Pr oceedings of the Second International Mongolian Biodiversity Databank W orkshop: Assessing the Conservation Status of Mongolian Reptiles and Amphibians.

The Second International Mongolian Biodiversity Databank Wo r kshop was held at the National University of Mongolia and Hustai National Park from 1 1th to 15th September 2006. Participants assessed the conservation status of all Mongolian amphibians and reptiles using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. The existing Mongolian Biodiversity Databank created in 2005 and housed at the National University of Mongolia was extended to include these two vertebrate groups, complete species lists were agreed upon, distribution maps were revised and updated, and summary conservation action plans were developed for all species categorised as threatened or Data Defi ci ent during the workshop. This article details the preliminary results of this workshop, presenting the most up-to-date species list for Mongolian amphibians and reptiles accompanied by the conservation status of each of species. A t otal of six amphibians and 21 reptiles were included on the native species list, along with seven possible species (not evaluated). Of the 24 species of reptiles and amphibians assessed, 25% were categorised as threatened and a further 21% were assessed as Near Threatened

Transglossic language practices of young adults in Bangladesh and Mongolia

© 2014, Taylor & Francis. The paper explores the use of varied semiotic resources in the linguistic, social and cultural practices of young adults in the context of Bangladesh and Mongolia. Based on a translinguistic analysis (including pre-textual history, contextual relations, sub-textual meaning, intertextual echoes and post-textual interpretation) of these practices, and linking this to other recent calls to reconceptualise the notions of bilingualism and multilingualism, this paper combines Bakhtin's heteroglossic and Pennycook's transgressive approaches to the analysis of language practices through what we call a transglossic framework. The paper examines four sets of on/offline linguistic practices taken from two large ethnographic projects from Bangladesh and Mongolia and unravels the ways young adults recycle linguistic and cultural elements from popular culture and mobilise a range of semiotic resources for their communicative purposes. The paper finally suggests that a sophisticated theoretical construction of language as proposed by Bakhtin and Pennycook needs to be addressed and complemented with an equally advanced analytic tool, such as this transglossic framework