Post 6 (340): Preserving Truku Part 1
In my Post 4, I discussed if people should maintain language diversity or pursue a universal language. In the end, I concluded that eliminating other languages will do no good but create more collisions while preserving a variety of different languages can help cultivate different cultures and communities. After that, I went to search more sources about the dying languages in China, and lastly, I focused on the native Truku dialect in Taiwan. Specifically, I will divide the analysis into two sections. In Part 1, I will introduce the background of Truku and present several revitalization measures taken; in Part 2, I will make my own recommendations for future revitalization plans, such as using the Master-Apprentice program to create a more immersive environment and provide a permanent place for future actions.
Background about Truku
Taiwan’s aborigines have formed a diverse and intriguing culture. Seediq is one of the aboriginal ethnic groups located in the easternmost part of Taiwan, where it has its own aboriginal language-Seediq. The Seediq language contains three dialects: Teuda, Tkdaya, and Truku, among which I will pay special attention to the Truku language.
History and Causes of Language Endangerment
There are currently approximately 24,000 people in the Truku community, but people are uncertain about the remaining number of people who speak this language. However, according to Krauss’ classification of endangered languages, Truku should be classified as a “definitely endangered language, which is only spoken by the parental generation and above” (Tang 2011: 2). Tang also stated that the current Truku language can be rated as level three in the ninth factor of “Among the Quality of Documentation”, which means that it has sufficient grammar, dictionaries, and texts, but it is rarely used in daily media (Tang, 2011: 3).
The language shift began around 1945 when the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party) defeated Japan and vigorously promoted Mandarin to advocate a “sense of nationhood and legitimize the KMT’s hegemony”. This decision resulted in 94% of the population being able to communicate in Mandarin while allowing 31% to speak indigenous languages among three generations (Tang 2011: 152). Also, Tang said that even today, the Taiwanese government still regards Truku as a problem and only incorporates a small part of the endangered language into school curricula (Tang 2011: 176).
In addition, more factors have exacerbated the decline in the use of indigenous languages. For example, the early Sinicization of Taiwan’s indigenous groups, government policies regulating Mandarin as the only official language, and the lack of intergenerational communication in communities where the language still exists (Tang, 2011: 9). Nowadays, Truku people have an ambivalent attitude towards the language: it is the language of elders, communities, and families; however, Mandarin has economic advantages and can “entice” aboriginal speakers to give up their mother tongue.
Implemented Measures
“Language planning” refers to “the deliberate efforts to influence the behavior of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of their language code” (Cooper 1989: 45). In Taiwan, both micro-level and macro-level language planning has been made into action in order to protect the endangered languages.
Micro-level Language Planning
In micro-language planning, various language revitalization actions have been resolved from the perspectives of education and community. From the perspective of education address, there is a two-way immersion course (TWI) proposed around 2006. The TWI course is a mode of instructing all students in Mandarin and Truku. The goal of the TWI program is to “develop bilingual proficiency, academic achievement, and positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors among all students “ (Nieto 2002:141–142).
In order to understand the content of TWI more specifically, the implementation plan proposal includes such provisions: the plan should start in the lower grades of elementary school, students will receive 50% of the content area instruction in Truku, and the rest of the time in the school to receive instruction in Mandarin (Tang 2011: 181). Accordingly, the plan will ensure students actively learn Truku and use it for communication during half of the time in school.
One feature worth noting in the TWI program is that it will not promote monolingualism, that is, all students can only speak Truku. Prevent students from only learning Truku, so that after graduating from elementary school, students can use Truku fluently and speak Mandarin. Cultivating bilingual skills among students helps ensure that students’ future educational opportunities are not restricted by the Truku community. However, there are some difficulties with the TWI program: some are related to the government’s language policy, and certain procedures need to be initiated, which may be time-consuming and challenging.
Secondly, there are also approaches taken at the community level. One of the reasons why Truku is less spoken is because people see the economic advantages of speaking Mandarin and therefore begin to transition from their indigenous language to Mandarin. To counteract this attitude, a project was proposed to meet the economic needs of the Truku community: Integrated Community-Based Planning (ICBP) (Tang 2011: 183). The plan aims to cultivate a positive attitude towards Truku among speakers while also promoting intergenerational transmission.
Macro-level Language Planning
Meantime, there is also macro-level language planning which requires the involvement of the government. There is currently a government-based indigenous language revitalization project, which runs from 2013 to 2019 and led to the Indigenous Language Immersion Program (ILIP) mainly implemented by Tainan Kunshan University. In the first year (2014–2015) of ILIP, 30 kindergartens participated, and 23 kindergartens participated in the second year. Also, the government provides comprehensive extra assistance: an advisory group that visits the kindergarten regularly to assist in teaching, language courses based on indigenous epistemology and culture to ensure that children have the correct understanding of their language, online teaching to ensure that students can access off-campus resources, and seminars where teachers can exchange ideas and make feasible suggestions (Tang, 2018).
To test the effectiveness of ILIP, Tang designed an ability test for students to take at the beginning and end of the semester. The results show that to some extent, ILIP does help the Truku language avoid further erosion. Students participating in the program have made significant progress in the language proficiency test. The results proved ILIP’s ability to help the Truku community achieve its goal of maintaining proficiency. However, many obstacles hinder the efficiency of the program. For example, teachers are not fluent enough to teach in Truku all the time because of the lack of immersion in Truku, the need to continuously develop effective teaching materials and ability tests, as well as the passiveness from the family. Therefore, I am going to provide my own recommendations for the revitalization programs in Part 2.
References
Cooper, Robert. 1989. Language planning and social change. Cambridge University Press.
Nieto, Sonia. 2002. “Language, culture and teaching: Critical perspectives for a new century — Response”. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 72: 611–612.
Tang, Apay, et.al. 2018. Language Revitalization in Kindergarten: A Case Study of Truku Seediq Language Immersion. Oxford University Press.
Tang, Apay. 2015. “Indigenous Language Policy and Planning in Taiwan: Truku Seediq as an Example”. Taiwan Journal of Indigenous Studies Vol.8: 3.
Tang, Apay. 2015. “Preliminary results of a community-based language revitalization initiative in Truku Seediq”. Journal of Taiwanese Languages and Literature Vol.9: 2.
