Page 276 - Vseživljenjsko učenje kot temelj trajnostne družbe

Sara Brezigar

Zabaleta, I., Gutierrez, A., Ferré-Pavia, C., Fernandez, I., in Xamardo, N. (2019).
Facts and transformations in European minority language media systems
amid digitalization and economic crisis. International Communication Ga-
zette, 81(3), 235–258.

New Technologies and Linguistic Minorities: Opportunities
for Developing Language Skills and Strengthening
Minority Communities
In this article, the author explores the impact of Fourth Industrial Revolution
(4IR) technologieson the preservation and revitalization of minority languages
in Europe. Technological advances, particularly in the fields of artificial intelli-
gence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), augmented and virtual reality
(AR/VR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain technology, opens up new
opportunities for supporting linguistic diversity and acquiring skills in minor-
ity languages. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how these technologies
contribute to the preservation and development of minority languages and
how they are integrated into the everyday lives of speakers. Methodologically,
the article is based on a qualitative content analysis of existing scientific litera-
ture that examines the impact of digital technologies on minority languages.
Theauthorconcludesthatdigitaltechnologiesenablegreateraccessibilityand
visibility of minority languages through online platforms, mobile applications,
and social media. Tools such as machine translation, speech synthesis, and in-
teractive learning environments support the learning and use of these lan-
guages. Projects such as Mozilla’s Common Voice enable community collab-
oration in the collection of language data, contributing to the development of
language models and connecting minority language speakers in activities that
have traditionally been the domain of linguists and other experts. Among the
challenges highlighted are digital inequality, the lack of language resources,
and the risk of homogenization of language variants. The article concludes
that for the effective use of 4IR technologies in the preservation of minority
languages, it is necessary to consider the development of policies that pro-
mote the digital inclusion of linguistic minorities, bearing in mind that the im-
pact of 4IR technologies on minority languages is likely to be faster, deeper,
and broader than that of technologies from the digitalization era.
Keywords: technology, fourth industrial revolution, linguistic minorities, lan-
guage skills, artificial intelligence

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