Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Local Media and Language Revitalization

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

The diversity of human languages is a testament to the ingenuity and intellectual complexity of our species. Research throughout the world reveals that significant knowledge about how the world works, including unique and often valuable knowledge about the natural environment, is encoded differently in different languages. The loss of a language, then, is a fundamental loss not only to the people who speak that language but also to humanity's intellectual repertoire. Yet, it is widely recognized that in the United States, as well as worldwide, many languages are endangered. By most estimates, at least half of the world's approximately 6,000 languages will cease to be spoken by 2100. Although mass media have frequently been blamed for aggravating language loss, local communities have begun to develop their own radio and television programming as a grassroots means to increase the use of endangered languages. Understanding the effects of these grassroots projects to save endangered languages is crucial for creating context-sensitive programs and policies that will protect humanity's collective knowledge. The research funded by this award will focus on one such grassroots project. University of Michigan doctoral student Georgia Ennis, under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Mannheim, will conduct research among the lowland Quichua in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where irreplaceable knowledge about the local ecosystem is threatened by ongoing language shift towards Spanish. She will focus on grassroots language revitalization programs being carried out by Amazonian Quichua through community radio stations. This setting is particularly appropriate for the research due to well-established community radio infrastructure in the region, which is now being consciously mobilized to increase the use of lowland Quichua. Studying radio may be especially productive, as it remains one of the most widespread, easy to use, and inexpensive media technologies. The investigator will assess whether radio production and broadcasting in an endangered language help maintain or even increase its use among listeners. She will also explore how media production may alter the speech of listeners and ultimately the language itself. The investigator will conduct long-term research at local radio stations and in Quichua communities in order to track the effects of radio media production and reception on language use. Data will be collected through multiple social science methods including surveys and observation of language use, habits of media consumption, and linguistic attitudes and beliefs. She will also collect and archive samples of language use by listeners and non-listeners for comparative analysis. The results of this research will provide insights into the viability of media production as a strategy for revitalization of endangered languages. Findings will also contribute to theories of how and why languages change.