Base de données de recherche des TNO

Régions: Dehcho Region

étiquettes: social sciences, dene culture, language

Objectif(s): To provide context for a later investigation into the attitudes of adolescent Dene language learners to the language and to determine if gender, age, or ethnicity, or a combination correlate with certain attitudes towards the language.

Description du projet: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5360. The main objective of the study is to provide context for a later investigation into the attitudes of adolescent Dene language learners to the language. This ‘context’ takes the form of answers to a short survey, designed to elicit answers about the importance of the language to community members and the reasons for the value that it may/may not hold for them. Within this, an objective of the study is to determine if gender, age, or ethnicity, or a combination correlate with certain attitudes towards the language. The final objective is to compare attitudes between the two participating communities, Katl’odéeche First Nation and Fort Providence. Adults, such as teachers, parents and care-givers, will be asked to take some time to respond to a 2-page questionnaire. Respondents do not have to have a relationship to a student to participate, but simply be a community member. Prior to giving their consent to participate in the study, community members will be asked to read through an Informed Consent Form (ICF). The community linguist can help them read through the form and will be available to answer any questions they have about the process, the study or their part in it. They will also be made aware of the withdrawal process, the relevant dates for the study and finally, they will retain a copy of the ICF for their own records. ICFs contain identifying information and for this reason, they are stored separately from the study data, and will be destroyed as soon as the withdrawal deadline has passed. The questionnaire will ask for short and medium-length responses on the subject of participants’ feelings about Dene Yatie/Zhatié and about the language programs available to students. The questions take the form of direction questions designed to elicit open responses, and a series of Likert-scale questions, asking respondents to rate their feelings about an aspect of language or language teaching. As views about a subject can be expressed directly or indirectly, it is important that participants can feel free to express their ideas as directly in an open-ended question, as well as have the possibility to rate their feelings about a topic without having to describe their feelings in their own words, which may be complex. The anonymity of the study is also key to making participants feel comfortable expressing their views. As part of the questionnaire, they will also be asked their age and their gender, but not their names, addresses or any other sensitive or identifying information. In this way, answers are not tied to their identity and will be kept confidential. Everyone who participates will do so as a volunteer. Participants may learn about the study from a poster which will be used to advertise the study at the band office, the community hall and on Facebook. Some stakeholders' organizations may be contacted directly via email to inform them about the proposed study and request their feedback. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 11 to August 31, 2022