From broadcasting to participation media: minority language transmission and teaching
Abstract
The lecture will consider the role technology has played in the maintenance and transmission of community languages. Several case studies will be used to demonstrate how, with the advent of the Internet, the role of technology has changed from creating cultural broadcasting media to creating environments for cultural and language participation. It is still difficult to determine exactly what impact this new function of technology will have globally and on the maintenance of community languages in specific contexts. Research proves however that it can have a decisive impact on multilingual individuals and families as well as ethnic schools that decide to take advantage of new opportunities for learning through participation technologies. The lecture concludes that new policy, pedagogy, and support mechanisms must be developed to include participation technologies in all initiatives aimed at community language maintenance and transmission.
Assoc. Prof. Robert Debski
Associate Professor Robert Debski, School of Languages and Linguistics & Director of Horwood Language Centre, The University of Melbourne
Currently Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, he completed a PhD (Linguistics) on formal description and computer processing of grapheme-phoneme relations in Polish at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (1993). Since then he has taught Polish and cinematography at Stanford (1993-1996) and computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) at the University of Melbourne (1996-2007). He was the co-organizer of the inaugural WorldCALL conference in Melbourne (1998). He serves on the editorial boards of Re-CALL, CALL-EJ Online and JALT CALL Journal. His research interests are in the technological mediation of language learning. He also investigates the patterns of ethnic communication on the Internet in order to draw conclusions for language maintenance initiatives, both in the home environment and through ethnic institutions. Robert is the author and editor of several books and numerous articles. His recent book “Project-Based Language Teaching with Technology” was published by the NCELTR, Macquarie University (2006). His next book entitled “From Broadcasting to Participation Media: Minority Language Transmission and Teaching” will be published by Universitas, Cracow (2008). Robert is currently working on a study of individual and group bilingualism as a dynamic process on the example of English/Polish speakers in Australia.