Call for Chapters!Early Writing in Indigenous Languages [Working Title]The lion’s share of the world’s living languages face a bleak future. A growing consensus of linguists predicts that by the close of the 21stcentury 50-90% will disappear. Efforts to reverse this trend are underway worldwide. The purpose of this edited volume is to provide case studies of revitalization efforts at schooling early writing among children between approx. 3 and 12 years in lesser-known languages from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.Prospective authors are invited to submit a 500 word abstract and a short list of resources about the selected language and culture in APA style as well as the following information: Your full name in the order you might wish it to appear in a publication, the name of your institution or tribal affiliation, your full office or home address, your email, and your mobile phone number (with country code). Email Abstract to: Arieh.Sherris@gmail.com with the following in the subject line: EARLY WRITING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES ABSTRACTFirst drafts of future papers (7000-9000 words, not including bibliography) from selected abstracts would be required within 5-months of notification that your abstract has been accepted. Papers will go through double blind review.In the interest of clarity and possible future comparative study, your chapter, if you are asked to write one, will require the following structure:
- Brief introduction/rationale for paper
- Brief history of indigenous culture & people
- Brief description of the structure of the language
- Description of revitalization efforts
- Description of school and instructional writing practices
- Description of early writing
- A discussion exploring writing development with writing samples from children; samples could be drawn from a subset of ages anywhere between 3 and 12 years of age
- Promising exploratory directions for future revitalization efforts with respect to writing your language
- Resources (APA style)
EditorAri Sherris is Visiting Fulbright Scholar (2015-16) at the University Education, Winneba, Ghana and Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. His research explores the intersection of oracy, literacy, and language revitalization. His publications appear in Classroom Discourse, Intercultural Education, the International Review of Education (UNESCO), the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and Pedagogies: An International Journal. His practitioner digests for language teachers appear with the Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, D.C. His book Language Endangerment: Disappearing Metaphors and Shifting Conceptualizations (2015) is published with John Benjamins.