LING 3017 - Language Documentation, Reclamation & Maintenance
North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2025
Language maintenance, ie. keeping small and indigenous language varieties as strong as possible in the face of globalisation & invasive mainstream media, is of vital interest both in Australia and internationally. Equally, language reclamation (or `language revival? as it is otherwise known) is becoming increasingly relevant, whether at a national, regional or local scale, as descendants of speakers of lost languages seek to reconnect with their linguistic heritage. Language maintenance and language reclamation both strongly depend on solid linguistic documentation, & its distillation into effective language programs and language materials, as overseen by the relevant language communities. This course then focuses on the nature and practice of language documentation for maintenance and reclamation purposes, and the theory and practice of language program development, application, evaluation and improvement, at different scales, and for a range of different community goals and aspirations.
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General Course Information
Course Details
Course Code LING 3017 Course Language Documentation, Reclamation & Maintenance Coordinating Unit European Languages, and Linguistics Term Semester 1 Level Undergraduate Location/s North Terrace Campus Units 3 Contact Up to 3 hours per week Available for Study Abroad and Exchange Y Prerequisites At least 6 units of Level II undergraduate study Incompatible LING 2050 Assessment Practical assignment (1000 word) 20%, Group tutorial oral presentation 25%, Research Essay (2500 word) 45%, Reflective Journal 10% Course Staff
Course Coordinator: Mrs Susie Greenwood
Course Timetable
The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.
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Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes
After successfully undertaking the course, students will
1. think critically and analyse perspicaciously language revival.
2. be aware of the importance of language for well-being, cultural autonomy and intellectual and spiritual sovereignty.
3. be able to participate in revival efforts in Indigenous, minority and other endangered-heritage communities all over the globe.
4. be aware of issues of traditional cultural expressions and Intellectual Property of owners and custodians of the language.
5. possess linguistic analytical skills to interpret and assess historical source material.
6. draw comparisons between a range of language reclamation movements such as Hebrew, Barngarla and Hawaiian, and identify common features and points of difference.
7. write a coherent and logically-argued essay involving language reclamation, morphology, syntax, writing system, phonology and semantics, drawing on a range of perspectives and source material in answer to a question posed.
8. investigate the ways in which the Barngarla language is being revived, including creative, technological and talknological innovations.University Graduate Attributes
This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:
University Graduate Attribute Course Learning Outcome(s) Attribute 1: Deep discipline knowledge and intellectual breadth
Graduates have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their subject area, the ability to engage with different traditions of thought, and the ability to apply their knowledge in practice including in multi-disciplinary or multi-professional contexts.
1-8 Attribute 2: Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving
Graduates are effective problems-solvers, able to apply critical, creative and evidence-based thinking to conceive innovative responses to future challenges.
8 Attribute 3: Teamwork and communication skills
Graduates convey ideas and information effectively to a range of audiences for a variety of purposes and contribute in a positive and collaborative manner to achieving common goals.
2,3,5 Attribute 4: Professionalism and leadership readiness
Graduates engage in professional behaviour and have the potential to be entrepreneurial and take leadership roles in their chosen occupations or careers and communities.
4,5 Attribute 5: Intercultural and ethical competency
Graduates are responsible and effective global citizens whose personal values and practices are consistent with their roles as responsible members of society.
2, 3, 4, 5 Attribute 6: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competency
Graduates have an understanding of, and respect for, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values, culture and knowledge.
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Learning Resources
Required Resources
Recommended Resources
1. Boroditsky, Lera and Alice Gaby 2010, ‘Remembrances of Times East: Absolute Spatial Representations of Time in an Australian Aboriginal Community’. Psychological Science. vol. 21 no. 11, pp.1635-1639
2. Dorian, Nancy C. 1994. ‘Purism vs. Compromise in Language Revitalization and Language Revival’, Language in Society 23: 479-494.
3. Evans, Nicholas 2010. Dying Words. Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us. Malden – Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
4. Fishman, Joshua A. 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon (UK): Multilingual Matters.
5. Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.) 2001. Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective. Clevedon (UK): Multilingual Matters.
6. Hallett, Darcy; Michael J. Chandler and Christopher E. Lalonde 2007. ‘Aboriginal Language Knowledge and Youth Suicide’, Cognitive Development 22: 392-399.
7. Keysar, Boaz, Sayuri L. Hayakawa and Sun Gyu An 2012. ‘The Foreign-Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases’. Psychological Science. Vol. 23 no. 6 pp. 661-668.
8. King, Jeanette, Ray Harlow, Catherine Watson, Peter Keegan and Margaret Maclagan 2009. ‘Changing Pronunciation of the MÄÂÂori Language Implications for Revitalization’, pp. 85-96 of Jon Reyhner and Louise Lockard (editors), Indigenous Language Revitalization: Encouragement, Guidance & Lessons Learned. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University.
9. Kovács, Ágnes Melinda and Jacques Mehler 2009. ‘Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants’, PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), April 13, 2009. http://www.pnas.org/content/106/16/6556.abstract
10. López-García, Angel 2005. The Grammar of Genes. How the Genetic Code Resembles the Linguistic Code. Peter Lang.
11. Phillipson, Robert (ed.) 2000. Rights to Language. Equity, Power and Education. Mahwah, NJ – London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
12. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and Tobert Phillipson (eds) 1995. Linguistic Human Rights. Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination. Berlin – New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
13. Trask, R. L. 1996. Historical Linguistics. London: Arnold.
Online Learning
Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad and Robert Amery 2015. Lang101x: Language Revival: Securing the Future of Endangered Languages, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). AdelaideX.
https://www.edx.org/course/language-revival-securing-future-adelaidex-lang101xhttp://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news79582.html
http://www.facebook.com/Revivalistics
https://blogs.adelaide.edu.au/adelaidex/2015/06/23/new-adelaidex-mooc-explores-how-to-revive-endangered-languages/
Revivalistics items:
BBC 2019:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190320-the-man-bringing-dead-languages-back-to-life
Why revive languages? Babbel (2018): https://youtu.be/izVGZRqciTY
An 8-minute clip of Stephen Fry interviewing Professor Zuckermann on the Hebrew Revival: http://vimeo.com/channels/357807/44019045
BBC World Service: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03fslbj
A 5-minute clip on the revival of the Barngarla Aboriginal language (Port Augusta): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZPjdNaLCho
Barngarla people rediscover their language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPlWc4f_zM
An article by Anna Goldsworthy on the Barngarla language reclamation (The Monthly, September 2014): http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/september/1409493600/anna-goldsworthy/voices-land
Port Lincoln Times, March 2018:
http://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/5275973/connection-through-175-year-link/
Al Jazeera, 2018:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/starting-scratch-aboriginal-group-reclaims-lost-language-180626082306196.html
NITV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3VvxOtd5IU
An interview with Stolen Generation Barngarla man Howard Richards and his wife Isabel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-lURCA_ErM
A blog on Revivalistics, language reclamation and wellbeing: http://hiphilangsci.net/2013/06/26/historical-and-moral-arguments-for-language-reclamation/
Scotty Morrison Interviewing Professor Zuckermann on Te Reo Maori: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_5Qkk7KsRE
Lingua Franca, ABC Radio National,20 October 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/2012-10-20/4320276
Language More Important than Land: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/115509/language-more-important-than-land-academic
Stop, Revive and Survive, The Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/stop-revive-and-survive/story-e6frgcko-1226385194433
Sleeping Languages May Be Lost Forever: http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/226315/sleeping-languages-may-be-lost-forever
Compensation for Lost Languages: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/compensation-for-lost-languages/story-e6frgcjx-1226082975633
Aboriginal Languages Deserve Revival: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/aboriginal-languages-deserve-revival/story-e6frgcko-1225766141160
Australia’s Unspeakable Aboriginal Tragedy: http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australias-unspeakable-indigenous-tragedy/
Language Revival: Sleeping Beauties Awake: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-events/media/2012/language-revival-sleeping-beauties-awake
Language revival expert calls for native tongue title: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1208/S00480/language-revival-expert-calls-for-native-tongue-title.htm
http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/jishizixun/82968.html
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3810408.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/waking-up-australia27s-sleeping-beauty-languages/4844316
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news63281.html
http://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/1669125/reclaiming-their-language/
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=10618
http://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/story/1660205/cultural-historical-event-begins/
http://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/1673958/group-moves-to-preserve-barngarla-language/?cs=12
http://www.paradisec.org.au/blog/2013/07/rejoicing-at-australex/
Additional course-related material will be posted on MyUni (under Course Content / Course Material), including Lecture Content, Announcements and other resources. -
Learning & Teaching Activities
Learning & Teaching Modes
This course is delivered through a two-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial each week. Lectures will provide much of the content, but will also provide opportunity for discussion of issues from time to time. Tutorials will be more focussed on practical engagement with language data, problem-solving and discussion. Formative work will be undertaken in tutorials to prepare students for the completion of summative assessment tasks.Workload
The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.
1 x 2-hour lecture per week (x12) 24 hours
1x 1-hour tutorial per week (x10) 10 hours
1 x 5 hours Practicals/Reading per week (x12) 60 hours
1 x 5 hours Assignment Preparation per week (x12) 60 hours
Total 154 hours
Learning Activities Summary
Week, Lecture, Content, Associated Readings, Assignments
Week 1
Introduction: Revivalistics as a New Trans-Disciplinary Field of Enquiry – Revival Linguistics and Beyond
Fishman 1991, 2001
Week 2
Revivalomics: Language Revival and the Human Genome: What are the similar processes in Genomics and Revivalistics? Is there a link between language and DNA?
López-García 2005
Week 3
Language Revival and Historical Linguistics: The Stammbaum (Family Tree) Model vs the Congruence Principle: Tree of Life or Network of Life? Cross-Fertilization, Natural Selection and Genetic Mix & Match in Language Revival All Over the Globe
Trask 1996, Chapter 7
Week 4
Language Revival and Mental Health and Wellbeing
Hallett et al. 2007, Zuckermann and Walsh 2014
Tutorial Oral Presentation
1000-Word Mid-Point Assignment
Week 5
Ethical Justifications for Language Revival Zuckermann
MOOC I
Tutorial Oral Presentation
1000-Word Mid-Point Assignment
Week 6
Aesthetic and Utilitarian Justifications for Language Revival
Boroditsky and Gaby 2010, Kovács and Mehler 2009, Keysar et al. 2012
1000-Word Mid-Point Assignment
Week 7
Universal Constraints vs Cultural Idiosyncrasies in Language Revival
Evans 2010
Tutorial Oral Presentation
Week 8
Reclaiming Sounds and Grammar
King et al. 2009
Tutorial Oral Presentation
Week 9
Reclaiming Vocabulary: Normativism vs Realism (Debate)
Dorian 1994
Tutorial Oral Presentation
Week 10
The Case of the Barngarla Aboriginal Language
Zuckermann MOOC
Tutorial Oral Presentation
Week 11
Revival and the Law: Native Tongue Title: Linguistic Human Rights
Zuckermann et al. 2015, Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson 1995, Phillipson 2000
Tutorial Oral Presentation
Week 12
Practical and Theoretical Implications
Tutorial Oral Presentation
Post-Presentational Paper -
Assessment
The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:
- Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
- Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
- Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
- Assessment must maintain academic standards.
Assessment Summary
TASK, WEIGHTING, LEARNING OBJECTIVES, DUE DATE
(1) 1000-word Mid-Point Assignment, 20%, 134568, MID SEMESTER BREAK
(2) Tutorial Oral Presentation, 25%, 36
(3) 3500-word post-presentational paper, 45%, 2176
(4) Attendance & Contribution (Positive Participation), 10%, 12345678
Assessment Related Requirements
Attendance of tutorials is compulsory. Students will be expected to complete additional exercises and small-scale investigations between tutorials. Application to these tasks will contribute to the 10% awarded to attendance and contribution (positive participation).
Assessment Detail
MID-POINT ASSIGNMENT (20%)
WORD COUNT: 1000 WORDS
Due: Mid-Semester Break
Students should submit a 1000-word practical providing Revived Barngarla neologisms for the following 10 terms, with explanations and justifications. (The Professor will provide you with a Barngarla dictionary.)
1. Teacher
2. Meaning
3. Mobile Phone
4. Chair
5. USB
6. Pencil
7. Mathematics
8. Desk
9. Book
10. Internet
TUTORIAL ORAL PRESENTATION (25%)
Presentation Date: various, from Week 3 onwards
Students are required to give an oral presentation (with handouts), EITHER (1) making an in-depth analysis of any topic related to language reclamation or revival linguistics (The topic can be chosen from the list of topics below), OR (2) conducting a critical review of a book/article on language revival (The article/book can be selected from the List of Learning Resources). The Professor will be happy to provide you with assistance in selecting the topic. Please feel free to raise any question about the presentation in the tutorials. Please note: Students are expected to contribute feedback on other students’ presentations.
List of Topics
Language and Wellbeing
Language Revival and Mental Health
Revivalomics
Language Revival and the Human Genome
What are the similar processes in Genomics and Revivalistics?
Is there a link between language and DNA?
Revival Linguistics and Historical Linguistics
The Stammbaum (Family Tree) Model vs the Congruence Principle
Tree of Life or Network of Life?
Cross-Fertilization in Language Revival
Natural Selection in Language Revival
Genetic Mix & Match in Language Revival
Ethical Reasons for Language Revival
Aesthetic Motivations for Language Revival
Economic Justifications for Language Revival
Cognitive Benefits of Language Revival
Universal Constraints vs Cultural Idiosyncrasies in Language Revival
Reclaiming Sounds
Reclaiming Morphology
Reclaiming Syntax
Reclaiming Vocabulary
Normativism vs Realism
Language Revival and the New Media
Technology/Talknology in the Service of Language Reclamation
Native Tongue Title
Linguistic Human Rights
OR Any other topic or article or book related to language revival. The topic can be selected from the ones covered in class. The article/book can be selected from the List of Learning Resources. The Professor will be happy to provide you with assistance in selecting the topic. Please feel free to raise any question about the assignment in the tutorials.
POST-PRESENTATIONAL PAPER (45%)
Word Count; 3,500 words
Due Date: TWO WEEKS AFTER THE END OF THE COURSE
Students should submit a 3,500-word post-presentation paper – further analysing the topic chosen for the tutorial oral presentation, incorporating the feedback received on the presentation.Submission
1. All assignments are to be handed in, with a signed cover sheet attached, to the School Office, Napier Building Level 7. (Linguistics cover sheets (purple) are available outside the School Office)
2. Ensure that the Course Title, Assignment Title & Topic appear on the cover sheet.
3. All assignments are to be submitted in hard copy
4. All assignments must be in grammatical English.
5. Always keep a copy of your work. (Just occasionally things do go astray!)
6. Assignments submitted late require a doctor’s certificate, counsellor’s certificate or similar proof/documentation.
7. Extensions (normally up to one week) may be negotiated through the Course Coordinator, but this MUST be organised prior to the due date.
8. Assignments submitted during the teaching semester may be collected within approximately two weeks of the submission date.
9. Students who wish to have their final assignment returned must submit a stamped, self-addressed A4 envelope to the School Office. The course name and lecturer’s name should also be listed on the envelope. If no envelope accompanies the final essay, it will not be returned and it will be graded only. No comments will be provided.Course Grading
Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:
M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme) Grade Mark Description FNS Fail No Submission F 1-49 Fail P 50-64 Pass C 65-74 Credit D 75-84 Distinction HD 85-100 High Distinction CN Continuing NFE No Formal Examination RP Result Pending Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.
Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.
Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.
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Student Feedback
The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.
SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
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Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
- Academic Credit Arrangements Policy
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- Modified Arrangements for Coursework Assessment Policy
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- Student Experience of Learning and Teaching Policy
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