The Pain of Language: Language and Migration
"In the Name of Language": The Continuous Cost of Language Learning
Elana Shohamy
Tel Aviv University
4:00 pm, Monday, March 22, 2010
254 Van Hise Hall
Abstract
The act of acquiring a new language, whether in the context of international migration or in inter-migration between home and school requires high price and costs in terms of academic achievements, emotional dimensions, exclusion, rejection, discrimination and unrealistic expectations such as via language tests. Immigrants make various sacrifices when they are faced with these requirements and these costs are especially high given the high demands by the host society, not aware of these difficulties and impose various strategies 'in the name of language'. In this talk I will address a number of such cases of the high demands enforced on immigrants with little awareness as to those who introduce these policies regarding the costs and feasibility of the demands. The cases to be discussed are: the cost of the need to acquire Hebrew in Palestine in the 1930's when immigrants were 'forced' into Hebrew as part of national ideology; the difficulties that immigrant students go through in terms of language discrimination, low academic achievements when they are being tested in their new L-2 so to fit into prescribed academic expectations; adult immigrants who are forced into language tests in the new languages as a condition for continued residence in the new place and facing expulsion and deportation if they do not pass, and no opportunities to learn. Other cases include the learning new languages by adults even in cases when they are proficiency in English, a language perceived to be of high prestige and status. Other cases refer to students in higher education in many contexts such as when Arabs I Israel have no choice but to learn in Hebrew in academic institutions while their school educational system is taught via Arabic. In all these cases, the policies are difficult to comply with as they require unfeasible costs. How these demands affect language rights, participation and justice will be discussed and elaborated leading to proposals for more inclusive, considerate and less discriminatory policies.
This lecture is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Language Institute, with funding from the College of Letters and Science Anonymous Fund.
Contact: Dianna Murphy, (608) 262-1575
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