Language as Talisman

语言作为护身符的概念植根于这样一种信念，即语言在某种意义上是保护性的，是避免风险和创造韧性的一种方式。社区成员认为，他们相互交谈的方式以及他们所借鉴的语言和识字做法本身将保证和支持身份、安全和机构。一个社区使用口语和书面语的方式包括方言、口音、词汇、首选体裁和练习等方面。在这项研究中，我们专注于一个社区，南约克郡罗瑟勒姆的Rawmarsh。罗马什是一个有着深厚的煤矿和钢铁行业历史的社区。它概括了霍加特(1957)、威廉姆斯(1961)和查尔斯沃思(2000)所描述的“后工业”工人阶级社区的概念。Rawmarsh是一个丰富的识字和语言练习网站。该项目旨在共同理解语言和识字在构建和理解Rawmarsh等社区方面的作用。合作伙伴包括儿童和青年服务机构、罗瑟勒姆学校和Inspire Rotherham。我们建议制作一份研究综述，涵盖一些独立但相邻的相关领域，所有这些领域都涉及日常语言和识字的使用。同时，我们将与Rawmarsh的当地社区一起制定一个关于语言使用的跨学科项目，并与审查互动。我们的中心焦点将是语言这一概念，它是一种与项目中代表的所有学科相呼应的形象。所代表的视角包括新扫盲研究、社会语言学、对文学中的方言以及更流行的文化形式中的方言的调查，以及语言研究本身的思想史。新扫盲研究使用人种学方法来洞察家庭和社区的日常语言和扫盲实践(Barton&Hamilton，1998)。社会语言学提供了对语言使用进行细粒度分析的工具，以及将语言在社会世界中的位置概念化的方法。研究文学和流行文化中的方言，包括考察元语言、“民间语言”信仰，以及人们通过语言定位自己和世界的方式中的注册和指引性等感知现象所扮演的角色。将思想史的工具运用到语言研究中，可以严格而广泛地考虑不同思考和研究语言的方式之间的关系。此外，我们建议建立一个关于公园里听到的声音的社区研究，反映语言和识字作为日常生活中恢复能力的来源的作用，并开发一个关于语言作为护身符的学习资源，供当地学校使用。我们的成果包括一份文献综述，一份两页的摘要，将每一门相邻的学科联系在一起，一套供当地学校六年级学生使用的资源，以及在罗马什维多利亚公园共同策划的一系列艺术活动。我们的社区团队包括一名青年工作者、一项社区扫盲倡议的负责人和一名艺术实践者。我们的学术团队包括一位新扫盲研究和社区扫盲实践的民族志研究领域的研究员(Kate Pahl博士)，一位社会语言学家(David Hyatt博士)，一位英国文学中方言和元语言领域的专家(Jane Hodson博士)，以及一位对语言概念感兴趣的学者(Richard Steadman-Jones博士)。此外，一个咨询小组将指导这一进程。我们得到了罗瑟勒姆青年服务处以及英国开普省和当地学校的大力支持。

The concept of 'Language as Talisman' is rooted in the belief that language is, in some sense extent, protective and operates as a way of averting risk and creating resilience. Members of communities believe that the way they speak to each other and the language and literacy practices they draw on, will in themselves, guarantee and shore up identity, safety and agency. The ways in which a community uses oral and written language include aspects such as dialect, accent, vocabulary, preferred genres and practices.In this study, we focus on one community, Rawmarsh in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Rawmarsh is a community that has a strong history of coal mining and steel industries. It encapsulates the concept of the 'post industrial' working class community described by Hoggart (1957) Williams (1961) and Charlesworth (2000). Rawmarsh is a rich site for literacy and language practices. This project aims to jointly understand the role of language and literacy in constructing and making sense of communities such as Rawmarsh. Partners include the Children and Young People's Service, Rotherham schools and Inspire Rotherham. We propose to produce a research review spanning a number of related fields, separate but adjacent, all of which deal with everyday language and literacy use. In parallel, and, interacting with the review, we shall develop a cross-disciplinary project on language in use with a local community in Rawmarsh. Our central focus will be the concept of language as 'talisman', an image that speaks to all the disciplines represented in the project. The perspectives represented include New Literacy Studies, Sociolinguistics, the investigation of dialect in literature and also in more popular cultural forms, as well as the intellectual history of language study itself. The New Literacy Studies uses ethnographic approaches to gain insights into everyday language and literacy practices in homes and communities (Barton & Hamilton 1998). Sociolinguistics offers tools for the fine-grained analysis of language use along with ways of conceptualizing the place of language within the social world. Looking at dialect in literature and popular culture involves examining the roles played by meta-language, 'folk-linguistic' beliefs, and perceptual phenomena such as enregisterment and indexicality in the way people orient themselves both to language and to the world through language. And bringing the tools of intellectual history to bear on language study allows for a rigorous and wide-ranging consideration of the relationships among different ways of thinking about and investigating language. Alongside, we propose to create a community study on the voices heard in the park, that reflects on the role of language and literacy as a source of resilience in everyday life, as well as develop a learning resource on language as talisman, for use in local schools. Our outputs include a Literature Review, a two page summary that draws each adjacent discipline together, a set of resources to be used with year 6 students in local schools, as well as a co-curated set of arts events in Victoria Park, Rawmarsh. Our community team includes a youth worker, the director of a community literacy initiative and an arts practitioner. Our academic team includes a researcher in the field of New Literacy Studies and ethnographic studies of community literacy practices (Dr Kate Pahl), a socio-linguist (Dr David Hyatt) an expert in the field of dialect and meta-language from English Literature (Dr Jane Hodson) and an academic interested in ideas about language (Dr Richard Steadman-Jones). In addition, an advisory group will guide the process. We have strong support from the Youth Service in Rotherham, as well as Cape UK and local schools for this project.