Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
5-8-2024 9:00 AM
End Date
5-8-2024 11:00 AM
Subjects
Applied Linguistics, Serbia, War
Advisor
Kim Brown
Student Level
Masters
Abstract
War disrupts everything, including a child’s developing language and cultural identity. My father grew up in both Serbia and Germany during the post-WWII political upheaval. By the time he was an adult, he knew five languages, yet lacked his own language and languaculture (Agar, 1994).
It benefits us to understand more completely the effects of language loss as political borders continue to shift and human migration increases. Research in social sciences, psychology, and biology all examine the effects of trauma, the brain, and child development. Applied linguistics examines language loss in relation to Second Language Acquisition (Altarriba & Heredia, 2018).
My presentation shifts the focus of this research onto a family ethnography around language and identity loss; about war, trauma, and forced migration; about the effects of shame. Using interviews, field research, and family history, this presentation utilizes the methodology employed by ethnographers to draw on “thick, rich description” (Geertz, 1973; Spradley, 1979). In this re-telling of my father's story, I intend to use the following questions as a guide (1) How does language get lost?; and (2) What are the effects? This story is particular to my family but it could be one of many across the globe.
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41921
Included in
My Father's Story: An Ethnography About Language Loss
War disrupts everything, including a child’s developing language and cultural identity. My father grew up in both Serbia and Germany during the post-WWII political upheaval. By the time he was an adult, he knew five languages, yet lacked his own language and languaculture (Agar, 1994).
It benefits us to understand more completely the effects of language loss as political borders continue to shift and human migration increases. Research in social sciences, psychology, and biology all examine the effects of trauma, the brain, and child development. Applied linguistics examines language loss in relation to Second Language Acquisition (Altarriba & Heredia, 2018).
My presentation shifts the focus of this research onto a family ethnography around language and identity loss; about war, trauma, and forced migration; about the effects of shame. Using interviews, field research, and family history, this presentation utilizes the methodology employed by ethnographers to draw on “thick, rich description” (Geertz, 1973; Spradley, 1979). In this re-telling of my father's story, I intend to use the following questions as a guide (1) How does language get lost?; and (2) What are the effects? This story is particular to my family but it could be one of many across the globe.