On Language

Abstract: Whereas there has been much research on language and identity with respect to learners, teachers, and teacher educators, there has been little focus on the identity of the researcher, an important stakeholder in language education. Our research therefore addresses the following question: To what extent can narrative inquiry illuminate the ways in which researcher identity is negotiated in language teaching research? To address this question, we draw on a digital literacy study in multilingual Uganda to narrate how we engaged in our own storytelling, and the process by which we invited teachers to share their experiences of teaching through the medium of English as an additional language in a poorly resourced rural school. Central themes were our attempts to reduce power differentials between researchers and teachers, and our desire to increase teacher investment (Norton, 2000) in our collaborative research project. Drawing on numerous small stories (Bamberg, 2004; Georgakopoulou, 2006), we argue that several researcher identities were realized, including international guest, collaborative team member, teacher, and teacher educator. Our article supports the case that small stories enrich traditional narrative inquiry, both theoretically and methodologically, and make visible the complex ways in which researcher identity impacts research, not only in language teaching, but in education more broadly.

Abstract: Purpose This tutorial is intended to inform readers about the development of theory of mind (understanding of mental states) and to discuss relationships between theory of mind and language development. Method A narrative review of selected literature on language and theory of mind is presented. Theory of mind is defined, and commonly used measures of theory of mind are described. Developmental relationships between language and theory of mind in typical and atypical populations are discussed. Literature-based suggestions for clinical assessment and intervention are provided, using a hypothetical case study. Conclusions The article serves as an introduction to current research about language and theory of mind, and emphasizes their interdependence in development. Implications of the relationships between theory of mind and language development for language assessment and intervention are discussed, and an argument is made that taking theory of mind into account will help clinicians enhance children’s comm...

Abstract: In this article, we examine the cultural categories and the conceptual logic that underlie the orthography debates about kreybl that have taken place over the last 50 years.1 In Haiti, as in many countries concerned with nation building, the development of an orthography for vernacular literacy has been neither a neutral activity nor simply about how to mechanically reduce a spoken language to written form. The processes of transforming a spoken language to written form have often been viewed as scientific, arbitrary, or unproblematic.2 However, the creation of supposedly arbitrary sound/sign (signified/signifier) relationships that constitute an orthography always involves choices based on someone's idea of what is important. This process of representing the sounds of language in written form is thus an activity deeply grounded in frameworks of value. We suggest that arguments about orthography reflect competing concerns about representations of Haitianness at the national and international level, that is, how speakers wish to define themselves to each other, as well as to represent themselves as a nation. Because acceptance of an orthography is based more often on political and social considerations than on linguistic or pedagogical factors, orthographic debates are rich sites for investigating competing nationalist discourses. To draw on Anderson's (1983) evocative notion, orthographic choice is really about "imagining" the past and the future of a community. To understand the symbolic importance of the decisions taken in standardizing kreyol orthography, we have focused on the interconnectedness of speech practices, language ideologies, and nationalist agendas. We draw on Silverstein's notion of linguistic ideologies, which are "sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use" (1979:193). Language ideology is the mediated link between social structures and forms of talk, standing in dialectical relation with, and thus significantly influencing, social, discursive, and linguistic practices. Research on language ideology is a bridge between language structure and language politics, as well as between linguistic and social theory (Woolard 1992:235-236). Language ideologies are likely places to This article analyzes competing representations of kreybl and the symbolic importance of decisions taken in standardizing a kreyol orthography. Kreybl, which educated Haitians claim to share with the masses, is an enduring symbol of Haitian identity, yet the image of this language is deeply contested in several arenas. Linking language ideology, in particular metalinguistic terms that refer to varieties of spoken kreybl, to orthographic choice, we view the debates as part of a nationalist discourse about Haitianness-what is authentic and legitimate-and examine the role of language in national identity formation. [Haitian Creole, language ideology, metalinguistics, orthography, national identity]

Abstract: Noam Chomsky is one of the most widely published and influential thinkers on language and mind. This book consists of an edited transcript of a lecture, delivered at the University of Delhi in January 1996, where Chomsky reflects on the history of the "generative enterprise" to relate it to some strikingly novel advances in grammatical theory.