restarting your computer or mobile device. This can help resolve various software-related problems.
Use Supported Browsers: Ensure you are using a browser supported by the meeting platform. Recommended browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave.
Allow Necessary Permissions: Make sure the Dryfta meeting platform has the required permissions to access your microphone, camera, and other necessary features.
Disable VPN or Firewall: Sometimes, VPNs or firewalls can interfere with the connection to the meeting platform. Temporarily disable them and see if the issue persists.
Switch Devices: If possible, try joining the meeting from a different device to see if the problem is specific to one device.
Reduce Bandwidth Usage: In cases of slow or unstable internet connections, ask participants to disable video or share video selectively to reduce bandwidth consumption.
Update Drivers and Software: Ensure your operating system, audio drivers, and video drivers are up to date. Outdated drivers can cause compatibility issues with the Dryfta meeting platform.
Contact Support: If none of the above steps resolve the issue, reach out to the platform's support team. They can provide personalized assistance and troubleshoot specific problems.
By following these troubleshooting tips, you can tackle many common problems encountered on Dryfta meeting platform and have a more productive and seamless meeting experience.
Digital linguistic activism through fan translation of video games into Catalan
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages03:00 PM - 03:30 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/21 13:00:00 UTC - 2024/07/21 13:30:00 UTC
Misrepresented by the cultural and language industries for diverse reasons, users of minority and minoritized languages sometimes find ways to reclaim spaces where their languages can play a significant part. For instance, there are digital linguistic activism practices in grassroots communities that reposition L2 learning and use as agency with a social purpose (Zourou, 2020). Among multiple manifestations, fan translation may represent a fine interlinguistic and intercultural example of linguistic activism with a socially agentive purpose while affording language learning. A plain explanation of fan translation is translation made by fans for fans where a fan is understood as someone who is deeply connected to something or someone famous, oftentimes in relation to popular culture products (Sauro, 2019). A closer look into fan translation uncovers an intricate relationship between the activity of fan-translating and the motives of individual fan translators and fan translation communities. Some fan translators seek to expand the repertoire of popular culture products in minoritized languages such as Galician and Catalan. Using qualitative and digital ethnography techniques and thematic and discourse analysis, we were able to explain fan translation of video games with different individual fan translators and fan translation communities. Out of the fan translation communities we studied, one specifically aims at fan-translating video games into Catalan, a minoritized language in Spain (with an even more limited presence in Roussillon, France and Alghero, Italy). Consolidated findings indicate (1) the ecology of fan translation practices when the aim is to validate Catalan as a language of cultural consumption and production, (2) how fan translation prompts language learning not only by translating, but also by collectively discussing about translation strategies and choices, (3) how validating Catalan requires a high degree of interlinguistic awareness between the target language (Catalan), the source language for meaning verification (English), and intermediary dominant languages that may influence linguistic choices in Catalan (Spanish). Validating Catalan as a language for cultural consumption and production intersects linguistic choices in the fan translation community in interesting ways: (1) differentiating Catalan from Castilian Spanish, (2) recovering and promoting linguistic features perceived as 'more' Catalan, (3) favoring idiomatic and socioculturally embedded translation solutions in Catalan, signaling features of Catalan/Mediterranean culture, and (4) trying to promote the use of Catalan intralinguistic variants or other minoritized languages in the friend-zone of Catalan, like Aranese. In essence, fan translation can be either a sign of linguistic cosmopolitanism and activism or breeding ground for linguistically exclusive stances in the Catalan sociolinguistic reality. Both manifestations can be understood against contemporary political and linguistic realities of specific ethnolinguistic communities, and such sociocultural factors need to be considered if fan translation is ever to be integrated in language classrooms in some way or another.
References
Sauro, S. (2019). Fan fiction and informal language learning. In M. Dressman & R. W. Sadler (Eds.), The Handbook of Informal Language Learning (pp. 139–151). Wiley-Blackwell. Zourou, K. (2020). Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic. Alsic, Vol. 23, n° 1. https://doi.org/10.4000/alsic.4880
Quiet Resilience: Transgressing Ghana's postcolonial erasure of the Safaliba language in government schools on tribal lands
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages03:30 PM - 04:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/21 13:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/21 14:00:00 UTC
Ghana's postcolonial embrace of globalization recognizes English and nine of Ghana's 73 Indigenous languages for a two-year kindergarten program and the first three years of primary schooling. In Safalibaland, a tribal area in a rural region of Ghana, the Ghana Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service organize and support pedagogical practices, materials, their distribution, and professional teacher development in Gonja and English. Gonja is not morphosyntactically like Safaliba, relegating it a difficult second language for most Safaliba children to learn (Bodua-Mango, R. K., 2015; Schaefer, 2009; Schaefer, P., & Schaefer, J., 2003). In other words, Ghana's postcolonial embrace of globalization is a static model of a limited and strategic use of a small number of mother tongues for early transition into English. English is Ghana's only official language beyond early childhood reading and writing in the nine approved Ghanaian Indigenous languages, so even those are early-exit bilingual programs for which the lion's share of funding has been from the USA. This form of globalization has erases 64 of Ghana's Indigenous languages from international donor funding, materials development, workshops, professional development, and early-schooling generally. Teacher activists and allies from one of the 64 erased languages, Safaliba, have quietly resisted erasure of their language from their schools. This paper explores how they plan and facilitate reading and writing instruction in Safaliba with the support of parents and the council of elders in Mandari Ghana, Safalibaland's largest town. Data are ethnographic and a result of participant observation in school classrooms and during meetings among Safaliba teacher activists. All data are from a longitudinal study begun during two short visits in 2014 to the largest Safaliba speaking town, Mandari, Ghana, living in Mandari for 12 months on a Fulbright (2015-2016) and short visits in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. Data were collected via voice and video recording, field notes, interviews, photographs, and document collection. The paper provides an evidentiary trail of school language policy driven by teacher activists and their allies with wider community support. Findings show teachers and their allies as agents of social change in their schools. References Bodua-Mango, R. K. (2015). The phonology of a Safaliba three year old child. Thesis, University of Ghana, Legon. Schaefer, P. (2009). Narrative storyline marking in Safaliba: Determining the meaning and discourse function of a typologically-suspect pronoun set. Dissertation, University of Texas at Arlington. Schaefer, P. and Schaefer, J. (2003). Collected field reports on the phonology of Safaliba. (Collected Language Notes, 25) Legon, Ghana: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.
Presenters Ari Sherris Associate Professor Of Bilingual Education , Texas A&M University-KINGSVILLE
Immigrant mothers as bilingual coaches in South Korea: Towards activism and advocacy
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages04:00 PM - 04:30 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/21 14:00:00 UTC - 2024/07/21 14:30:00 UTC
The dominant assimilation practice and policies in South Korea have translated into monolingual, Korean-only practices in all aspects of the society. The 2018 research on Multicultural Family's Condition shows that ethnolinguistically minoritized children's positive attitudes toward their mother's first languages have decreased since 2012. Similarly, immigrant mothers' spouses and other family members' support for their heritage language (HL) use and teaching at home have also decreased. This research also reports that 52.3% of the children are raised in an environment where they are not encouraged to use the HL, and only 25.1 % of them actually learn it.
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the major recent government policies reflect an assets-based perspective on immigrant mothers' HLs and their children's potential bilingualism. For instance, the 2010 Multicultural Family Support Policy Basic Plan prioritized the development and maintenance of the children's HLs to prepare them to be global citizens ultimately for South Korea's economic and political prosperity. This government initiative had been rendered as "linguistically gifted class" offerings in seven different languages at local Health Family Support Centers. Since 2015, the language classes for the children have been replaced with bilingual coaching services for multicultural families under the initiative called Bilingual Education Environment Fostering Plan. Bilingual coaches with immigration backgrounds educate the families about bilingual education, teach parents strategies about interacting with preschool children in their first language, foster a community for the families, and provide further guidance to families about bilingual practices by visiting homes. This important shift in the policy, from bilingual education exclusively for the children to the families, is a recognition that fostering bilingualism for children must begin in the communities and families especially with young children.
Given most children continue to be deprived of the right to acquire mother tongue in the South Korean context, initiatives like the bilingual coaching program hold promise. Examining the ways it is actually implemented from the perspective of the practitioners could help sustain a well-intended program, which contributes to the children's bilingual and bicultural development. Accordingly, the current study aims to explore perspectives and experiences of bilingual coaches who work at local Health Family Support Centers across South Korea. Data primarily came from 70-120 minute-long individual interviews with seven bilingual coaches, who were originally from China, Japan, and Vietnam. Their lived experiences were analyzed through narrative inquiry. Thematic coding method yielded that all coaches emphasized the immigrant mothers' dedication to bilingual education as the most important factor in promoting bilingualism in the family. They also drew on their own experiences as immigrants in South Korea when coaching other families. While they found the work rewarding, they also pointed out challenges, such as heavy caseloads, not having expertise in early childhood education, and having to coach families in whose language they do not have proficiency. The ongoing research has implications for policies, programs, and practices for multicultural families and children beyond the South Korean context.
THE UNIVERSITY COMES TO INDIGENOUS VILLAGE: EPISTEMOLOGICAL (DIS)ARTICULATIONS IN INDIGENOUS TEACHER TRAINING PROCESSES IN THE STATE OF AMAZONAS IN NORTHERN OF BRAZIL"
Oral Presentation[SYMP56] OPEN CALL - Minority languages04:30 PM - 05:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/21 14:30:00 UTC - 2024/07/21 15:00:00 UTC
Based on post-colonial and contestatory modernity/coloniality/decoloniality studies (Mignolo, 2003; Maher, 2006; Gómez Quintero, 2010; Souza Santos, 2011; Arguello Parra, 2019; among others), which seek to decolonize knowledge-power in the production and validation of knowledge, this paper investigates the epistemological dialogues between the forms of knowledge production in the university and in the indigenous village. The idea is, therefore, to analyze the modus operandi of the training process of indigenous teachers in the state of Amazonas in Northern of Brazil, focusing on the Intercultural Pedagogy course offered by a public university to identify the epistemological principles that guide and validate this training process. Assumed as qualitative-interpretative research, with an ethnographic nature, in the sense proposed by Erickson (1993), the empirical basis of the research is constituted by semi-structured interviews carried out with training and indigenous teachers in training, by the pedagogical project of the Intercultural Pedagogy course in its different dimensions, in addition to the teaching materials produced by teachers and students in and for the training process. Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA), in the sense proposed by Bruno & Galiazzi (2006) is used as a tool to analyze the data. Although the narrative built by the project that guides Intercultural Pedagogy and by the higher education institution that offers the course is one of convergent epistemological dialogues between the university and the indigenous village, the preliminary results of the investigation point to two movements – solidarity and overlap, in the terms proposed by Rafael (2001), of epistemological guidelines in the training processes of indigenous teachers offered in the state of Amazonas. Discussions with populations and indigenous the inclusion of indigenous as training teachers, are examples of the epistemological solidarity movement. The movement of epistemological overlap occurs when, despite the attitude of considering ethnocultural studies in the organization and offer of training (solidarity), the implementation of training ratifies the modus operandi of Eurocentric training processes, with modes of production and validation of knowledge proposed by the so-called Cartesian science. The results of the investigation also point to a veiled resistance on the part of indigenous peoples, often silenced by the knowledge-power that the university itself propagates and represents in non-indigenous society and that is extended to the indigenous territories where it arrives.
Presenters JOAO BENEILSON MAIA GATINHO QUADRA 3 CONJUNTO 6 LOTE 01, BLOCO AP 202 PARANOA, BRASILIA-DF, CEP 71587990, UNIVERSIDADE DO ESTADO DO AMAZONAS
Boris Vazquez-Calvo
Ari Sherris
JOAO BENEILSON MAIA GATINHO