Review of script displays of African languages by current software

All recorded African languages that have a writing system have orthographies which use the Roman or Arabic scripts, with a few exceptions. Whilst Unicode successfully handles the encoding of both these scripts, current software, in particular web browsers, take little account of users wishing to operate in a minority script. Their use for displaying African languages has been limited by the availability of facilities and the desire to communicate with the ‘world’ through major languages such as English and French. There is a need for more use of the indigenous languages to strengthen their language communities and the use of the local scripts in enhancing the learning, teaching and general use of their own languages by their speaking communities

Mobile Informal Language Learning: Exploring Welsh Learners’ Practices

Mobile devices have great potential in supporting language learning, through providing access to vocabulary, lessons and resources, and supporting interactions with other speakers. There may be particular advantages, however, in using such technologies for learning minority languages. Welsh is a minority UK language spoken by around 611,000 people in Wales and there is considerable interest among adults in Wales and from Welsh families in learning Welsh. However the small numbers of speakers and their uneven distribution make it difficult for learners outside Welsh speaking “hotspots” to hear and practice Welsh. Mobile learning therefore has great potential for Welsh learners by providing resources wherever the learner is and by supporting web-based learning communities. The study reported here investigates whether this potential is being exploited in practice. It employed interviews and a small survey to study the practices of Welsh learners at all levels. It was found that learners used mobile technologies widely, to access a wide range of resources, although not always on-the-move, and also that many were using courses, in particular one online course. Learners’ practices in using digital technologies for their Welsh language learning are discussed, and also the implications for both learning other minority languages and for informal mobile learning more generally

Beyond English text: Multilingual and multimedia information retrieval.

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Museums as disseminators of niche knowledge: Universality in accessibility for all

Accessibility has faced several challenges within audiovisual translation Studies and gained great opportunities for its establishment as a methodologically and theoretically well-founded discipline. Initially conceived as a set of services and practices that provides access to audiovisual media content for persons with sensory impairment, today accessibility can be viewed as a concept involving more and more universality thanks to its contribution to the dissemination of audiovisual products on the topic of marginalisation. Against this theoretical backdrop, accessibility is scrutinised from the perspective of aesthetics of migration and minorities within the field of the visual arts in museum settings. These aesthetic narrative forms act as modalities that encourage the diffusion of ‘niche’ knowledge, where processes of translation and interpretation provide access to all knowledge as counter discourse. Within this framework, the ways in which language is used can be considered the beginning of a type of local grammar in English as lingua franca for interlingual translation and subtitling, both of which ensure access to knowledge for all citizens as a human rights principle and regardless of cultural and social differences. Accessibility is thus gaining momentum as an agent for the democratisation and transparency of information against media discourse distortions and oversimplifications