Many ancestral languages (AL) are at imminent risk of extinction due to societal changes that pressure minority communities to assimilate with dominant cultures and forego usage of their AL. This study aimed to encourage caregiver-child dyads to converse in Lazuri, an endangered AL in Rize, Turkey. Dyads (N = 59; child age M = 30.7 months, range 15-48) were asked to speak Lazuri while playing with culturally appropriate toys for 20minutes. Utterances were coded for language and accompanying gestures. With children speaking mostly in Turkish, caregivers experienced difficulties maintaining AL usage, yet were generally compliant with instructions. Caregivers more often produced deictic gestures when speaking Lazuri than when speaking Turkish, suggesting that children's lack of AL proficiency influenced their gesturing. Moreover, caregivers who produced more gesture-speech combinations in the AL had children who produced more AL utterances, after controlling for the amount of AL input. Results indicate the feasibility of enhancing AL input through directed toy-play in contexts of language endangerment. In such contexts, deictic gestures may be especially valuable in grounding AL usage in the immediate context.
The study of twin behavior offers the opportunity to study differential patterns of social and communicative interactions in a context where the adult partner and same-age peer are equally familiar. We investigated the development of social engagement, communicative gestures, and imitation in 7- to 25-month-old twins. Twin dyads (N = 20 pairs) participated in ten-minute, semi-structured play sessions, with the mother seated in a chair completing paperwork for half the session, and on the floor with her children for the other half. Overall, twins engaged more with their mothers than with their siblings: they showed objects and imitated speech and object use more frequently when interacting with their mothers than with their siblings. When the mother was otherwise engaged, the twins played with toys separately, observed each other’s toy play, or were unengaged. These results demonstrate that adult scaffolding of social interactions supports increased communicative bids even in a context where both familiar peers and adults are available as communicative partners.
With rising international sociopolitical conflicts, higher education institutions' core mission must strengthen and offer educational programs that nurture global competence. The current "Pedagogical Points to Ponder" offers an inclusive study abroad model and discusses ways to break situational, institutional, and dispositional barriers for nontraditional students to engage in international developments. Nontraditional students have to juggle between academic and personal responsibilities and often have restricted resources. Typically, they cannot afford to participate in a year-long study abroad program (situational barrier), lack information about international trips (institutional barrier), lack knowledge about academic programs and fit, and fear traveling to unknown destinations (dispositional barrier). An interdisciplinary faculty-led short trip is described herewith as an encouragement for faculty to design unique programs for underserved students and involve them in matters of global significance. Pedagogical aspects based on APA learning goals, trip preparation, pre-and post-trip reflections, and challenges are further discussed.
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