Διαφάνεια στα δίγλωσσα δεδομένα: Προθετικότητες και επιλογές αναπαράστασης Αχιλλέας Κωστούλας Ερευνώντας με πολλές γλώσσες, Μαΐου 2012 Πανεπιστήμιο του Μάντσεστερ, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

Transparency in bilingual data: Intentionalities & representational positions Researching Multilingually, May 2012 The University of Manchester Achilleas Kostoulas

Overview My study Participants A linguistic hierarchy of power Challenges Intentionalities LinguapoliticalEpistemologicalMethodologicalEthical Representational Positions UneditedStandardisedUnabridgedSummarised

Research participants Learners: –Predominantly Greek (first language: Modern Greek) –Some with immigrant heritage (first language: Greek or Albanian, bilingual?) –Various levels of competence in English Teachers –Native speakers of Modern Greek –Formally trained in English –Some variance in English language competence Researcher –Native speaker of Modern Greek –Competent in English

A linguistic hierarchy Teachers Proficient learners Not so proficient learners

A linguistic hierarchy Teachers Proficient learners Not so proficient learners Researcher?

INTENTIONALITIES 1.Lingua-political 2.Epistemological 3.Methodological 4.Ethical

Lingua-political (I): The spread of English Mounting concern about the global spread of English (Crystal, 2000, Calvet 1999, Ngugi 1986, Phillipson 1992, 2009b). The spread of English in the academic domain, may lead to social capital deprecation among speakers of other languages. (cf. Phillipson 2009a). It would be helpful if scholarship could be produces in forms that acknowledge the diversity of the local linguistic ecology. Crystal, D. (2000). Language death. Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Calvet, L. J. (1999). La guerre de langues et de politiques linguistiques. Paris: Hachette. Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo (1986). Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. London : J. Currey. Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Phillipson, R. (2009a). English in globalisation, a lingua franca or a lingua frankensteinia? TESOL Quarterly, 43, Phillipson, R. (2009b). Linguistic imperialism continued. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lingua-political (II): Greek as a tri-graphic language Falling into disuse. In need of preservation. Ἑλληνικὰ: Πολυτονικῆ Γραφῆ Current standard; largely standardised Unmarked. Ελληνικά: Μονοτονική Γραφή Non-standardised; controversial In need of legitimating. Ellhnika: Latinotropos grafh

Epistemological Is 1-to-1 semantic equivalence… –desirable? –possible? Whose ‘voice’ does a translation convey?

Methodological Literal translation In the lesson of English, first we do the dictation, then we say the lesson, next we do exercises, and in the end they put on us exercises for the house, but and words for dictation. Interim document In a [typical] English lesson, we start with a vocabulary test, then we go through a presentation, next we do exercises, and in the end we are assigned homework, and [told to learn] some words. Στο μάθημα των Αγγλικών πρώτα γράφουμε ορθογραφία, στη συνέχεια λέμε το μάθημα, μετά κάνουμε ασκήσεις, και στο τέλος μας βάζουν ασκήσεις για το σπίτι, αλλά και λέξεις για ορθογραφία.

Ethical M: I think it is very important. I. I don’t say that, teachers who are not native speaker, speakers are not good at their job, but I >if we take into consideration the fact that students are examined. I I think it is very important because they come into contact with. new forms of language that perhaps is used by, the speaker (2 sec) with the pronunciation, intonation and, this helps them, a lot. [...] M: and then ask my students to give me examples. For example (2 sec) I when I teached the passive voice, I gave them the rule, and I told them ‘try to give me an example’. But this didn’t work with everybody because they feel the pressure that ‘I have to use the foreign language’ and they couldn’t do this.

REPRESENTATIONAL POSITIONS 1.Verbatim 2.Standardised 3.Unabridged 4.Summarised

A cline of representational positions Transparent Opaque Verbatim data Standardised data Bilingual representation Unabridged data Summarised data Monolingual representation

Amy: And I’m sure you know this better than I do, that at uni- >when we were at University< we learnt that for a child to learn there needs to be some kind of noticing, right? But when an Englishman speaks in correct, in RP [Received Pronunciation], he will say “dishes” but because he’s a native speaker it will be with devoicing in the /d/, you know, as in, like *“tishes” Achilleas: Do you belie- Do you think that this is, it amounts to a prob[lem? Amy: [Yes, but the Englishman does this without understanding, because he’s a native speaker. And not only that, he doesn’t even understand that this is, ti constitutes a problem for the Greek students, if that’s how he speaks. Verbatim bilingual data Amy: Και το ξέρεις κι εσύ καλύτερα από μένα, πως στην σχ- >το μάθαμε και απ’ την σχολή< ότι για να μάθει το παιδί κάτι πρέπει απαραίτητα να γίνει καποιο «noticing», έτσι; (2 sec) Αλλά ο Άγγλος όταν μιλάει με σωστή, με RP, θα πει «dishes» αλλά επειδή είναι native speaker, θα είναι με devoicing στο /d/, ξέρεις, και καλά σαν *«tishes» (3 sec) Achilleas : Πιστ- Νομίζες ότι αυτό είναι, ότι αποτελεί πρόβλη[μα; Amy: [Ναι, αλλά ο Αγγλος αυτό το κάνει χωρίς να το καταλαβαίνει, γιατί είναι native speaker. Και όχι μόνο αυτό, δεν καταλαβαίνει κιόλας ότι αυτό είναι, συνιστά πρόβλημα για τον Έλληνα μαθητή, αν μιλάει έτσι.

Amy: And I’m sure you know this better than I do, that at uni- >when we were at University< we learnt that for a child to learn there needs to be some kind of noticing, right? But when an Englishman speaks in correct, in RP [Received Pronunciation], he will say “dishes” but because he’s a native speaker it will be with devoicing in the /d/, you know, as in, like *“tishes” Achilleas: Do you belie- Do you think that this is, it amounts to a prob[lem? Amy: [Yes, but the Englishman does this without understanding, because he’s a native speaker. And not only that, he doesn’t even understand that this is, it constitutes a problem for the Greek students, if that’s how he speaks. Verbatim bilingual data Amy: Και το ξέρεις κι εσύ καλύτερα από μένα, πως στην σχ- >το μάθαμε και απ’ την σχολή< ότι για να μάθει το παιδί κάτι πρέπει απαραίτητα να γίνει καποιο «noticing», έτσι; (2 sec) Αλλά ο Άγγλος όταν μιλάει με σωστή, με RP, θα πει «dishes» αλλά επειδή είναι native speaker, θα είναι με devoicing στο /d/, ξέρεις, και καλά σαν *«tishes» (3 sec) Achilleas : Πιστ- Νομίζες ότι αυτό είναι, ότι αποτελεί πρόβλη[μα; Amy: [Ναι, αλλά ο Αγγλος αυτό το κάνει χωρίς να το καταλαβαίνει, γιατί είναι native speaker. Και όχι μόνο αυτό, δεν καταλαβαίνει κιόλας ότι αυτό είναι, συνιστά πρόβλημα για τον Έλληνα μαθητή, αν μιλάει έτσι.

Verbatim bilingual data Highlights theoretically significant aspects of form. Promotes visibility of languages other than English. BUT Can we completely avoid being selective & reductive? Is the word-space used at the expense of argument? Can the dissemination outlet typographically support this?

Standardised bilingual data «Δε μου αρέσει και τόσο όταν βαριέμαι [...] γιατί όταν βαριέμαι, βαριέμαι». [I don’t really like it when I’m bored […] because when I’m bored, I’m bored.] «Δε μου αρέσει και τόσο όταν βαργεμε (sic) [...] γιατι οταν βαργεμε (sic), βαργεμε (sic)». [I don’t really like it when I’m bord (sic) […] because when I’m bord (sic), I’m bord (sic).]

Standardised bilingual data Removes language infelicities that might detract attention from the participants’ view. Levels off differences between competent and not-so-competent users. BUT Whose standard is used? Why? Is the data distorted in this way?

Unabridged monolingual data … to write, we don’t make mistakes and readindgrammar rules. In an English class we should to learngrammar, reading and listening, because with them … Νομίζω ότι το σημαντικότερο είναι ηγραμματική και το λεξιλόγιο … Πιστεύω ότι πρέπει να ξέρουμεγραμματική, λεξιλόγιο, listening και speaking για να … My opinion is a little bit more important.Grammar lessons because this will help us speak … Εγώ πιστεύω ότι πρέπει και να ξέρουμεγραμματική και να μιλάμε καλά χωρίς πολλά λάθοι. I will have lots of exercises, reading andgrammar, because I will have more exercise for it, … Γραμματική, γιατί πιστεύω ότι εάν ξέρεις καλά τηγραμματική ξέρεις και να μιλάς και να διαβάζεις αλλά κ.α. Views such as the following were typical of the students’ responses: “I believe that the most important [thing] is grammar and vocabulary…”

Unabridged monolingual data Useful when presenting quotes that symbolically represent large sets of bilingual data, rather than actual utterances. BUT How is the quote selected? Does it reinforce language inequalities?

Summarised monolingual data When I asked one of the teachers, whom I knew to present very comprehensive notes, to comment on this practice she replied that: …the grammar sections [in the books] were not very useful to the students, as they tend not to read them, but they are quite useful to the teachers, because they allow them to elaborate on the grammatical content of the lesson. After prompting, she explained that learners are of course exposed to new grammar in the language input sections of the materials, but this is not always comprehensive as it did not cover all eventualities or exceptions. For instance, there may be a text in the students’ books demonstrating the plural forms of nouns, but it’s unlikely to contain enough input to cover all the irregular forms. (Donna)

Summarised monolingual data Highlights content rather than form. Useful when transcript might damage participants’ confidence and / or reputation. BUT Is transparency compromised?

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