Publications by Aoife Lenihan
Researching Multilingualism: Critical and Ethnographic Perspectives, 2017
In this chapter, we apply virtual ethnographic methods to the study of multilingualism in online ... more In this chapter, we apply virtual ethnographic methods to the study of multilingualism in online contexts. The chapter begins with a brief outline of the evolution and current situation of multilingualism in online contexts. This is followed by an overview of virtual ethnography as a research method, before demonstrating its application to researching multilingualism. We also include a review of ethical issues in researching multilingualism online. Following this, we describe two of our own studies, which illustrate how virtual ethnography can be used to study top-down multilingualism in monologic web spaces, and also bottom-up multilingualisms in dialogic Web 2.0 contexts.
Research Methods in Intercultural Communication: A Practical Guide, 2016
As the border between online and offline culture and communication becomes increasingly blurred, ... more As the border between online and offline culture and communication becomes increasingly blurred, there is a need to develop and expand methods of systematically investigating online spaces as both dynamic cultures and cultural artefacts (Hine, 2000). Virtual ethnography transfers the principles of ethnography as a way of describing and observing cultures to online communicative contexts. It is a mixed methods approach underpinned by an ethnographic sensitivity and a grounded, data- and context-driven approach to understanding culture. When ethnography goes virtual its remit remains the same, what has changed with technological development is how these are told.
With the normalisation of the Web and its integration into and omnipresence in everyday life, there is a recognition among researchers that virtual spaces are no longer an extraordinary or separate domain but spaces in which culture can and should be examined. With this assumption in mind, the current chapter explores virtual ethnography as a research method for intercultural communication. First of all the origins and conceptual basis of virtual ethnography are examined before going on to describe the method and various approaches to it. Following this, the strengths and limitations of the method are considered as well as the challenges faced by researchers using this method. Next, the actual process of virtual ethnography / doing ethnography virtually is outlined and current studies and themes are explored. Finally, mixed and combined approaches as well as future methodological trends are outlined.
Researching Language and Social Media: A Student Guide, 2014
A very brief case study from my PhD research on some methodological challenges I encountered.
Av... more A very brief case study from my PhD research on some methodological challenges I encountered.
Available online via Google Books link below.
The Language of Social Media: Community and Identity on the Internet, Feb 2014
In this chapter I explore language policy on Facebook and the extent to which the site facilitate... more In this chapter I explore language policy on Facebook and the extent to which the site facilitates and influences ‘bottom-up’ language policy. Facebook was only available in English until February 2008, when the company began localising the site via a Facebook application: the ‘Translations’ app. This app facilitates Facebook users in translating the site themselves by creating ‘language communities’ of users who translate the site into a particular language. Individual users/‘translators’ submit translations via the app which the language community as an entity discuss and vote on.
Initially the ‘Translations’ app appears to be very ‘bottom-up’ (Hornberger, 1996; Canagarajah, 2006) in nature, since any user can add the app to their profile, submit a translation, vote on translations submitted and discuss the submitted translations on the discussion board. The translations appear to be co-produced by the community in a dialectical process, albeit one that is explicitly defined and regulated by Facebook. However, on closer inspection Facebook is more involved in the community-driven translation effort than it first appears, intervening in a ‘top-down’ manner to adjudicate and authorize the final translations produced.
The case of the translation of Facebook would thus appear to challenge the dichotomy of ‘top-down’/‘bottom-up’ in language policy, and in Facebook’s own words could be described as a ‘hybrid model’. This chapter will reconsider the categorisation of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ in language policy theory with reference to Facebook’s role, involvement in and design of the ‘Translations’ app and the community of translators for the Irish language.
The social networking site Facebook was only available in English until February 2008 when it ann... more The social networking site Facebook was only available in English until February 2008 when it announced the internationalisation of the site. Facebook Inc. created an application, the ‘translations’ app, to generate free crowd-sourced translations by Facebook users. This contribution considers the language ideologies present in – and expressed through – the metalinguistic discourse of Facebook’s ‘translations’ application and in the metalinguistic commentary of Facebook ‘translators’ as a community. The case study presented here offers an insight into the ways language ideologies are produced by the ‘community of translators’ who are themselves also facilitated (and encouraged) by their context - Facebook Inc. New media open up a world of multilingual possibility (cf. Danet and Herring, 2006) but one which is inevitably structured by language policing, verbal hygiene, and a range of language ideological debates about endangerment, purism, and parallelism.
PhD Thesis by Aoife Lenihan
"The site of this research is new media, primarily the WWW. Language policy has traditionally bee... more "The site of this research is new media, primarily the WWW. Language policy has traditionally been seen as the work of governments and their institutions and not related to domains such as Web 2.0. The primary research question of this thesis is to consider: what impact do new media have on language policy, in particular with regard to minority languages? It focuses on both the ‘top-down’ language policy and the increasingly ‘bottom-up’ language practices in new media. It is situated within the field of ‘new media sociolinguistics’ and aspires to move the focus of this area from the issue of linguistic diversity to the issue of language policy. What differentiates it from previous work is its attempt to link practice on the WWW with language policy. The method of investigation is virtual ethnography, which involves looking at computer-mediated communication (CMC) in online networks and communities, analysing the language content and observing the online interactions at the level of the users. It is used here to observe and investigate the de facto language policies on Facebook. It was the potential use of the community driven Facebook Translations app as a mechanism of language policy by ‘bottom-up’ interests, which first drew the researcher’s attention. In terms of language policy, Facebook, the Irish language community and their members act in both a ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ sense depending on the context of the situation, and thus the current research demonstrates that the assumed dichotomy of ‘bottom-up’ forces opposed to ‘top-down’ forces is not always in evidence. It conceptualises language policy as a process, ongoing and fluid, developed discursively and via the practices of commercial entities and language speakers. Furthermore, it finds that language ideologies play a primary role in language policy processes. Finally, it considers if the future of language policy in the current convergence culture era (Jenkins, 2006) will be driven by non-official language policy actors.
I would like to acknowledge the support of the Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP) (Funded under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, administered by the HEA and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund [ERDF]), which provided a doctoral scholarship for my research.
Please contact me if you want to cite/reference my PhD - just for my own information. Thanks!"
Research Presentations by Aoife Lenihan
16th International Conference on Minority Languages, University of Jyvaskyla, 2017
This paper investigates the conceptualisation of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ by n... more This paper investigates the conceptualisation of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ by new media entities. ‘Long tail languages’ is a term coined from the related concept of ‘long tail marketing’ from the business/marketing domain (Anderson, 2004, p. 3). The long tail market is a market which includes all commodities no matter how small or niche the audience (e.g., back catalogues, older albums, live tracks, B-sides, remixes, etc.). The key idea being that if a commercial entity has a number of niche/long tail markets, the result may be a market as large as a traditional mass market. Initial research found that new media entities, such as Facebook, classify Irish, Welsh and other minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ which in turn impacts how the entities treat these languages in their processes of internationalisation and localisation. Facebook, for example, classify many ‘long tail languages’ as ‘unsupported’ languages in their Translations application, the application they created to ‘crowdsource’ translated versions of their website. These ‘unsupported’ languages are languages open for translation whose quality is not assured by the Facebook internationalisation team or professional translators (Ellis, 2009). In these languages/apps the ‘finalization’ stage in the translation process comes down to percentages, ‘once a certain percentage of strings have been translated, Facebook publishes it’ (Ellis, 2009).
Given Facebook’s status as the largest social network site (Chaffey, 2016) with 1.13 billion active daily users on average (Alexa, 2016), its treatment of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ and thus ‘unsupported’ languages in its internationalisation process raises the question as to whether this is also the case in other new media domains. Indeed, Facebook plans on opening ‘many more [languages] in the long tail’ (Ellis, 2009) for translation via its Translations app. In Facebook’s case, the availability of its website in a number of minority languages, including Irish, demonstrates the market value of such languages. As Coupland (2010) notes, the revaluation of minority languages by commercial entities comes with the risk that these languages may be seen simply as shortcuts to authenticity, goodwill and commercial gain, and not valued as important aspects of people’s culture. The notion of ‘long tail languages’ is evidence of the commercialisation of minority languages (cf. Heller, 2010) by new media entities as they identify languages directly with markets and with increasing user numbers. This paper aims to consider the revaluation of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ in the new media context and examines the impact of this commercially-driven reality on the social value of minority languages.
References:
Alexa (2016). Top sites. Alexa. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from http://www.alexa.com/topsites.
Anderson, C. (October 1, 2004). The long tail. Wired. Retrieved October 25, 2010, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?pg=2&topic=tail&topic_set=.
Chaffey, D. (August 8, 2016). Global social media research summary 2016. Smart Insights. Retrieved November 11, 2016 from http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/.
Coupland, N. (2010) ‘Introduction: Sociolinguistics in the global era’ in Coupland, N., ed. The Handbook of Language and Globalization, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 1-27.
Ellis, D. (2009) ‘A case study in community-driven translation of a fast-changing website’ in Aykin, N., ed. Internationalization, Design and Global Development, Springer Berlin/Heidelberg, 236-244.
Heller, M. (2010a) ‘The commodification of language’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101-114.
This paper presents ongoing research which is examining the categorisation of minority languages ... more This paper presents ongoing research which is examining the categorisation of minority languages by new media entities (such as Facebook, Google, etc.) as ‘long tail languages’.
with Ide O'Sullivan and Susan Coote
Writing for publication is considered an important skill fo... more with Ide O'Sullivan and Susan Coote
Writing for publication is considered an important skill for many clinicians, including physiotherapists, in order to contribute to research on best practice and patient care. Yet, the skills and strategies required for productive writing are not always developed on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in physiotherapy (Murray and Newton, 2008: 29). Recognising the importance of developing this fundamental graduate attribute, members of the Clinical Therapies department came together with consultants in writing pedagogy at the Regional Writing Centre to explore the best possible ways of integrating writing development into the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. This presentation reports on the initiatives developed to support writers and faculty in Clinical Therapies, in particular, Physiotherapy, and reflects on this initiative has developed over the last decade.
Murray, R. and Newton, M. (2008) ‘Facilitating writing for publication’, Physiotherapy, 94, 29-34.
The mission of Ireland’s first academic writing centre, the Regional Writing Centre at UL, was in... more The mission of Ireland’s first academic writing centre, the Regional Writing Centre at UL, was initially and is still “to engage students and staff in a burgeoning national conversation on writing” (Regional Writing Centre 2017, ‘About’, par. 1). Our mission then and now has been to initiate, expand and perpetuate a conversation on writing, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The value of ‘talk’ is often challenged, but as North (1984, p. 466) asserts in his landmark essay, ‘The Idea of a Writing Centre’, ‘[i]f writing centers are going to finally be accepted, surely they must be accepted on their own terms, as places whose primary responsibility, whose only reason for being, is to talk to writers”. This presentation will defend the notion of talk as not only a viable, but an indispensable, road to learning. A defence for the value of talk will be viewed from the perspective of US Rhetoric and Composition Studies and from European teaching and learning theories, many of which also inform the US perspective. Next, a representation of the conversation in 2007 will be compared to the present state of play, having come from the first academic writing centre in Ireland, the Shannon Consortium Regional Writing Centre, to over a dozen third-level writing provision programmes throughout Ireland.
This paper presents ongoing research which is examining the categorisation of minority languages ... more This paper presents ongoing research which is examining the categorisation of minority languages by new media entities (such as Facebook, Google, etc.) as ‘long tail languages’. Primarily, it discusses the methodological approach of this research, virtual ethnography (cf. Hine, 2000). Virtual ethnography ‘transfers the ethnographic tradition of the researcher as an embodied research instrument to the social spaces of the Internet’ (Hine, 2008: 257). It involves looking at computer mediated communication (CMC) in online networks and communities, analysing the language content and observing the online interactions at the level of the users. It is also a useful method to examine language(s) online, the ‘choices, options and practices on websites’ (Lenihan and Kelly-Holmes, 2017: 173). Virtual ethnography is a mixed methods approach (Fay, 2007) and allows for a range of methods including interviews, content analysis, discourse analysis, etc. The distinctive feature of virtual ethnography is the aim of “thick description” (Geertz, 1983) from the perspective of the participants (Lenihan and Kelly-Holmes, 2016).
In this study, virtual ethnographic methods are used to consider the language practices of new media entities in relation to minority languages. Initial research focussed on Facebook and its Translations application, an app the company developed to crowdsource translations of their website (Lenihan, 2013). Over 100 language versions of Facebook are available, including in minority languages such as Irish and Welsh. This research found that Facebook categorised some languages, mainly minority languages as ‘long tail languages’, which influenced the design/working of their respective Translations app. The current study extends the field of interest to a number of other new media entities such as Google and their ’Google in Your Language’ initiative and considers this categorisation of ‘long tail languages’ in terms of the commercialisation of minority languages (cf. Coupland, 2010).
with Lawrence Cleary, Jun 22, 2014
This research is concerned with language policy and new media, investigating the impact of this t... more This research is concerned with language policy and new media, investigating the impact of this technologically globalised context on existing language policy theory, in particular with regard to minority languages. New media is often espoused as an opportunity for individuals and communities to become active media producers and consumers (cf. Cunliffe and Herring, 2005). However, this research offers a new perspective, considering the role of technology in this empowerment of minority language speakers and communities in language policy developments and also the impact of technology on language policy matters in the new media context.
The case study of the current research is an online crowdsourced translation effort, the Facebook Translations application (app). This app enables Facebook to localise their website by soliciting
translations from its existing users. ’Translators’ as Facebook title them, translate the words and phrases of the Facebook website from the original US English into over 100 languages, including minority languages such as Irish and Welsh.
This paper will examine the impact of technology in new media on language policy from two perspectives, that of Facebook and the Irish ’translators’ involved in the app. Facebook are involved in
the language policy of this context via the development and design of the app, its technology. In relation to the Irish ’translators’, this paper will argue that technology is changing the power dynamics of language policy, giving minority language speakers a primary role in the development of their language’s presence online. Finally, this paper will consider if the future of languages and language policy is in the hands of techno-capitalism and individual practices given the success of crowdsourcing and internationalisation driven by commercial concerns and technology.
Cunliffe, D. and Herring, S. C. (2005) ’Introduction to minority languages, multimedia and the web’,
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 11(2), 131-137.
Previous research theorises language policy as explicit language legislation or planning efforts ... more Previous research theorises language policy as explicit language legislation or planning efforts carried out by the state in a ‘top-down’ manner and as operating within a vacuum, managing one language and one linguistic modification, language revival, literacy development, etc. (Kaplan, 1994). Media were seen as a ‘domain’ through which language planners could ‘channel’ their endeavours, however, the new globalised media context challenges these conceptualisations. The communicative landscape has changed exponentially over the past decade and so too have the contexts of production and reception (Johnson & Ensslin, 2007). The re-ordering of discursive contexts, increased public participation and interactivity have changed the notion of co-presence where language users are (ibid). But new technologies have also heightened the linguistic reflexivity of language users and the policing and disciplining of language, discourse and communication (ibid). As Kaplan and Bauldauf (1997) write, companies, groups and individuals are now impacting on the language situation. In the current context language policy must be conceptualised and investigated in an expanded sense, its remit being all decisions made about language on any level, explicit or implicit, overt or covert (Shohamy, 2006; Schiffman, 1996; 2006).
This research investigates ‘top-down’ language policy and also the increasingly ‘bottom-up’ language practices and covert policies in new media. It aspires to draw conclusions about how to situate and perhaps redefine both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ language policies and their roles in language policy and practice with regard to minority languages. The case study is the Facebook ‘Translations’ application, which is an application Facebook users can add to their profile on the site. It facilitates the translation of the Facebook website from the original US English into 105 languages (as of January 2012) by Facebook users. Theusers participating in this translation effort are known as ‘translators’ and are demarcated in communities according to the language they are translating. How Facebook manage localisation and multilingualism via the ‘Translation’ application appears to challenge the dichotomy of ‘top-down’/‘bottom-up’ in language policy. It cannot be described simply as a ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ language policy effort, rather many levels of language policy both ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ are involved. This paper will consider the ‘hybrid’ model that is evolving on Facebook, its possibilities and consequences for minority language communities and for wider theoretical conceptualisations of language policy.
Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A. (2007) 'Introduction: Language in the Media: Theory & Practice' in Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A., eds., Language in the media: theory and practice,London: Continuum.
Kaplan, R. B. (1994) 'Language Policy and Planning: Fundamental Issues', Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 14, 3-19.
Kaplan, R. B. and Baldauf Jr, R. B., eds. (1997) Language Planning: From Practice to Theory, Clevedon:Multilingual Matters.
Schiffman, H. F. (1996) Linguistic Culture and Language Policy, New York:Routledge.
Schiffman, H. F. (2006) 'Language Policy and Linguistic Culture' in Ricento, T., ed. An Introduction to Language Policy Theory and Method,Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Shohamy, E. (2006) Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches, London:Routledge.
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Publications by Aoife Lenihan
With the normalisation of the Web and its integration into and omnipresence in everyday life, there is a recognition among researchers that virtual spaces are no longer an extraordinary or separate domain but spaces in which culture can and should be examined. With this assumption in mind, the current chapter explores virtual ethnography as a research method for intercultural communication. First of all the origins and conceptual basis of virtual ethnography are examined before going on to describe the method and various approaches to it. Following this, the strengths and limitations of the method are considered as well as the challenges faced by researchers using this method. Next, the actual process of virtual ethnography / doing ethnography virtually is outlined and current studies and themes are explored. Finally, mixed and combined approaches as well as future methodological trends are outlined.
Available online via Google Books link below.
Initially the ‘Translations’ app appears to be very ‘bottom-up’ (Hornberger, 1996; Canagarajah, 2006) in nature, since any user can add the app to their profile, submit a translation, vote on translations submitted and discuss the submitted translations on the discussion board. The translations appear to be co-produced by the community in a dialectical process, albeit one that is explicitly defined and regulated by Facebook. However, on closer inspection Facebook is more involved in the community-driven translation effort than it first appears, intervening in a ‘top-down’ manner to adjudicate and authorize the final translations produced.
The case of the translation of Facebook would thus appear to challenge the dichotomy of ‘top-down’/‘bottom-up’ in language policy, and in Facebook’s own words could be described as a ‘hybrid model’. This chapter will reconsider the categorisation of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ in language policy theory with reference to Facebook’s role, involvement in and design of the ‘Translations’ app and the community of translators for the Irish language.
PhD Thesis by Aoife Lenihan
I would like to acknowledge the support of the Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP) (Funded under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, administered by the HEA and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund [ERDF]), which provided a doctoral scholarship for my research.
Please contact me if you want to cite/reference my PhD - just for my own information. Thanks!"
Research Presentations by Aoife Lenihan
Given Facebook’s status as the largest social network site (Chaffey, 2016) with 1.13 billion active daily users on average (Alexa, 2016), its treatment of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ and thus ‘unsupported’ languages in its internationalisation process raises the question as to whether this is also the case in other new media domains. Indeed, Facebook plans on opening ‘many more [languages] in the long tail’ (Ellis, 2009) for translation via its Translations app. In Facebook’s case, the availability of its website in a number of minority languages, including Irish, demonstrates the market value of such languages. As Coupland (2010) notes, the revaluation of minority languages by commercial entities comes with the risk that these languages may be seen simply as shortcuts to authenticity, goodwill and commercial gain, and not valued as important aspects of people’s culture. The notion of ‘long tail languages’ is evidence of the commercialisation of minority languages (cf. Heller, 2010) by new media entities as they identify languages directly with markets and with increasing user numbers. This paper aims to consider the revaluation of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ in the new media context and examines the impact of this commercially-driven reality on the social value of minority languages.
References:
Alexa (2016). Top sites. Alexa. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from http://www.alexa.com/topsites.
Anderson, C. (October 1, 2004). The long tail. Wired. Retrieved October 25, 2010, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?pg=2&topic=tail&topic_set=.
Chaffey, D. (August 8, 2016). Global social media research summary 2016. Smart Insights. Retrieved November 11, 2016 from http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/.
Coupland, N. (2010) ‘Introduction: Sociolinguistics in the global era’ in Coupland, N., ed. The Handbook of Language and Globalization, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 1-27.
Ellis, D. (2009) ‘A case study in community-driven translation of a fast-changing website’ in Aykin, N., ed. Internationalization, Design and Global Development, Springer Berlin/Heidelberg, 236-244.
Heller, M. (2010a) ‘The commodification of language’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101-114.
Writing for publication is considered an important skill for many clinicians, including physiotherapists, in order to contribute to research on best practice and patient care. Yet, the skills and strategies required for productive writing are not always developed on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in physiotherapy (Murray and Newton, 2008: 29). Recognising the importance of developing this fundamental graduate attribute, members of the Clinical Therapies department came together with consultants in writing pedagogy at the Regional Writing Centre to explore the best possible ways of integrating writing development into the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. This presentation reports on the initiatives developed to support writers and faculty in Clinical Therapies, in particular, Physiotherapy, and reflects on this initiative has developed over the last decade.
Murray, R. and Newton, M. (2008) ‘Facilitating writing for publication’, Physiotherapy, 94, 29-34.
In this study, virtual ethnographic methods are used to consider the language practices of new media entities in relation to minority languages. Initial research focussed on Facebook and its Translations application, an app the company developed to crowdsource translations of their website (Lenihan, 2013). Over 100 language versions of Facebook are available, including in minority languages such as Irish and Welsh. This research found that Facebook categorised some languages, mainly minority languages as ‘long tail languages’, which influenced the design/working of their respective Translations app. The current study extends the field of interest to a number of other new media entities such as Google and their ’Google in Your Language’ initiative and considers this categorisation of ‘long tail languages’ in terms of the commercialisation of minority languages (cf. Coupland, 2010).
The case study of the current research is an online crowdsourced translation effort, the Facebook Translations application (app). This app enables Facebook to localise their website by soliciting
translations from its existing users. ’Translators’ as Facebook title them, translate the words and phrases of the Facebook website from the original US English into over 100 languages, including minority languages such as Irish and Welsh.
This paper will examine the impact of technology in new media on language policy from two perspectives, that of Facebook and the Irish ’translators’ involved in the app. Facebook are involved in
the language policy of this context via the development and design of the app, its technology. In relation to the Irish ’translators’, this paper will argue that technology is changing the power dynamics of language policy, giving minority language speakers a primary role in the development of their language’s presence online. Finally, this paper will consider if the future of languages and language policy is in the hands of techno-capitalism and individual practices given the success of crowdsourcing and internationalisation driven by commercial concerns and technology.
Cunliffe, D. and Herring, S. C. (2005) ’Introduction to minority languages, multimedia and the web’,
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 11(2), 131-137.
This research investigates ‘top-down’ language policy and also the increasingly ‘bottom-up’ language practices and covert policies in new media. It aspires to draw conclusions about how to situate and perhaps redefine both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ language policies and their roles in language policy and practice with regard to minority languages. The case study is the Facebook ‘Translations’ application, which is an application Facebook users can add to their profile on the site. It facilitates the translation of the Facebook website from the original US English into 105 languages (as of January 2012) by Facebook users. Theusers participating in this translation effort are known as ‘translators’ and are demarcated in communities according to the language they are translating. How Facebook manage localisation and multilingualism via the ‘Translation’ application appears to challenge the dichotomy of ‘top-down’/‘bottom-up’ in language policy. It cannot be described simply as a ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ language policy effort, rather many levels of language policy both ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ are involved. This paper will consider the ‘hybrid’ model that is evolving on Facebook, its possibilities and consequences for minority language communities and for wider theoretical conceptualisations of language policy.
Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A. (2007) 'Introduction: Language in the Media: Theory & Practice' in Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A., eds., Language in the media: theory and practice,London: Continuum.
Kaplan, R. B. (1994) 'Language Policy and Planning: Fundamental Issues', Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 14, 3-19.
Kaplan, R. B. and Baldauf Jr, R. B., eds. (1997) Language Planning: From Practice to Theory, Clevedon:Multilingual Matters.
Schiffman, H. F. (1996) Linguistic Culture and Language Policy, New York:Routledge.
Schiffman, H. F. (2006) 'Language Policy and Linguistic Culture' in Ricento, T., ed. An Introduction to Language Policy Theory and Method,Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Shohamy, E. (2006) Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches, London:Routledge.
With the normalisation of the Web and its integration into and omnipresence in everyday life, there is a recognition among researchers that virtual spaces are no longer an extraordinary or separate domain but spaces in which culture can and should be examined. With this assumption in mind, the current chapter explores virtual ethnography as a research method for intercultural communication. First of all the origins and conceptual basis of virtual ethnography are examined before going on to describe the method and various approaches to it. Following this, the strengths and limitations of the method are considered as well as the challenges faced by researchers using this method. Next, the actual process of virtual ethnography / doing ethnography virtually is outlined and current studies and themes are explored. Finally, mixed and combined approaches as well as future methodological trends are outlined.
Available online via Google Books link below.
Initially the ‘Translations’ app appears to be very ‘bottom-up’ (Hornberger, 1996; Canagarajah, 2006) in nature, since any user can add the app to their profile, submit a translation, vote on translations submitted and discuss the submitted translations on the discussion board. The translations appear to be co-produced by the community in a dialectical process, albeit one that is explicitly defined and regulated by Facebook. However, on closer inspection Facebook is more involved in the community-driven translation effort than it first appears, intervening in a ‘top-down’ manner to adjudicate and authorize the final translations produced.
The case of the translation of Facebook would thus appear to challenge the dichotomy of ‘top-down’/‘bottom-up’ in language policy, and in Facebook’s own words could be described as a ‘hybrid model’. This chapter will reconsider the categorisation of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ in language policy theory with reference to Facebook’s role, involvement in and design of the ‘Translations’ app and the community of translators for the Irish language.
I would like to acknowledge the support of the Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP) (Funded under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, administered by the HEA and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund [ERDF]), which provided a doctoral scholarship for my research.
Please contact me if you want to cite/reference my PhD - just for my own information. Thanks!"
Given Facebook’s status as the largest social network site (Chaffey, 2016) with 1.13 billion active daily users on average (Alexa, 2016), its treatment of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ and thus ‘unsupported’ languages in its internationalisation process raises the question as to whether this is also the case in other new media domains. Indeed, Facebook plans on opening ‘many more [languages] in the long tail’ (Ellis, 2009) for translation via its Translations app. In Facebook’s case, the availability of its website in a number of minority languages, including Irish, demonstrates the market value of such languages. As Coupland (2010) notes, the revaluation of minority languages by commercial entities comes with the risk that these languages may be seen simply as shortcuts to authenticity, goodwill and commercial gain, and not valued as important aspects of people’s culture. The notion of ‘long tail languages’ is evidence of the commercialisation of minority languages (cf. Heller, 2010) by new media entities as they identify languages directly with markets and with increasing user numbers. This paper aims to consider the revaluation of minority languages as ‘long tail languages’ in the new media context and examines the impact of this commercially-driven reality on the social value of minority languages.
References:
Alexa (2016). Top sites. Alexa. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from http://www.alexa.com/topsites.
Anderson, C. (October 1, 2004). The long tail. Wired. Retrieved October 25, 2010, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?pg=2&topic=tail&topic_set=.
Chaffey, D. (August 8, 2016). Global social media research summary 2016. Smart Insights. Retrieved November 11, 2016 from http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/.
Coupland, N. (2010) ‘Introduction: Sociolinguistics in the global era’ in Coupland, N., ed. The Handbook of Language and Globalization, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 1-27.
Ellis, D. (2009) ‘A case study in community-driven translation of a fast-changing website’ in Aykin, N., ed. Internationalization, Design and Global Development, Springer Berlin/Heidelberg, 236-244.
Heller, M. (2010a) ‘The commodification of language’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 101-114.
Writing for publication is considered an important skill for many clinicians, including physiotherapists, in order to contribute to research on best practice and patient care. Yet, the skills and strategies required for productive writing are not always developed on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in physiotherapy (Murray and Newton, 2008: 29). Recognising the importance of developing this fundamental graduate attribute, members of the Clinical Therapies department came together with consultants in writing pedagogy at the Regional Writing Centre to explore the best possible ways of integrating writing development into the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. This presentation reports on the initiatives developed to support writers and faculty in Clinical Therapies, in particular, Physiotherapy, and reflects on this initiative has developed over the last decade.
Murray, R. and Newton, M. (2008) ‘Facilitating writing for publication’, Physiotherapy, 94, 29-34.
In this study, virtual ethnographic methods are used to consider the language practices of new media entities in relation to minority languages. Initial research focussed on Facebook and its Translations application, an app the company developed to crowdsource translations of their website (Lenihan, 2013). Over 100 language versions of Facebook are available, including in minority languages such as Irish and Welsh. This research found that Facebook categorised some languages, mainly minority languages as ‘long tail languages’, which influenced the design/working of their respective Translations app. The current study extends the field of interest to a number of other new media entities such as Google and their ’Google in Your Language’ initiative and considers this categorisation of ‘long tail languages’ in terms of the commercialisation of minority languages (cf. Coupland, 2010).
The case study of the current research is an online crowdsourced translation effort, the Facebook Translations application (app). This app enables Facebook to localise their website by soliciting
translations from its existing users. ’Translators’ as Facebook title them, translate the words and phrases of the Facebook website from the original US English into over 100 languages, including minority languages such as Irish and Welsh.
This paper will examine the impact of technology in new media on language policy from two perspectives, that of Facebook and the Irish ’translators’ involved in the app. Facebook are involved in
the language policy of this context via the development and design of the app, its technology. In relation to the Irish ’translators’, this paper will argue that technology is changing the power dynamics of language policy, giving minority language speakers a primary role in the development of their language’s presence online. Finally, this paper will consider if the future of languages and language policy is in the hands of techno-capitalism and individual practices given the success of crowdsourcing and internationalisation driven by commercial concerns and technology.
Cunliffe, D. and Herring, S. C. (2005) ’Introduction to minority languages, multimedia and the web’,
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 11(2), 131-137.
This research investigates ‘top-down’ language policy and also the increasingly ‘bottom-up’ language practices and covert policies in new media. It aspires to draw conclusions about how to situate and perhaps redefine both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ language policies and their roles in language policy and practice with regard to minority languages. The case study is the Facebook ‘Translations’ application, which is an application Facebook users can add to their profile on the site. It facilitates the translation of the Facebook website from the original US English into 105 languages (as of January 2012) by Facebook users. Theusers participating in this translation effort are known as ‘translators’ and are demarcated in communities according to the language they are translating. How Facebook manage localisation and multilingualism via the ‘Translation’ application appears to challenge the dichotomy of ‘top-down’/‘bottom-up’ in language policy. It cannot be described simply as a ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ language policy effort, rather many levels of language policy both ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ are involved. This paper will consider the ‘hybrid’ model that is evolving on Facebook, its possibilities and consequences for minority language communities and for wider theoretical conceptualisations of language policy.
Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A. (2007) 'Introduction: Language in the Media: Theory & Practice' in Johnson, S. and Ensslin, A., eds., Language in the media: theory and practice,London: Continuum.
Kaplan, R. B. (1994) 'Language Policy and Planning: Fundamental Issues', Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 14, 3-19.
Kaplan, R. B. and Baldauf Jr, R. B., eds. (1997) Language Planning: From Practice to Theory, Clevedon:Multilingual Matters.
Schiffman, H. F. (1996) Linguistic Culture and Language Policy, New York:Routledge.
Schiffman, H. F. (2006) 'Language Policy and Linguistic Culture' in Ricento, T., ed. An Introduction to Language Policy Theory and Method,Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Shohamy, E. (2006) Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches, London:Routledge.
Presentation for the University of Limerick Arts Humanities & Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Community Summer Seminar
April 2017