Developing a Hla’alua Learner’s Guide: In Search of an Auxiliary Remedy for Hla’alua Revitalization (Exegesis) and A Hla’alua Learner’s Guide (Creative component)

Abstract

This study contains a Learner’s Guide to Hla’alua (See Appendix A), a moribund Austronesian language in Taiwan, and an exegesis of this work. Language shift has taken place in the Hla’alua community, consequently only few fluent speakers remain. Most people speak Mandarin, Southern Min and Bunun on a daily basis (Chiu, 2008; Kuo, 2012; Pan, 2012) and no longer use Hla’alua for everyday communication. While the government is supportive of language revitalization, the current revival program targets children only, and the outcomes of revitalization remain uncertain (Kuo, 2012). This research aims to identify the gaps and customize complementary language learning materials for Hla’alua adults as an auxiliary remedy to the situation.

The project reviews the language ecology, the language education and the pedagogical materials available for the community. Additionally, the author evaluates the Australian experience of compiling Indigenous Australian language grammars. The analysis identifies a need to develop a Learner’s Guide for adult learners, which explains the spelling system and transforms the existing reference grammar (Pan, 2012) into an accessible grammar. It is designed for community members to learn the basics of Hla’alua on their own, as there is limited access to native speakers and lack of trained teachers. Also, the Learner’s Guide incorporates multilingual resources to enhance learning outcomes. Since the target learners are exposed to other languages, methods of teaching literacy in their first language (Taiwanese Mandarin) and techniques of teaching English as a foreign language are utilized to accelerate learners’ progress. This project makes a contribution to Hla’alua language revival and provides insights into development of learning materials for other endangered languages in Taiwan.