Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language Ideologies, Conservation Ideologies: Multilingualism and Collaboration in Transnational Environmental Work

环境保护工作往往针对世界上具有高度生物多样性的区域。这些地区通常也有高度的语言多样性。这意味着，在不同的利益攸关方之间进行协调与合作的困难往往由于语言失误造成的沟通不畅和误解而变得更加复杂。 成功的保护需要科学家、教育工作者、猎人、农民、政策制定者和公民之间的合作，他们可能有不同的目标，对环境持有不同的信念。当人们必须使用多种语言进行交流时，这种协作是如何实现的？什么时候成功？什么时候以及为什么会失败？为了回答这些问题，加州洛杉矶大学人类学博士候选人Rosalie Edmonds将在Paul V. Kroskrity博士的监督下，对一个高度生物多样性和多种语言的网站进行密切的人类学和语言学调查。研究不同的利益相关者如何在这个网站上一起工作，将有助于为多语言工作场所创造适当的政策和实践，无论他们在哪里出现。研究将在中非喀麦隆的林贝野生动物中心进行。这是一个适合进行这项调查的地点，因为除了英语和法语之外，喀麦隆还有280种土著语言，而且该中心还接待讲更多语言的游客。 尽管存在这些语言上的重大挑战，该中心已经成功地拯救和康复了20多年的动物，同时还在当地学校和农村社区提供环境教育计划，并作为一个旅游目的地。 在这样一个多样化的背景下，人们使用什么语言来相互交流，他们如何解决误解？研究人员将通过观察人们如何合作解决环境问题来收集数据。她将记录日常活动和自然语言互动;进行访谈，以探索人们对保护工作的信念和对沟通的看法;并进行参与式观察，以获得内部了解。通过结合语言学和环境人类学的方法，本研究记录了人们如何在多语言环境中谈论，概念化和执行与保护相关的任务，以及他们的谈话对工作如何完成的影响。澄清人们在这种情况下如何沟通和合作，将使人们对如何在跨国和多语言环境中成功地谈判全球问题有一个新的视角。此外，这项研究将开发实用的材料，以促进跨文化交流，包括语言指南，并与来自不同背景的人沟通的最佳做法讲习班。

Environmental conservation efforts are often directed to regions of the world that have high levels of biodiversity. Such areas frequently have high levels of linguistic diversity, as well. This means that the difficulties of bringing about coordination and cooperation among diverse stakeholders are all too often compounded by miscommunications and misunderstandings resulting from linguistic failure. Successful conservation requires collaboration between scientists, educators, hunters, farmers, policy makers, and citizens, all of whom may have different goals and hold different beliefs about the environment. How is such collaboration possible when people must work across multiple languages to communicate? When is it successful? When and why does it fail? To answer these questions, University of California Los Angeles anthropology doctoral candidate Rosalie Edmonds, supervised by Dr. Paul V. Kroskrity, will conduct a close anthropological and linguistic investigation of communication and collaboration in a site that is both highly bio-diverse and deeply multi-lingual. Examining how varied stakeholders work together in this site will enable the creation of appropriate policies and practices for multi-lingual workplaces wherever they may occur.The research will take place at the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon, Central Africa. This is an appropriate site for this investigation because in addition to English and French, Cameroon is home to 280 indigenous languages and the Centre is also visited by tourists who speak yet more languages. Despite these major lingustic challenges, the Centre has successfully rescued and rehabilitated animals for over twenty years, while also providing environmental education programming in local schools and rural communities, and serving as a tourist destination. In such a diverse context, what languages do people use to communicate with each other, and how do they resolve misunderstandings? The researcher will collect data by observing how people collaborate to solve environmental problems. She will record daily activities and natural language interactions; conduct interviews to explore people's beliefs about conservation work and perceptions of communication; and carry out participant observation to gain an insider understanding. By combining approaches from linguistic and environmental anthropology, this research document how people talk about, conceptualize, and perform conservation-related tasks in a multilingual environment, and what impact their talk has on how the work is accomplished. Clarifying how people communicate and work together in this situation will permit a new perspective on how global problems can be successfully negotiated in transnational, multilingual settings. Additionally, this research will develop practical materials to facilitate cross-cultural communication, including language guides, and a best practices workshop for communicating with people from different backgrounds.