Linguistic Diversity Research Articles (Page 1)

The Kadazan language, once vibrant, now faces a critical threat to survival. According to the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, it sits at a precarious level 6b, spoken mainly by adults over 30 while children are no longer acquiring it as their first language. Without urgent revitalization efforts that resonate with today's digital-native learners, this heritage language risks further decline. To address this challenge, KadazanlinGO! introduces a gamified mobile learning application designed to make Kadazan language learning engaging, accessible, and culturally immersive. Developed in close collaboration with native speakers, the app targets children, teens, and adults through a user-friendly interface that combines multimedia content with interactive gameplay. It is crafted using Flutter, enabling cross-platform deployment across Android and iOS with a single code base. Its key features include foundational vocabulary, common expressions with authentic audio pronunciation, and quizzes presented in three languages - Kadazan, Malay, and English. Its four carefully developed thematic modules are contextualized within the Kadazan culture, making learning relevant to the Global Goals, SDG4 and SDG11. This innovation is highly significant to both language and education, as it cultivates language acquisition skills and revitalisation while strengthening cultural identity. By championing cultural preservation through digital empowerment, KadazanlinGO! establishes a pioneering model for other endangered languages. It is a direct, tangible answer to the call of UNESCO's International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032. KadazanlinGO! represents a vital step toward preserving linguistic diversity and empowering future generations to reconnect with their heritage in a digital age.

Contemporary cognitive-linguistic research often seeks to consolidate metaphorical expressions into systematic mappings between source and target domains. However, the formulation of such mappings in natural language remains insufficiently systematized, frequently relying on intuition or on lexical resources that are not available for all languages. In this study, we propose a systematic, semi-automatic approach to source domain identification that enhances transparency, objectivity, and replicability in metaphor analysis while reducing annotator reliance on intuition. We build on an established semantic ontology, bilingual lexical resources, and distributional semantic representations to assign semantic domains to words, which serve as proxies for conceptual source domains. We manually validate the data and quantitatively evaluate the method via automatic metrics. Furthermore, we perform a qualitative evaluation of annotation disagreements and a detailed error analysis. Results indicate that the approach provides a promising foundation for semantic tagging and metaphor analysis in Slovene. The qualitative analysis of disagreements demonstrates how individual linguistic variation and cognitive biases influence domain attribution, and often prevent reaching a complete consensus between annotators. The error analysis further identifies specific limitations of the proposed approach, which arise from gaps in lexical resources and from the inherent properties of distributional semantic modeling. Overall, the findings underscore both the methodological challenges of automatic domain attribution and the cognitive complexity of source domain mapping in metaphor analysis.

Refugee children constitute one of the most educationally marginalized populations worldwide. Language acquisition is a cornerstone for their integration, psychosocial well-being, and long-term opportunities, yet conventional humanitarian interventions often fail to provide sustained, high-quality, and culturally relevant language education. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) present new opportunities to deliver personalized, adaptive, and scalable learning experiences. However, the integration of AI into refugee education raises complex challenges concerning cultural inclusivity, ethical responsibility, and learner motivation. This paper addresses the central question: How can AI-powered language learning tools be designed to intrinsically motivate refugee children while respecting their cultural and linguistic diversity? Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), co-design methodologies, and culturally responsive pedagogy, this study synthesizes theoretical insights with case analyses of initiatives such as Ahlan SimSim and Kolibri. The findings suggest that intrinsic motivation is cultivated when AI tools support childrens autonomy, competence, and relatedness while embedding culturally resonant content. The paper argues for participatory co-design with refugee communities, hybrid humanAI facilitation models, and robust ethical safeguards to ensure that AI systems empower rather than marginalize. Ultimately, responsible innovation requires balancing technological potential with socio-cultural sensitivity, offering a framework for equitable AI deployment in refugee education.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Arusha and Zanzibar, the research highlights how Bongo Flava artists, Maasai ritual musicians, and Taarab ensembles selectively inherit, reinterpret, and reframe the West African griots core functions storytelling, social commentary, mediation, and intergenerational transmission in ways that resonate with their social and cultural environments. The paper argues that griot functions do not migrate intact across cultural boundaries but undergo processes of role reconstruction and cultural adaptation, mediated by linguistic diversity, community structures, and institutional contexts. This Tanzanian case contributes to broader debates on cultural flow, performance, and the transformation of traditional roles.

Study abroad (SA) programs often underrepresent minority students, including heritage language learners, and overlook their unique needs. This study provides a critical literature review on the identity development of Chinese heritage language learners (CHLLs) in the SA context, a significant yet underexplored topic compared with more commonly studied heritage languages, such as Spanish and French in the field. While identity plays a crucial role in SA experiences, studies on CHLLs remain limited and are often constrained by small sample sizes, limited program types, and overgeneralized CHLL group categorizations. Given the distinct challenges of CHLLs, including linguistic diversity and sociopolitical factors, this review underscores the need for more comprehensive and controlled research. A deeper understanding of CHLLs' experiences will offer insights into the complexity of identity negotiation in heritage language learning and contribute to more inclusive SA program development. Abstract in Mandarin Chinese 出国留学（SA）项目往往低估了少数群体学生的参与，包括语言传承学习者，并忽视了他们的独特需求。本研究提供了一项关于中国语言传承学习者（CHLLs）在留学背景下身份发展的关键文献综述，这一话题在该领域中相较于西班牙语和法语等较为常见的语言传承研究，仍然是一个重要但被忽视的领域。尽管身份在留学体验中扮演着至关重要的角色，针对CHLLs的研究仍然有限，且通常受限于样本量小、项目类型单一和对CHLL群体类别的过度概括。鉴于CHLLs面临的独特挑战，包括语言多样性和社会政治因素，本综述强调了进行更为全面和受控研究的必要性。深入理解CHLLs的经验将为语言传承学习中的身份谈判复杂性提供见解，并有助于推动更具包容性的留学项目发展。

The article examines the role of institutional and sociopolitical aspects of tourism in Central Asian countries in reducing the region’s conflict potential. The study analyzes the opportunities and limitations of tourism in strengthening interstate cooperation, intercultural dialogue, and mutual trust. By revealing the influence of historical and cultural heritage, ethnic and linguistic diversity, as well as water and border issues on the tourism industry in the region’s countries, the authors propose ways to achieve regional integration and stability.The article highlights the importance of institutional reforms, improvement of the legal framework, and implementation of regional projects. It also analyzes the impact of joint initiatives, such as the «Silk Road Visa», on ensuring sustainable peace and socio-economic growth in Central Asia.

Background/Objectives: Engaging patients, caregivers, and community groups in health research priority-setting ensures that research agendas reflect genuine needs and enhance patient-centered care. Regions with cultural and linguistic diversity, such as South Tyrol in northern Italy, face challenges in achieving fair representation. This study aimed to identify health services research priorities in South Tyrol, a culturally and linguistically diverse region in Italy, through a bilingual participatory survey involving general practitioners (GPs) and patient and social interest organizations (PSIOs). Methods: A cross-sectional online survey (August–September 2025) was conducted among invited PSIOs (n = 64) and regional GPs (n = 290). A bilingual, self-developed questionnaire assessed organizational characteristics, priority ratings for predefined topics, experiences with research participation, and preferred participation modes. The data were analyzed descriptively. Group comparisons were performed using the Mann–Whitney U and chi-square tests with effect size calculation. Associations were examined using Spearman’s correlation. Free-text responses were thematically content-coded. Results: Ninety-five responses were analyzed, including nine general practitioners (9.5%) and 86 participants (90.5%) from patient and social interest organizations, of whom 27 (28.4%) held leadership or board positions. Across all groups, the highest-rated research priorities included children and adolescent mental health, palliative and end-of-life care, and continuity of primary care. Willingness to participate in future research was expressed by 38% of the respondents, with an additional 52% indicating conditional interest. Online surveys were the most preferred mode of participation, followed by workshops and board meetings. Conclusions: Participatory bilingual approaches are feasible in South Tyrol and highlight priorities that are highly relevant for patient-centered health services. Future initiatives should strengthen the structures for research participation, enhance GP engagement, and link identified priorities to research funding and policy action.

The transformation of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) among minority populations undergoing cultural and linguistic assimilation over time is poorly understood. Arbëreshë communities in Greece, who have preserved Albanian-derived traditions for centuries, offer a unique opportunity to examine how folk plant knowledge adapts over time. This study examines the linguistic labels and culinary uses of wild greens among Arbëreshë (or Arvanites), an ethno-linguistic minority traditionally speaking Arbërisht or Arvanitika, the Tosk dialect of Albanian, who have resided in the Argolis and Corinthia regions of the Peloponnese for several centuries. In 2025, fieldwork was conducted in four rural Arbëreshë villages in the Argolis and Corinthia regions of Greece, combining semi-structured interviews with 24 elderly participants, participant observation, and the collection and identification of botanical specimens. The contemporary dataset was compared with historical ethnobotanical records from the 1970s to assess temporal changes in the use of wild vegetables and folk plant nomenclature. Our results reveal that current Arbëreshë ethnobotanical heritage has undergone profound Hellenisation, with 62% of folk plant names of Greek origin, 14% Albanian, and 24% hybrid, reflecting strong linguistic and cultural assimilation over the past half-century. The traditional boiled green mix (lakra in Arbëreshë, chorta in Greek) remains central to the local cuisine, which is rooted in foraged plants, although its culinary applications have diversified. In total, 37 taxa of wild vegetables across 37 genera and 14 families were documented in 2025, compared with 21 taxa across 21 genera in the filtered 1970 dataset. Core families, such as Asteraceae and Brassicaceae, remained dominant, while new families, like Malvaceae and Portulacaceae, appeared, possibly indicating both ecological and culinary changes. These findings raise questions about whether the Arbëreshë wild vegetable heritage was strongly influenced by the surrounding Greek majority or primarily acquired after migration, potentially facilitated by intermarriages and shared Orthodox Christian affiliation. Overall, our study highlights a largely Hellenised Arbëreshë biocultural heritage and underscores the urgent need for national and regional stakeholders to recognise and celebrate the remaining minority’s linguistic and ethnobotanical diversity. The transformation of local ethnobotanical knowledge over the past fifty years appears influenced by ecological availability, socio-cultural dynamics, and changing taste preferences.

ABSTRACT Irish-medium (IM) education has forged itself as a desirable type of education which many Irish parents would like to choose for their children. Over the last number of decades, linguistic and cultural diversity has increased in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), yet the number of children enrolled in IM primary schools who speak home languages other than English or Irish, is still very small. This study investigated the perspectives and experiences of IM primary school principals and teachers when educating multilingual learners in their school. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with principals (n = 5) and teachers (n = 8) from five IM schools. This article reports on the positive attitudes that teachers and principals held towards multilingual learners in IM education and the inclusive approaches implemented in the schools. Nevertheless, the absence of policy guidance around the inclusion of multilingual learners in a minority language education context posed a challenge for teachers and principals. It is clear from the findings of the study, that more consideration needs to be given to professional development for teachers and principals. Further policy guidance on inclusion, and access to appropriate resources and assessments to support the inclusion of multilingual learners in immersion education is also required.

Language rights are fundamental components of human rights, especially in multilingual societies where speakers of non-dominant languages often face marginalization. This paper examines the concept of language rights within legal frameworks, theoretical paradigms, historical contexts, and real-life case studies, with particular attention to how such rights are communicated and contested. Drawing on collective and individual perspectives, the study examines how language policies either empower or suppress linguistic minorities, analyzing critical case studies such as the status of the Albanian language in Greece and Italy. The paper also investigates the role of communication strategies and education systems in the protection or erosion of linguistic diversity. It argues that legal codification, political will, inclusive education, and equitable media representation are essential in promoting language rights as active and enforceable entitlements rather than abstract ideals. Ultimately, the paper underscores the need for inclusive and multilingual communication strategies that can help mediate the complexities of linguistic identity and state power. Keywords: Language rights, multilingualism, language policy, minority languages, legal frameworks, linguistic justice, communication strategies, bilingual education.

Language policy, while often framed as a technical or administrative matter, has profound legal, social, and political implications. This paper examines the conceptual evolution, theoretical frameworks, and diverse applications of language policy across multilingual and post-colonial contexts, particularly focusing on Africa and South Asia. It critically examines how language policies reflect and reinforce structures of power, often leading to social exclusion, educational inequality, and linguistic imperialism. Legal frameworks governing language use are assessed, showing how they both support and constrain language rights. The paper also explores grassroots challenges in implementing language policies in education and public administration, revealing gaps between policy rhetoric and lived realities. Through case studies and policy critiques, the research highlights how inclusive language planning, supported by equitable legal mechanisms, can advance social justice, preserve linguistic diversity, and improve governance. Ultimately, language policy must be seen not just as a linguistic issue but as a tool for democratic participation and legal empowerment. Keywords: Language policy, legal implications, multilingualism, education, language rights, post-colonial states, linguistic justice.

ABSTRACT In many higher education institutions (HEIs), English often serves as the primary language within internationalized academic circles and an important medium of instruction with varying implications for international students and instructors who rely on English‐medium instruction (EMI). Effective language policy and planning (LPP) is essential to support the integration of EMI while addressing the challenges of internationalization and multilingual diversity. This study analyzes language policies and EMI implementation in Poland, alongside the attitudes and preparedness of local instructors implementing these programs. Using data from institutional documents and instructor surveys, our findings highlight gaps in policies, regulations, and instructor preparation, indicating a need for improvement in the institution's internationalization processes and professional development offers. The study advocates for developing inclusive, multilingual policies and comprehensive support mechanisms for students, faculty, and staff to promote linguistic diversity, international collaboration, and academic integration in Polish HEIs.

Minority languages worldwide are undergoing rapid phonological and lexical shifts due to sociocultural pressures and dominance of majority languages. This project develops PhonoPlay, a prototype application that transforms sociolinguistic research findings into an interactive learning tool for language preservation. Drawing on a case study of the Chetti community in Melaka, Malaysia, where the phonological variable (r) in word-final position is disappearing among younger speakers, the application integrates gamification mechanics such as scoring, levels, and speech recognition to encourage pronunciation practice. Learners engage in pronunciation challenges across different speech styles; formal and casual, thereby raising awareness of linguistic variation and identity. In other words, PhonoPlay works like a language learning game plus digital museum. Users play through pronunciation challenges, style-shifting tasks, and cultural activities. In return, they collect badges and fill their Chetti Sound Museum, making language learning fun, personal, and meaningful. Beyond the Chetti case, PhonoPlay offers a framework adaptable to other minority languages, particularly in multilingual contexts. This innovation bridges research, education, and technology, aligning with efforts to sustain linguistic diversity in the digital age.

Introduction: Utilization of large language models (LLMs) for named entity recognition from free-text medical reports is rapidly expanding. However, concerns about protected health information (PHI) restrict the adoption of commercial LLMs. While simpler natural language processing methods, such as regular expressions (RegEx), offer an accessible solution, they often fail when linguistic variability increases. Particularly in rare conditions with limited labeled datasets, advanced machine learning models like Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) are difficult to train. Thus, there is a need for secure, efficient, and accurate data extraction methods. Research Questions: We hypothesized that a hybrid approach combining simple RegEx with few-shot prompts on an on-premises LLM would maximize accuracy and efficiency while maintaining PHI compliance. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) reports from 183 patients. Custom RegEx rules and few-shot LLM prompts were independently applied across all reports. A hybrid extraction approach integrated both methods by selectively using LLM results in areas of poor RegEx performance. Ground truths were manually verified by a clinical expert. Performance was evaluated using Coverage, Precision, Recall, and F 1 -score metrics. Results: A manual review of 430 CMR reports (3/2005-12/2024) identified a median proportion of missing values of 3.95% (IQR 2.79–5.12) across 13 clinical metrics. The baseline RegEx extraction alone achieved a completeness of 90.7%, whereas the standalone few-shot LLM approach reached 91.9%. Combining RegEx with targeted few-shot LLM prompts, the hybrid method significantly improved data completeness to 99.8%. In terms of accuracy, the hybrid approach attained an F 1 score of 97.5%±3.6, clearly outperforming RegEx alone (85.2%±22.2) and the standalone LLM (86.0%±15.1). Pairwise comparisons confirmed differences were significant (p<0.001) with large effect sizes (Cohen’s d >1.0). Additionally, the hybrid approach reduced computational time by approximately 75% compared to the LLM-only method. Conclusion: A hybrid NLP method combining deterministic RegEx and targeted LLM prompts significantly enhances data extraction accuracy from legacy clinical free-text reports. This approach addresses PHI security concerns and effectively reallocates annotation resources toward predictive modeling, thereby advancing clinical research and quality improvement.

LINGUISTIC IDEOLOGIES IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE: PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES TO INTRODUCE LINGUISTIC ACTIVISM IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOMThis article explores linguistic ideologies in linguistic landscapes in Hamburg and their potential as a pedagogical tool to introduce language activism in the classroom. Linguistic landscapes, defined as the visibility and presence of languages in public spaces, reflect and reproduce societal ideologies on multilingualism. By engaging students with these elements, critical awareness of language policies, linguistic diversity, and sociolinguistic hierarchies can be fostered. The study presents two examples of pedagogical proposals with pictures of different neighborhoods in Hamburg, designed to integrate linguistic landscape analysis into language education. These proposals focus on promoting students’ engagement and their critical and even confrontational positioning, encouraging them to critically analyze the social and political dimensions of language use. Through the proposed activities and discussions on language ideologies, students can develop a deeper understanding of language as a social practice. Findings suggest that incorporating linguistic landscape analysis into language education not only enhances students’ sociolinguistic awareness but also fosters an inclusive and reflective learning environment. Furthermore, it equips students with tools to develop a predisposition for language activism, advocating for linguistic rights and diversity in their communities. This article contributes to the ongoing discourse on language education by providing practical strategies that link theoretical discussions on linguistic ideologies with classroom practice, ultimately promoting critical, participatory, and socially engaged language learning.

The European Union (EU) embodies one of the world’s most linguistically diverse regions, encompassing 24 official languages, more than 60 regional and minority languages, and a wide array of immigrant and sign languages. This diversity reflects not only Europe’s cultural and historical pluralism but also its ongoing political and educational challenges. This paper examines the complex landscape of linguistic diversity and language varieties in the EU, analyzing how language policy frameworks, educational initiatives, and institutional practices interact with broader questions of identity, integration, and governance. Drawing on official EU documents, sociolinguistic research, and legal frameworks such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the study explores the evolution of the EU’s multilingualism policy and its implications for linguistic equality and cohesion. The analysis highlights the persistent tension between the EU’s official commitment to multilingualism and the pragmatic dominance of a few major languages—most notably English, French, and German—within institutions, academia, and international communication. It also considers the sociolinguistic implications of this hierarchy for regional, minority, and immigrant languages. Special attention is given to language education policies and the implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) as a tool for standardizing learning outcomes across member states. Ultimately, the paper argues for a more inclusive, dynamic, and equitable language policy—one that values all language varieties as integral to the EU’s democratic and cultural fabric and recognizes multilingualism not merely as a policy objective, but as a vital resource for social cohesion, intercultural understanding, and European identity.

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Emotion knowledge is part of a broader network of social-emotional skills and includes the ability to recognize (receptive), label (expressive), and understand the causes and consequences (situational) of emotions. Research on emotion knowledge development has predominantly been conducted with relatively small or non-diverse samples. The current study employed a racially and linguistically sensitive measurement approach and examined the invariance of an adapted version of the Emotion Matching Task (EMT) in a diverse preschool sample (N = 1,363), assessed in both fall and spring across the 2021–2023 school years. Our findings highlight that both longitudinal and multigroup invariance were established for the EMT. Significant growth was observed across all groups in the three domains of emotion knowledge. Gender, ethnic-racial, and language-based differences in emotion knowledge were observed across domains and time points, with most gender and ethnic-racial disparities persisting from fall to spring. Practice or Policy: This study contributes to the growing literature necessary to advance measurement approaches that attend to the increasing ethnic-racial and linguistic diversity within early childhood spaces and reinforces the need for culturally and linguistically responsive social-emotional learning practices and supports to promote equitable growth of social-emotional skills for all students.

Abstract Studies on linguistic diversification are mainly based on large databases, in which internal or dialectal variation is often not taken into account. In this work, we intend to focus on one language, Breton, to observe how diversification operates at the level of vernacular varieties. To achieve this, we have applied a dialectometric approach to data taken from the Nouvel Atlas linguistique de la Basse-Bretagne (Le Dû 2001) and analyzed the patterns present in the distribution of linguistic distance across the dialectal network. The results reveal multiple temporal layers that echo the period of the emergence of new Brittonic dialects in the early Middle Ages.

This study examined the psychometric challenges of multilingual and multicultural educational assessments among university science education students in Nigeria. The purpose was to investigate how linguistic and cultural diversity influences the reliability, validity, and fairness of assessments, and to identify strategies for improving accuracy. Guided by three research questions, the study employed a descriptive survey design with a sample of 400 undergraduate science education students selected through multistage sampling across four universities. Two instruments were used: the Multilingual and Multicultural Assessment Experience Questionnaire (MMAEQ) and a standardized Science Achievement Test (SAT). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), differential item functioning (DIF), and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Findings revealed that students perceived significant psychometric challenges, including language barriers, cultural bias in test content, lack of standardized translations, and differential item functioning. Linguistic background was shown to influence test performance, with English first-language students achieving higher reliability and validity coefficients than peers from indigenous or mixed linguistic backgrounds. Respondents strongly endorsed strategies such as culturally adapted test items, language accommodations, pretesting across cultural groups, and the use of DIF analysis. These findings underscore the need for culturally responsive and linguistically sensitive assessment practices. The study concludes that traditional psychometric approaches are insufficient in multilingual and multicultural contexts. Assessment bodies, universities, and policymakers must integrate inclusive psychometric practices to ensure fairness, reduce bias, and enhance validity in science education assessments. The study provides evidence-based recommendations and highlights the importance of capacity building among test developers to sustain improvement in higher education assessment systems.

LEARNING (SOCIO)LINGUISTICS THROUGH THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF PALMA: A PRACTICAL EXPERIENCEThis paper presents a pedagogical experience related to the innovation project “Planning the Acquisition of the Norm: From the Classroom to the Street” (PID232522), which aims to provide students of three undergraduate courses (Sociolinguistics, Language Planning, and Descriptive Grammar: Syntax and Pragmatics) a holistic view of external and internal linguistics, and to equip them with the necessary tools to approach the sociolinguistic reality of the archipelago in their professional lives. Among other things, the project includes, as a key element, the development of a coordinated final project coordinated, which in the 2023-2024 academic year consisted of a study on linguistic landscapes, a key concept for understanding how languages are represented in public space. Specifically, students carried out an analysis of the linguistic landscapes of three types of establishments (a large retail store, a small shop, and a restaurant) in different areas of Palma. Through this study, patterns of linguistic behavior were identified, which can be summarized in two main conclusions. On the one hand, students observed the presence of linguistic diversity in the most touristic areas of the city—in addition to the official languages of the Balearic Islands, languages such as German and English were also present. On the other hand, the project allowed students to find out a predominance of Spanish in the key points for the configuration of the linguistic landscape, followed by the most common languages for dealing with tourists—German and English. The paper shows how this experience allowed students to enhance their knowledge, competencies, and skills, developing a critical awareness of the sociolinguistic situation in the city and gaining better preparation to face the professional challenges that they will encounter in fields such as language planning or teaching.