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Tutor: So, Natalie, Louise, how are you doing with your report on encouraging people to speak local languages?
Natalie: Fine thanks, Dr Philips. It's been really interesting.
Louise: We've found lots of information which we've collated for our report.
T: Good. What are you going to focus on?
L: Well, many schools and colleges are doing good work promoting local languages both as qualifications and in terms of after-school clubs.
N: And then there's the rise in popularity of minority language music, which seems to be driven by tourism. Tourists who are exposed to songs in indigenous languages become interested in learning those languages.
T: OK. Now you need to be careful with these topics. They are fascinating, but you need to look at influences which drive language learning through desire. Education doesn't leave people much choice, and music isn't a strong enough factor.
N: Do you have any suggestions for us?
T: Well, what did we talk about in last week's seminar? Can you remember any of the real push factors?
L: Do you mean things like communication and relationships between companies and their workers?
T: It's much more powerful than music, don't you think?
L: Yes, I see what you mean. So, I suppose our other idea isn't very strong, either. We also thought about hobby groups, but l'm beginning to think they're less significant.
T: Yes, there aren't sufficient hobbyist groups to make a real difference to local language learning. But, think about something else which is similar but reaches a much larger proportion of the population of a country or community.
N: Ah! Like online discussion groups? I remember in the lecture you talked about how the Internet is fuelling the increase in local languages through the world languages project.
T: This is more appropriate for your report because we can actually measure the amount of correspondence in each language and chart increases and decreases over time, which makes it a more rigorous form of analysis.
N: Of course. So, we should definitely include that in our report.
L: It's becoming clearer now. We need to write about the larger factors involving commerce and online communication, where we can record language usage.
T: I think it's better than looking at anecdotal information.
L: Thanks, Dr Philips.
