Retirement as a “language related major life event” and its consequences on the multilingualism of migrants

The present study investigates life stories of established Italian workforce migrants living in the city of Berne, Switzerland, in regard to “language related major life events” (De Bot, 2007). These events are important in terms of changes happening in the linguistic setting during the life span and influence language development. In this sense, during the process of retirement, a new phase of life begins, which, amongst other things, has to be reorganized in relation to social contact and language use. One of my main questions is how the subjects handle the changes happening within and after the process of retirement in respect to the use of different languages and how this “language related major life event” is constructed and described by the migrants. One of these changes happens due to the fact that, after retirement, the social network at the workplace (the primary source of language input) can get (partially) lost and with it, the use of the local language. The fact that migrants living in Berne are confronted with diglossia (Standard German and Swissgerman), that the Canton of Berne is bilingual (German and French) and that the migrants' mother tongue (Italian) is one of the Swiss national languages, makes this question even more interesting. A second question will consider the influence of the fact that most of the subjects in question lived with the idea of return migration, but as shown in a previous study (Alter/Vieillesse/Anziani, NFP 32, 1999), only a third returned back while another third remained in the host country and the final third chose the commuting option. I will first examine these processes, changes and influences by using quantitative questionnaires in order to obtain general information on demographic data, the social situation, and a self-assessment of linguistic skills. Secondly, I will use qualitative interviews to get in-depth information of the subjects’ life stories and language biographies. The results of this project are meant to deliver insight into different aspects that have not been looked at in detail to this point: which factors of the life stories of Italian workforce migrants, who decided to remain in Switzerland after retirement, influence the linguistic changes in general and the ones happening around retirement in particular.

“Jo wunderbar so im apriu kann man nicht mehr erwarten, capisci?” Multilingualism in a German language class for retired Italian migrants in Berne

Our proposal presents some aspects and results of a project of the University of Bern dealing with the consequences of retirement on multilingual competences. Referring to De Bot (2007), who defined "language related major life events" as moments in life relevant for changes in multilingual competences, we assume that retirement can be a turning point in a language biography. Firstly, there are phenomena, such as the cessation of the use of a foreign language, which was formerly related to work. Secondly, retirement might elicit the improvement of foreign language skills as a way to spend excess time after retirement or as a “cognitive exercise”. Many language schools have identified the people of advanced age as a group of major interest and increasingly offer so-called 50+ (fifty plus) courses in their curriculum. Furthermore, the concept of lifelong learning is increasingly gaining importance, as the reference by the European commission (LLP) indicates. However, most of the programs are intended for educated middle-class people and there are considerably fewer offers for people who are less familiar with learning environments in general. The present paper aims at investigating the multilingual setting of an offer of the second kind: a German language course designed for retired, established Italian workforce migrants living in the city of Berne, Switzerland. The multilingual setting is given by the facts that migrants living in Berne are confronted with diglossia (Standard German and Swissgerman dialects), that the Canton of Berne is bilingual (German and French) and that the migrants' mother tongue, Italian, is one of the Swiss national languages. As previous studies have shown, most of the Italian migrants have difficulties with the acquisition of Standard German due to the diglossic situation (Werlen, 2007) or never even learnt any of the German varieties. Another outcome of the linguistic situation the migrants are confronted with in Berne, is the usage of a continuum of varieties between Swissgerman dialect and Standard German (Zanovello-Müller, 1998). Therefore, in the classroom we find several varieties of German, as well as the Italian language and its varieties. In the present paper we will investigate the use of multilingual competences within the classroom and the dynamics of second language acquisition in a setting of older adults (>60 years old), learning their host country’s language after 40 years or more of living in it. The methods applied are an ethnographic observation of the language class, combined with qualitative interviews to gain in-depth information of the subjects’ life stories and language biographies.

The phylogenetic position of the Dura Language of Nepal

The precise phylogenetic propinquity of Dura within the Tibeto-Burman or Trans-Himalayan language family has hitherto been indeterminate. In the absence of compelling comparative evidence, the language has previously been assigned to a subgroup in its own right within the linguistic phylum as a whole. Meanwhile, the Dura language is effectively extinct, although attempts at revival may be undertaken by well-intentioned members of Dura ethnicity. On the basis of a comprehensive study and analysis of all of the extant Dura language material, the phylogenetic position of the language within the family will be clarified. Comparative evidence from the Dura lexicon, its nominal and verbal morphology as well as from syntactic and phonological properties is adduced to determine the phylogenetic position of Dura. Moreover, this result will help explain some of the sociocultural realities associated with the Dura language community in Lamjung, Nepal

The Political Candidacy of EU Migrants in their European Countries of Residence. The Case of British and Romanians Standing in Spanish Local Elections

What explains the variation in how European citizens of diverse origins are politically incorporated in the member states of residence? This paper argues that immigrant groups’ status in the host society plays an important role in political party responses to immigrants’ political participation. Drawing on the case of Romanian and British candidacies in the Spanish local elections from 2011, the paper finds that the level of competition between parties is the key mechanism for incorporating candidates from a positively/neutrally perceived group. Instead, a greater level of ethnic diversity encourages the incorporation of candidates from the negatively perceived group. To demonstrate this, the paper uses an original data-set with the Romanian and British candidates in a large number of Spanish localities.

Profile Effects in Early Bilingual Language and Literacy

Bilingual children's language and literacy is stronger in some domains than others. Reanalysis of data from a broad-scale study of monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English learners in Miami provided a clear demonstration of "profile effects," where bilingual children perform at varying levels compared to monolinguals across different test types. The profile effects were strong and consistent across conditions of socioeconomic status, language in the home, and school setting (two way or English immersion). The profile effects indicated comparable performance of bilingual and monolingual children in basic reading tasks, but lower vocabulary scores for the bilinguals in both languages. Other test types showed intermediate scores in bilinguals, again with substantial consistency across groups. These profiles are interpreted as primarily due to the "distributed characteristic" of bilingual lexical knowledge, the tendency for bilingual individuals to know some words in one language but not the other and vice versa.

The Spanish translation, cultural adaptation and validation of the Powe Fatalism Inventory

Background/significance. The scarcity of reliable and valid Spanish language instruments for health related research has hindered research with the Hispanic population. Research suggests that fatalistic attitudes are related to poor cancer screening behaviors and may be one reason for low participation of Mexican-Americans in cancer screening. This problem is of major concern because Mexican-Americans constitute the largest Hispanic subgroup in the U.S.^ Purpose. The purposes of this study were: (1) To translate the Powe Fatalism Inventory, (PFI) into Spanish, and culturally adapt the instrument to the Mexican-American culture as found along the U.S.-Mexico border and (2) To test the equivalence between the Spanish translated, culturally adapted version of the PFI and the English version of the PFI to include clarity, content validity, reading level and reliability.^ Design. Descriptive, cross-sectional.^ Methods. The Spanish language translation used a translation model which incorporates a cultural adaptation process. The SPFI was administered to 175 bilingual participants residing in a midsize, U.S-Mexico border city. Data analysis included estimation of Cronbach's alpha, factor analysis, paired samples t-test comparison and multiple regression analysis using SPSS software, as well as measurement of content validity and reading level of the SPFI. ^ Findings. A reliability estimate using Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.81 for the SPFI compared to 0.80 for the PFI in this study. Factor Analysis extracted four factors which explained 59% of the variance. Paired t-test comparison revealed no statistically significant differences between the SPFI and PFI total or individual item scores. Content Validity Index was determined to be 1.0. Reading Level was assessed to be less than a 6th grade reading level. The correlation coefficient between the SPFI and PFI was 0.95.^ Conclusions. This study provided strong psychometric evidence that the Spanish translated, culturally adapted SPFI is an equivalent tool to the English version of the PFI in measuring cancer fatalism. This indicates that the two forms of the instrument can be used interchangeably in a single study to accommodate reading and speaking abilities of respondents. ^

HPV knowledge, HPV vaccine awareness and initiation among Hispanics: The role of language, information seeking, and information scanning

Background. Among Hispanics, the HPV vaccine has the potential to eliminate disparities in cervical cancer incidence and mortality but only if optimal rates of vaccination are achieved. Media can be an important information source for increasing HPV knowledge and awareness of the vaccine. Very little is known about how media use among Hispanics affects their HPV knowledge and vaccine awareness. Even less is known about what differences exist in media use and information processing among English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanics.^ Aims. Examine the relationships between three health communication variables (media exposure, HPV-specific information scanning and seeking) and three HPV outcomes (knowledge, vaccine awareness and initiation) among English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanics.^ Methods. Cross-sectional data from a survey administered to Hispanic mothers in Dallas, Texas was used for univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Sample used for analysis included 288 mothers of females aged 8-22 recruited from clinics and community events. Dependent variables of interest were HPV knowledge, HPV vaccine awareness and initiation. Independent variables were media exposure, HPV-specific information scanning and seeking. Language was tested as an effect modifier on the relationship between health communication variables and HPV outcomes.^ Results. English-speaking mothers reported more media exposure, HPV-specific information scanning and seeking than Spanish-speakers. Scanning for HPV information was associated with more HPV knowledge (OR = 4.26, 95% CI = 2.41 - 7.51), vaccine awareness (OR = 10.01, 95% CI = 5.43 - 18.47) and vaccine initiation (OR = 2.54, 95% CI = 1.09 - 5.91). Seeking HPV-specific information was associated with more knowledge (OR = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.23 - 4.16), awareness (OR = 6.60, 95% CI = 2.74 - 15.91) and initiation (OR = 4.93, 95% CI = 2.64 - 9.20). Language moderated the effect of information scanning and seeking on vaccine awareness.^ Discussion. Differences in information scanning and seeking behaviors among Hispanic subgroups have the potential to lead to disparities in vaccine awareness.^ Conclusion. Findings from this study underscore health communication differences among Hispanics and emphasize the need to target Spanish language media as well as English language media aimed at Hispanics to improve knowledge and awareness.^

Fronteras transnacionales : la modernización literaria en dos momentos (1900-1920 y 1960)

En el presente trabajo nos hemos propuesto comparar dos momentos de la modernización cultural en América Latina, a principios del siglo XX y hacia los años 1960, durante el boom literario. El objetivo comparativo obedece a que es posible observar ciertos mecanismos similares en uno y otro momento. El campo literario español resulta elegido como el espacio de ciertas disputas y debates de la literatura latinoamericana. Las instancias de modernización literarias están acompañadas asimismo de discusiones sobre lo regional o lo universal de la literatura, la ubicación dentro de contextos mayores y la aspiración a pertenecer a una ‘república mundial de las letras’. Pese a todo, este reconocimiento no cierra el punto central de constitución de las literaturas nacionales, es decir, el vínculo de la lengua con un espacio nacional, sino que posibilita nuevas miradas y la formulación de otras problemáticas en el orden de la creación literaria, la comercialización y la distribución de las obras.

El lenguaje de Aristóteles según el Index Aristotelicus de Hermann Bonitz

El clásico Index Aristotelicus de Hermann Bonitz contiene un sinnúmero de voces griegas de las que se ha valido Aristóteles para desarrollar su pensamiento. Bonitz presenta cada vocablo citando textos que revelan el valor que tenía para el hombre griego común, su funcionamiento gramatical y sus diversos sentidos en cuanto términos filosóficos aristotélicos. Nosotros hemos seleccionado, de dicha obra, algunas voces que son clave del pensamiento lógico-metafísico aristotélico, y hemos transcrito cada uno de los textos-muestra que en Bonitz son citados meramente mediante el nombre de la obra que los contiene y su correspondiente ubicación según Bekker. Hemos reunido importante cantidad de ejemplos que enriquecen el acceso al griego aristotélico, presentándolos en idioma español y acompañados de las frases griegas que contienen la voz correspondiente. Ofrecemos aquí dos artículos: σύμβολον y μῦθος, que serán incluidos en la obra que intentamos publicar en el presente año.

Barroco, Modernismo, Neobarroco

Rubén Darío es el primer escritor en lengua castellana que reivindica sin matices y de manera plena la obra de Luis de Góngora. Su propuesta se encuentra plasmada en Cantos de vida y esperanza a través del tríptico de sonetos "Trébol" y el poema que abre el poemario ("Yo soy aquel que ayer no más decía"), en el cual confiesa que dos de sus grandes influencias son Góngora y Paul Verlaine. A partir de este diálogo inicial que establece Darío, la crítica ha insistido desde muy temprano sobre las afinidades que se encuentran entre el Modernismo y el Barroco. Pero debajo de las afinidades existen desde luego diferencias cruciales, que en este trabajo desarrollo a partir de tres ejes comparativos: la política, la religión y el lenguaje. Tras esta comparación, sostengo que el Modernismo, a través de Darío, arranca el Barroco de su suelo histórico y lo coloca en los dilemas y las contradicciones modernas del artista con la sociedad. Con esto, sienta las bases de lo que más tarde será el Neobarroco.

Norma estándar y variedad rioplatense en instrumentos de gramatización

En el marco de las políticas lingüísticas, el trabajo analiza los discursos sobre el español como lengua estándar subyacentes en los diversos instrumentos de gramatización (Auroux, 1992) destinados a regular los usos lingüísticos en el ámbito hispanoamericano. Postula la hipótesis de que las políticas lingüísticas alentadas desde las Academias de la Lengua y las diversas instancias de difusión del estándar llamado panhispánico acuden al espíritu de unidad y homogeneidad lingüística presente desde los inicios de los discursos sobre el español afectando el prestigio de los estándares regionales. A partir de esta hipótesis, sostiene que las actuales expectativas de homogeneidad e intercomprensibilidad lingüística expresadas tanto en diccionarios, manuales de estilo o gramáticas como en los medios de comunicación olvidan que los estándares regionales paralelos a ese español globalizado no siempre cuentan con una vía de enseñanza formal que los valide y los prestigie frente a la variedad transnacional. Para verificar la plausibilidad de esta hipótesis, analizamos diccionarios de la RAE y Panhispánico de Dudas y manuales escolares de enseñanza de español, entre otros instrumentos; allí identificamos la construcción de las nociones de norma estándar, español transnacional y dialecto

¿Cómo afecta la cultura a la gramática? : El caso de los clíticos en el español americano

La sintaxis de una lengua se halla motivada semántica y pragmáticamente. La dimensión pragmática establece qué formas lingüísticas -y sus significados- son más apropiadas para qué contexto. En este trabajo intentamos mostrar cómo el lenguaje es modelado por la cultura cuando lo pragmático es etnopragmático. Los sesgos en la frecuencia relativa de uso de los clíticos de tercera persona en distintas variedades del español americano constituyen un ámbito adecuado. La naturaleza deíctica de los clíticos del español hace que se pongan en juego al menos dos tipos de dimensión pragmática: la dimensión referencial y la dimensión relacional. El valor que cobra la referencia es, ciertamente, cultural, asignado por la comunidad. En efecto, es esperable que diferentes grupos culturales asignen diferentes valores a los mismos referentes y que estos valores culturales influyan en la conformación de los paradigmas de la lengua. Ejemplificaremos la propuesta mediante la observación de la expansión del empleo de le y la ausencia del clítico en el campo de los acusativos en el español guaranítico argentino y del uso categórico y variable de los clíticos respecto de algunos verbos en el español de bolivianos residentes en la Argentina