Published In
Journal of Language Identity and Education
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
8-14-2020
Abstract
Where do you start the course design for a minority language? One starting point is identifying and surveying a community of possible learners. This paper explores the needs of learners of Tuvan, a language spoken primarily in the Republic of Tuva, Southern Siberia, Russia. The study was conducted in two steps: an online questionnaire (March 2019) and semi-structured interviews (April 2019). The results showed a limited interest in Tuvan as a foreign language (13 responses) on the one hand, but a long-standing one on the other, more than two decades in some cases. The identified learner needs fell into three broad categories: needs related to “throat” (overtone) singing; needs related to travelling to Tuva and surviving in a new environment; and needs unique to each participant (e.g., academic research). The study contributes to the underresearched issue of indigenous languages as objects of foreign language study.
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DOI
10.1080/15348458.2020.1791714
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34037
Citation Details
Soyan, R. (2020). Investigating the Needs of Foreign Language Learners of Tuvan. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1791714
Description
This is the Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article that was subsequently in The Journal of Language, Identity and Education, August 2020, published by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
The version of record may be found at https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1791714