From diagnosis to remedial plan: a psycholinguistic assessment of language shift, L1 proficiency, and language planning in Truku Seediq

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dc.contributor.authorTang, Ai-Yu
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-09T20:08:28Z
dc.date.available2016-03-09T20:08:28Z
dc.date.issued2011-12
dc.description.abstractWill Truku, an endangered dialect of the Seediq language spoken in eastern Taiwan, be commonly spoken again in Truku villages? Since the younger generations do not speak Truku, this project intends to diagnose the relative language strength of Truku (vs. Mandarin), assess Truku proficiency, and propose a conservation plan for Truku speech communities. Hence, the purposes of this study are to (i) further assess the Hawai‗i Assessment of Language Access (HALA) approach, (ii) assess the relative strength of Truku, (iii) assess Truku linguistic proficiency across age groups, (iv) provide quantitative data for community and government programs, (v) establish baseline data, as a starting point for conservation programs, and (vi) propose a micro-level language planning for language maintenance. Two approaches will be employed, and the preliminary results show an overt intergenerational decline that suggests the need for urgent remedial action if Truku is to survive for another generation. First, HALA experiments comprised of body-part naming, nature-term naming, and phrase-building tasks will be analyzed to investigate Truku's current linguistic vitality. A total of sixty-eight participants in four age cohorts from Qowgan village have been tested (ages: 10-15, 16-25, 26-40, and 41-65). As predicted, Truku (non-dominant language) produced longer response times and lower accuracy than Mandarin (dominant language) across all speakers, suggesting a cross-generational decline of Truku. Second, on the basis of four elicitation tasks including repetition, picture naming, act-out task, and picture-based storytelling, knowledge of certain phonological and morphosyntactic properties will be assessed across the age groups. It is predicted that young Truku who are 10-25 years of age will exhibit overall changes or incompetence in the use of phonological and morphosyntactic properties compared with the older generations who are 26-65 years of age. Second, all participants from 10 to 65 years of age will show incompetence in the use of morphosyntactic properties compared with a speaker widely recognized as competent, an 86-year-old linguistically-competent individual. Based on the concepts of micro-level language planning, a modified two-way immersion program and Integrative Community-Based planning will be designed and proposed to stem further Truku erosion and to attempt reversal of a critical shift toward Mandarin.
dc.description.degreePh.D.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/101495
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa
dc.relationTheses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Linguistics.
dc.subjectlanguage shift
dc.titleFrom diagnosis to remedial plan: a psycholinguistic assessment of language shift, L1 proficiency, and language planning in Truku Seediq
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.dcmiText

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