Facilitation or hindrance? The dilemma of promoting indigenous language & digital literacy for Atayal students in Taiwan

Author(s):

Hao Chen(presenting / submitting)Kenzen Chen(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

WERA Focal Meeting

Format:

Paper

Session Information

WERA SES 09 E, Integration of Technology and Education: International Perspectives on Pros and Cons

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-10

11:00-12:30

Room:

334. [Main]

Chair:

Janna De Gouveia

Contribution

The purpose of the study is to examine the competition and struggle of language learning that has been happening in Taiwan’s indigenous students at the age of digital era. The Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guideline requires elementary schools to offer three different language courses: Mandarin Chinese starting at first grade, English starting at third grade, and mother tongue classes at first grade whenever possible. Without a well-developed written language system, however, the instruction of indigenous languages is facing challenges. Moreover, the greater uses of technological social-network sites via mobile devices reinforce text-based communication, which sets indigenous language instruction in a disadvantage situation.

Method

In this study, we used ethnographic methods to investigate the development of digital literacy on a group of Atayal (one of the indigenous ethnic groups in Taiwan) students. Their heritage language, Atayal, was traditionally a spoken language and its written form was not formally Romanized until recently. Considering the Mandarin Chinese is the dominant language in Taiwan’s society, we were interested in how digital literacy of the indigenous students in an elementary school influenced their learning of heritage language, Atayal. As participant observers, we stayed in an Atayal elementary school as well as its two associated villages in the mid mountain area in Taiwan for 12 months. Qualitative data including interviews, field notes, video and audio captures, and researchers’ journals were collected and transcribed for analyses.

Expected Outcomes

Our trivial finding shows that accessing digital mediums such as laptops and smart phones has the potential of promoting students’ literacy about the world and themselves. However, without appropriate digital contents that are presented via written Atayal, students can only surf the digital world using the mainstream languages (c.f. Mandarin and English). Under such circumstances, Atayal students may feel their mother tongue less-useful. In terms of classroom instruction, the course material and learning activity of Atayal language remained traditional. Atayal language instructors expect students to learn Atayal historical and cultural heritages in the class sessions. On the one side, this course objective is very important. On the other, this objective limits the possibility for the students to develop their Atayal literacy through understanding the current society they are living. However, we found that students and their parents applied the strategy of innovating “interlanguages” to incorporate some common Atayal dialogues at social network websites. This observation sheds lights on how aboriginal instructors as well as tribal community leaders may digitally promote mother tongues. Eventually, We suggest that the development of traditional cultures of the indigenous people, such as Atayals, of their traditional language requires not only the development of educational texts like the textbooks, but textual materials in laptop or smart-phones to be used in daily life would be better available for the Atayals.

References

Blust, R. (1985). “The Austronesian homeland: A linguistic perspective.” Asian Perspectives, 26(1), 45 – 67. Trejaut, J., & Lin, M. (2005). Taiwan, twinned with Hawaii. Economist, 376(8434), 69 – 69.

Author Information

Hao Chen (presenting / submitting)

National Academy for Educational Research

Research Center for Curriculum and Instruction

New Taipei City

Kenzen Chen (presenting)

National Chiao-Tung University

Graduate Institute of Education

New Taipei City

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