Doctoral Dissertation Research: Choctaw Language Ideologies and Their Impact on Teaching and Learning

在俄克拉何马大学肖恩·奥尼尔博士的指导下，博士生伊丽莎白·基克汉姆将在乔克托语言项目、大学课堂和社区课堂参与者中调查语言意识形态、学习者动机和教学方法之间的关系。作为文化和语言复兴努力的一部分，乔克托语正在俄克拉荷马州中部和东南部的几所中学、大学和社区教授，使用传统的课堂设施和在线技术。本研究旨在了解不同形式的语言训练、流利程度和语言使用态度之间的关系。它将研究一个悖论，即尽管学生在课堂上表现出良好的流利程度，但他们很少在其他语境中使用这种语言，即使是与说流利英语的老年人在一起。用于理解学生对语言的重要性、效用和身份功能的想法的方法将包括对虚拟和实际课堂互动的民族志观察、对参与者的访谈以及与社区成员合作来解释数据的迭代过程。通过衔接语言表现、文化表现和语言意识形态的概念，本研究将进一步了解土著语言教育中影响语言学习动机、语言选择和教学方法的复杂性。这项研究将有助于理解乔克托族语言项目的语言保护和教育工作中复杂的相互作用和影响，从而帮助他们开展项目发展。它还将有助于在语言意识形态的背景下更广泛地了解遗产和土著语言教育的实践和成果。此外，该研究将把语言教学和学习作为语言表现的模式，复兴这样一种观点，即语言表现不仅以正式或艺术形式出现，而且在思想、价值观和身份的呈现以及社区价值观的创造和再创造的日常互动中出现。

Doctoral student Elizabeth Kickham, under the guidance of Dr. Sean O'Neill (University of Oklahoma), will investigate the relationship between language ideologies, learner motivation, and pedagogical method within the Choctaw Language Program, university class, and community class participants. As part of cultural and linguistic revitalization efforts, the Choctaw language is being taught in several secondary schools, universities, and communities, throughout central and southeastern Oklahoma, using both traditional classroom facilities and online technologies. The research seeks to understand the relationships among different forms of language training, fluency levels and attitudes about language use. It will examine the paradox that despite good levels of demonstrated classroom fluency, students rarely use the language in other contexts even with elder fluent speakers. The methods used to understand student ideas about the importance, utility, and identity functions of the language will involve an iterative process of ethnographic observation of virtual and actual classroom interactions, interviews with participants, and collaboration with community members to interpret data. By bridging the concepts of linguistic performance, cultural performance and language ideology, this research will further understanding of the complexities influencing language learning motivation, language choice, and teaching methods in indigenous language education.This research will contribute to an understanding of the complex interactions within and the impact of the Choctaw Language Program's language preservation and education efforts and thereby assist them in programmatic development. It will also contribute to a wider understanding of heritage and indigenous language education practices and outcomes within the context of language ideologies. In addition, the research will frame language teaching and learning as modes of linguistic performance, reviving the idea that performance occurs not just in formal or artistic forms, but in everyday interactions in which ideas, values, and identity are presented and community values created and recreated.