title: Backyard perspectives: Considering a biogeographical, sociocultural and socioecological framing of environmental education in Australasia and Asia

authors: Eames, Chris W.

abstract: Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are geographically situated at the southern edge of the Asia-Pacific region and have therefore sometimes been referred to as the ‘backyard’ of the wider Asia region. It is from this vantage point that we comment on the broad focus of this Special Issue - ‘Environmental Education in Asia’. The intent is to open up and extend a dialogue with, across and outside of Asia as it pertains to environmental education and its research. We do this by framing our discussion around the biogeography, sociocultural and socioecological history of the region, beginning with Australasia, and then speculating on how this framing might be applied to connect environmental education in Australasia and Asia.

text: Backyard perspectives: Considering a biogeographical, sociocultural and socioecological framing of environmental education in Australasia and Asia Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are geographically situated at the southern edge of the Asia-Pacific region and have therefore sometimes been referred to as the ‘backyard’ of the wider Asia region. It is from this vantage point that we comment on the broad focus of this Special Issue - ‘Environmental Education in Asia’. The intent is to open up and extend a dialogue with, across and outside of Asia as it pertains to environmental education and its research. We do this by framing our discussion around the biogeography, sociocultural and socioecological history of the region, beginning with Australasia, and then speculating on how this framing might be applied to connect environmental education in Australasia and Asia.

year: 2017

title: Towards the digital music library: tune retrieval from acoustic input

authors: McNab, Rodger J.

subjects: computer science

abstract: Music is traditionally retrieved by title, composer or subject classification. It is possible, with current technology, to retrieve music from a database on the basis of a few notes sung or hummed into a microphone. This paper describes the implementation of such a system, and discusses several issues pertaining to music retrieval. We first describe an interface that transcribes acoustic input into standard music notation. We then analyze string matching requirements from ranked retrieval of music and present the results of an experiment which tests how accurately people sing well known melodies. The performance of several string matching criteria are analyzed using two folk song databases. Finally, we describe a prototype system which has been developed for retrieval of tunes from acoustic input.

text: Towards the digital music library: tune retrieval from acoustic input Music is traditionally retrieved by title, composer or subject classification. It is possible, with current technology, to retrieve music from a database on the basis of a few notes sung or hummed into a microphone. This paper describes the implementation of such a system, and discusses several issues pertaining to music retrieval. We first describe an interface that transcribes acoustic input into standard music notation. We then analyze string matching requirements from ranked retrieval of music and present the results of an experiment which tests how accurately people sing well known melodies. The performance of several string matching criteria are analyzed using two folk song databases. Finally, we describe a prototype system which has been developed for retrieval of tunes from acoustic input.

year: 1995-10

title: New Zealand English and Te Reo Māori: A critical perspective on the loanword narrative using data from translingual picturebooks

authors: Barbour, Julie Renee

subjects: language contact

abstract: Aims/Purpose: New Zealand English has been characterised by the use of vocabulary ‘borrowed’ from the Indigenous Māori language since early contact between English and Māori speakers. In this paper, we consider the relevance of the ‘loanword narrative’ to New Zealand English, examining data from translingual picturebooks published in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Design/Data: We built a small corpus of 10 translingual picturebooks spanning a 30-year period beginning in the early years of Māori language revitalisation.
Analysis: We applied techniques of language analysis from descriptive linguistics, including studies of loanwords.
Findings: We find some evidence of linguistic ‘borrowing’.
Originality: However, in texts created by Māori content creators, with Māori cultural themes, a language practice akin to pedagogical code-switching or pedagogical translanguaging is observed. Māori content creators alternate between languages, treating Māori lexemes as distinct from NZE, preserving Māori orthographic traditions, and providing translation, explanation, or contextual support of Māori lexemes for NZE reader comprehension. Our observations find parallels in translanguaging studies in bilingual early childhood settings, and they are supported by new psycholinguistic research that has identified the development of substantial body of linguistic knowledge about the Māori language by non-Māori speakers through societal exposure.
Significance: We argue that the prevailing loanword narrative does not account for Māori language usage in translingual picturebooks developed by Māori content creators. Rather, we find a clear pattern of differentiation between Māori and NZE.

text: New Zealand English and Te Reo Māori: A critical perspective on the loanword narrative using data from translingual picturebooks Aims/Purpose: New Zealand English has been characterised by the use of vocabulary ‘borrowed’ from the Indigenous Māori language since early contact between English and Māori speakers. In this paper, we consider the relevance of the ‘loanword narrative’ to New Zealand English, examining data from translingual picturebooks published in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Design/Data: We built a small corpus of 10 translingual picturebooks spanning a 30-year period beginning in the early years of Māori language revitalisation.
Analysis: We applied techniques of language analysis from descriptive linguistics, including studies of loanwords.
Findings: We find some evidence of linguistic ‘borrowing’.
Originality: However, in texts created by Māori content creators, with Māori cultural themes, a language practice akin to pedagogical code-switching or pedagogical translanguaging is observed. Māori content creators alternate between languages, treating Māori lexemes as distinct from NZE, preserving Māori orthographic traditions, and providing translation, explanation, or contextual support of Māori lexemes for NZE reader comprehension. Our observations find parallels in translanguaging studies in bilingual early childhood settings, and they are supported by new psycholinguistic research that has identified the development of substantial body of linguistic knowledge about the Māori language by non-Māori speakers through societal exposure.
Significance: We argue that the prevailing loanword narrative does not account for Māori language usage in translingual picturebooks developed by Māori content creators. Rather, we find a clear pattern of differentiation between Māori and NZE.

year: 2025