Investigating the Needs of Foreign Language Learners of Tuvan

ABSTRACT

Where do you start the course design for a minority language? One starting point is identifying and surveying a community of possible learners. This paper explores the needs of learners of Tuvan, a language spoken primarily in the Republic of Tuva, Southern Siberia, Russia. The study was conducted in two steps: an online questionnaire (March 2019) and semi-structured interviews (April 2019). The results showed a limited interest in Tuvan as a foreign language (13 responses) on the one hand, but a long-standing one on the other, more than two decades in some cases. The identified learner needs fell into three broad categories: needs related to “throat” (overtone) singing; needs related to travelling to Tuva and surviving in a new environment; and needs unique to each participant (e.g., academic research). The study contributes to the underresearched issue of indigenous languages as objects of foreign language study.

KEYWORDS:

• Less commonly taught language
• materials development
• minority language
• needs analysis
• throat singing
• Tuvan

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Alissa Hartig and Dr. Tucker Childs for their valuable comments and continuing support.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University [James R. Nattinger Endowed Fellowship].

Notes on contributors

Rossina Soyan

Rossina Soyan is currently a graduate student in the Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research revolves around developing second language reading and writing proficiency. She has taught English and Russian as foreign languages and has developed online materials for learning Tuvan as a foreign language.