Indigenous Highlanders and "Oralcy" in the Ban Leung Market : A Micro-Discourse Analysis of Market Power in a Cambodian Province

This study represents a continuation of research conducted in March of 2005 on nonformal bilingual literacy education in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia. The purpose of the previous study was to assess the need for Oral Khmer in the bilingual literacy curriculum of the nonformal education project managed by the NGO International Cooperation Cambodia with a focus on the six Tampuan villages in the project. The Tampuan ethnic group was chosen because they live in closest proximity to the provincial capital of Ban Leung and therefore have the most need for the Khmer language. Thus Tampuan communities are currently experiencing the effects of Khmer in-migration which may have greater relevance for other highlander groups in the near future. For the present study, during which data collection was carried out in February and March of 2006, subjects were chosen from both the Tampuan and Krung ethnic groups as those groups were represented with most frequency in the Ban Leung marketplace participating in economic activities with Khmers. In short, the purpose of this study was to observe and record the language produced, communication difficulties experienced, and resulting social action inherent in the market activities of Tampuan and Krung ethnolinguistic minorities in their interaction with Khmers in the Ban Leung provincial market. To that end, analysis of literature related to literacy education and the economic livelihood of the Tampuan and Krung people in Ratanakiri was followed by interviews with policy experts and linguists familiar with the education situation, cultures, and languages of the indigenous highlanders. The primary component of the research was the collection of market conversations between Tampuan and Krung minority peoples and Khmers buying and selling in the Ban Leung provincial market. After thorough conversation analysis of these texts a pattern involving the use of yelled exclamations and communication breakdown was detected. The exclamations were often followed by insults and public ridicule of ethnolinguistic minorities targeting their limited Khmer-speaking ability or numeracy profiency. The challenge for data interpretation came in deciding whether these communication breakdowns exemplified cases of cross-cultural pragmatic failure or cases of discrimination against linguistic minorities resulting from power-status relations in Cambodia society. Based on analyses of Khmer and highlander culture and communication, it was determined that the yelling of complaints was not an acceptable practice in either Khmer or highlander commercial culture and indicated that the communication breakdowns resulted from verbal discrimination perpetrated by Khmers against the highlander minorities. It should be noted that there were cases where highlanders exhibited agency in arguing with Khmers or complaining about Khmer attitudes within some sampled conversations; however, these cases were limited. The results of this data will be used to inform efforts by UNICEF, CARE, and other organizations to develop curricula and train education officials and teachers to expand the provision of bilingual education throughout Cambodia