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Upcoming and past conferences held by the Department

Upcoming conferences

Workshop on Heritage Language

Conference venue:

University of the Ryukyus, Faculty of Law and Letters,

Shintō BLDG, Room 114

2009-02-20 - 2009-02-21

2009-02-20

10:00-10-45
Kiyoshi Hara (Joshibi University of Arts): On the concept of heritage language

10:45-11:30
Shinsho Miyara (University of the Ryukyus): The heritage languages of the Ryukyus

11:30-12:15
Byron Fija (Ryūkyū Shinpō): Revitalizing Okinawa's heritage language

13:30-14:15
Yoshiyuki Asahi (National Institute for Japanese Language): On language attrition

14:15-15:00
Christoph Goro Kimura (Sophia University): What is heritage language documentation?

15:15-16:00
Patrick Heinrich (University of the Ryukyus): On lexical documentation

16:00-16:45
Matthias Brenzinger (Cologne University): Discovering the unexpected

2009-02-21

10:00-10:45
Hidetoshi Shiraishi (Sapporo Gakuen University): On fieldwork

10:45-11:30
Rin Shimabukuro (University of the Ryukyus): On questionnaire research

11:30-12:15
Shigehisa Karimata (University of the Ryukyus): On phonological research

12:15-13:00
Yuko Sugita (Duisburg-Essen University): On annotations

14:00-14:45
Michinori Shimoji (Austalian National University): On compiling a reference grammar

14:45-15:30
Shinako Oyakawa (University of the Ryukyus): On data archives

15:45-16:30
Masahide Ishihara (University of the Ryukyus): On research ethics

16:30-17:15
Tjeerd deGraaf (Fryske Akademie): On endangered data

For more information, please check:
http://dunangmunui.com/conference_on_heritage_language
register: patrick@dunangmunui.com

Past conferences

“Babel in reverse? Language ideology in the 21st century”

2007-2-20 – 2007-2-22 Catholic Academy Wolfsburg / Mülheim.
Sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

Language shift and attempts of language revitalization are manifestations of language ideological views. Language ideologies constitute thereby the basis from which support for as well as criticism against language revitalization is generated. Language death is not a new phenomenon. Novel is the speed with which languages are presently lost. To what extent language endangerment is an effect of changing communicative requirements and to which extent it is an effect of language ideology remains an unresolved question so far. There can be no doubt, however, that dominant language ideologies, shaped in the course of nation building processes, are detrimental to the preservation of local languages. Such language ideologies address elite interests and overlook the interests of everybody else. Indigenous language minorities are crucially affected. As self-fulfilling prophecies, language ideologies play a crucial role in rendering multilingual polities into the monolingual nations they imagine to exist. Modernist language ideologies threaten linguistic diversity and they do so irrespective of the communicative requirements of their speakers. The present conference addresses these issues by discussing language endangerment with a focus on language ideology.

The questions to be addressed at the conference are:

To what extent are attempts for or scepticism against language revitalisations manifestations of modernist language ideology?
What language ideological views are in the way of developing new functions of local languages?
What is preventing speakers of endangered languages to use them more frequently?
What is undermining the utility of local languages?
To what extent can lack of utility of local languages be counter-balanced by cultural or socio-psychological factors?
How can dominated languages be marketed?
To whom does language revitalization appear to be irrelevant, inappropriate or a threat and why is that so?
How do local identities and cultures differ with or without local languages?
Do we perceive languages as systems or as performances and what are the effects thereof with regard to language revitalisation and language rights?
What are the limits of language policies with regard to language revitalisation?

Please click on the link below for presentation abstracts:

Abstracts

Tuesday, February 20th 2007

09:00-09:15 Welcome address by Erhard Reckwitz (Dean of the Faculty of Humanities) 09:15-10:00 Self-Introduction Participants

Chair: Thomas Heberer 10:00-10:55 Peter Mühlhäusler (Adelaide University) How can dominated languages be marketed? With special reference to Norf'k (Norfolk Island, South Pacific 11:00-11:55 Bernard Spolsky (Bar-Illan University) The prediction of natural intergenerational language transmission: a model and some cases

Lunch break

Chair: David Bradley 13:00-13:55 Sue Wright (Portsmouth University) New rights for regional languages - the case of Occitan and its neighbours 14:00-14:55 Masahide Ishihara (University of the Ryukyus) Can Kutuba no hi be a savior for Okinawan languages

Coffee break

Chair: Peter Mühlhäusler 15:30-16:25 Colin Williams (Cardiff University) When Mandarin gates yield 16:30-17:30 Tessa Carroll (Stirling University) Saving a precious cultural heritage symbol of Scotland? Or waste of money? Current attitudes to Gaelic language policy in Scotland

Wednesday, February 21st 2007

Chair: Tessa Carroll 09:00-09:55 Tjeerd de Graaf (Fryske Akademy) Endangered languages and endangered archives in the Russian Federation 10:00-10:55 Shinsho Miyara (University of the Ryukyus) Training teachers for Okinawan language revitalization 11:00-11:55 Patrick Heinrich (University Duisburg Essen) Language endangerment in the Ryukyu Islands – where exactly is the threat?

Lunch break

Chair: Olivia Kraef 13:00-13:55 Noriko Watanabe (City University of New York) Envisioning individual identity in Japan: language policies, ideology and orthography 14:00-14:55 Bairon Fija (Radio Okinawa): Redefining Uchinā history

Excursion to Zollverein Essen (18:00) and conference dinner at Casino Essen (20:00)

Thursday, February 22nd 2007

Chair: Sue Wright 09:00-09:55 Henning Klöter (Leiden University) The reshuffling of Taiwan’s linguistic hierarchy: purpose, strategies, and effects 10:00-10:55 Shin Matsuo (Tunghai University) Language choices and language attitudes in Taiwan 11:00-11:55 Yuko Sugita (University Duisburg Essen) Some suggestions for language documentation from the viewpoint interactional linguistics

Lunch break

Chair: Colin Williams 13:00-13:55 David Bradley (La Trobe University) Changing attitudes and maintaining endangered languages 14:00-14:55 Suhua Hu (Central University for Nationalities Beijing) Domains of Yi language in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture 15:00-15:55 Hongkai Sun (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) Applying the UNESCO criteria for assessing language endangerment to PR China's minority languages

Concert: Bairon Fija at Pianissimo in Duisburg (20:00)

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Foreign language learning in the age of globalization

2006-03-23 – 2006-03-24 Duisburg-Essen University

Globalisation has changed many aspects of our daily life and, to be sure, these changes do not leave language learning unaffected. The role of nation states, education, networks and foreign language skills are but some of the more prominent areas where changes are being felt. Foreign language education has to adapt to such changes. Language learning must be developed in line with the changing necessities brought about by globalisation. Therefore, the need to contemporize JFL with regard to (1) changes brought about by globalisation and (2) new insights in the field of foreign language education has to be addressed. These issues will be at the centre of attention in the present symposium.

In concrete terms, the present symposium investigates into the following three topics:

Language policies and changing language regimes: If new paradigms of language teaching are to be implemented and research supporting new language paradigms is to be launched, the changing status of Japanese as a foreign language in Europe needs to be explored.
Contemporary paradigms of JFL: Contemporizing JFL does not imply a complete abandonment of existing paradigms and practices. Nonetheless, these need to be assessed in full detail and enriched with new and alternative approaches.
Research for JFL: All discussion on language learning paradigms and policies must have a solid basis in micro-linguistic analysis of contemporary teaching practices. What is needed is to advance our insights in many aspects of Japanese as a foreign language in Europe and to encourage more teachers and researchers to participate in it. The present symposium aims to create for an impetus in that direction.

Thursday, March 23rd

9:00-9:15 Opening remarks Patrick Heinrich (Duisburg-Essen University)

1. New learners and new paradigms

Chair: Eric Kellerman

9:15 Bernd Rüschoff (Duisburg-Essen University)
Using computer and internet to enhance intercultural learning

10:05 Christian Galan (Toulouse University)
JFL – New students and/or new teaching paradigm?

10:50 – 11:05 coffee break

11:05 Ayako Shikama (Duisburg-Essen University)
Integration policy concerning migrants in Japan: From the viewpoint of Japanese language education

11:50-13:30 lunch break

2. Cognitive processes in foreign language learning

Chair: Bernd Rüschoff

13:30 Eric Kellerman (Radboud University)
Crosslinguistic influence in word and deed

14:20 Yuka Ando (Duisburg-Essen University)
The acquisition of “-ni”: Applying the 4-M Model and the Abstract Level Model

15:05 – 15:20 coffee break

15:20 Keiko Yoshioka (Leiden University)
Introduction of animate characters in speech and gesture in L2 narrative discourse

16:10 Kaoru Yoshioka (Duisburg-Essen University)
Tense-aspect morphology development: grounding in L2 Japanese

18:00 Conference dinner

Conference papers will be published in 2007.

Friday, March 24th

3. Acquisition planning

Chair: Viktoria Eschbach-Szabo

9:30 Bernard Spolsky (Bar Ilan University)
Japanese in European language education policy

10:20 Tessa Carroll (Stirling University)
JFL in the early twenty-first century: policy, learners and native speakers

11:05-11:20 coffee break

11:20 Patrick Heinrich (Duisburg-Essen University)
Teaching endangered languages – the case of Okinawan

12:05 – 13:45 lunch break

4. Interaction in contact situations

Chair: Bernard Spolsky

13:45 Viktoria Eschbach-Szabo (Tübingen University)
Words in the Japanese writing system and in rômaji

14:35 Christiane Hohenstein (Hamburg University)
Beyond assertion: Modality in Japanese expert discourse

15:20 - 15:45 coffee break

15:45 Yuko Sugita (Duisburg-Essen University)
Shared knowledge and institutional interaction in Japan

5. Open discussion

16:30 -17:30 Patrick Heinrich, Yuko Sugita and Kaoru Yoshioka
Duisburg-Essen University JSL Project

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International Conference on Changing Language Regimes in Globalizing Environments, Europe and Japan

2004-03-31 – 2004-04-02 Mercator-Haus, Duisburg-Essen University
Sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation

The aim of the conference is to further our understanding of the forces currently at work in changing the linguistic landscape of the world. The underlying assumption is that these forces can be detected both on the macro-level of national and international provisions for language use and language training and on the micro-level of structural changes induced by language contact. The notion of language regimes is intended to provide a link for the discussion of various processes which ought to be explored and discussed in a common framework rather than as isolated phenomena. Our expectation is that by bringing together scholars with diverse regional and linguistic backgrounds but a shared concern with changing language regimes the conference will fruitful discussions about new ideas for future research.

Wednesday, March 31st

1. Japan’s Multilingualism in the Making

Morning 9:30-11:30

John Maher (International Christian University Tokyo)
The principle of “cool” - designer multilingualism, post-ethnicity and new multicultural forms

Goebel-Noguchi (Ritsumeikan University Kyoto)
Politics, the media and Korean language acquisition in Japan

Afternoon 13:00-15:00

Peter Backhaus (University Duisburg-Essen)
Reading the city - signs of multilingualism in Tokyo

Takao Katsuragi (Gakushuin University Tokyo)
Three possibilities of Japanese language policy - multilingualism, civic national language policy, ethnic national language policy

Evening: 15:30-17:30

Tomonori Taki (University of Warwick)
Labour migration and the language barrier in contemporary Japan

Ayako Shikama (University Duisburg-Essen)
Japan as the receiving end of migration - attitudes in the host community

Thursday, April 1st

2. The Western Experience as a Model for Japan: Fix or Fault?

Morning 9:30-11:30

Kiyoshi Hara (Joshi Bijutsu University Tokyo)
The Japanese situation of language and dialects revitalization and the Western experience

Fumio Inoue (Tokyo University of Foreign Languages)
Ecolinguistic aspects of multilingual signs in Japan

Afternoon 13:00-15:00

Guus Extra & Kutlay Yagmur (Tilburg University)
Comparative perspectives on immigrant minority languages in multicultural Europe

Peter Nelde (Research Centre of Multilingualism Brussels)
The future has already begun - the new multilingualism and the European language policy

Evening: 15:30-17:30

Florian Coulmas (University Duisburg-Essen)
Changing language regimes

Christiane Hohenstein (Hamburg University)
Interactional expectations and linguistic knowledge in multilingual settings - the subliminal shaping of L2 German by L1 Japanese in academic expert discourse

Conference Dinner 19:00

Friday, April 2nd

3. New Horizons for Japanese as foreign Language?

Morning 9:30-11:30

Mizue Sasaki (Kanagawa University)
Use of words on Japanese/Chinese/foreign origin in Modern Japanese and human relationships

Yuka Ando (University Duisburg-Essen)
Japanese language instruction and the question of „correctness”

Afternoon 13:00-15:00

Patrick Heinrich (University Duisburg-Essen)
How global is modern? Language Ideology in JFL textbooks

Christian Galan (Toulouse University)
To learn how to read and write Japanese (kokugo & nihongo) - a (multi)linguistic barrier?

Evening 15:30-17:30

Tessa Carroll (Stirling University)
Beyond keigo - smooth communication and the expression of respect in JFL

Jiri V. Neustupný (Monash University Melbourne)
Foreigners and the Japanese in contact situations

Papers have been published in: International Journal of the Sociology of Language 175/176
edited by Florian Coulmas & Patrick Heinrich.

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