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Dear Folk,<br>
<br>
This is Kirk Hazen at West Virginia University. I signed on to the
list a few days ago, and I have to admit that it has been fairly exciting
so far.<br>
<br>
I am doing some work for a proposed NEH regional center based at Ohio U.
I am heading up a Roundtable On Languages and Dialects (ROLD) and have
included a copy of the preliminary report below. I would like some
feedback as to what kinds of research opportunities would be ideal and
whether the items mentioned in the report are desirable or what would be
better? At this point, don't think practically, just dream. I have
no personal investment in these ideas, so feel free to take them
apart.<br>
<br>
If you would prefer, you can email me directly at khazen2@wvu.edu.<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Kirk<br>
<br>
<font face="Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook">Proposed
Topics:<br>
<br>
For all of these proposed activities, it should be noted that people want
to make sure that English is not the only language discussed. Languages
as diverse as American Sign Language (ASL), Spanish, and Native American
languages need to play a regular part in every activity which involves
<i>language</i>. The key goal for such a design stipulation to these
scholarly efforts is to keep in front of both professional researchers,
students, and the general public the basic truth that all human languages
work equally well even if they are not all equally socially valued.<br>
<br>
Almost none of these ideas below were suggested by any one contact in its
form as seen here. Many ideas were combined under umbrella ideas.<br>
</font><font face="Wingdings" size=1>
<dl>
<dd>Ø<x-tab> </x-tab></font><font face="Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook">Language
Archive of Video and Audio (LAVA): LAVA would be both a depository for
new material and an active research entity collecting together recordings
of both sounded and signed languages across the region. The archive would
contain recordings, corresponding typescripts, and a database of
biographical and linguistic data related to the recordings. Scholars and
students who used LAVA for research work would then contribute their
analyzed data to the LAVA database system, so that over the years we
would gain a much more thorough understanding of the linguistic processes
in the archive. As an interdisciplinary effort, LAVA could also collect
writing samples of various stages of student work (and hopefully of
students whose interviews might be in LAVA also); this work would allow
much needed research on the interaction of language variation, writing,
and literacy.</font><font face="Wingdings" size=1>
<dl>
<dd>Ø<x-tab> </x-tab></font><font face="Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook">Online
Language Academy (OLA): OLA gathers together several different online
projects for widely divergent audiences. Addressing the range, between
K-12 teachers and students, college classrooms, and the general public,
OLA provides access to portions of the oral archives and corresponding
typescripts for those archives (i.e., LAVA). Signed languages would be
included in a video archive. From these resources, scholars could conduct
dialect and corpus surveys from their home institutions across the
region. Teachers working with the project would design day-long and
week-long curriculum for different grade levels directed towards dialect
studies within subregions and for the entire region. Teachers in each
state could print these lessons off the web, and then play the
corresponding archive exercises off of a DVD or the web itself. For
schools with computer classrooms, interactive web lessons may be designed
(with sound and video streaming); such lessons would also work well
within a "kids' dialect site" which parents may find
educational and nonthreatening. In such a manner, students would be
learning through community-based experience, since the archives would
increasingly be built from local community interviews. Research lessons
for students could then be designed to lead them through the oral
archives. Their work would then become part of the permanent collection.
</font><font face="Wingdings" size=1>
</dl>
</dl>Ø<x-tab> </x-tab></font><font face="Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook">Regional
Interactive Language List (RILL): This initiative would contain both
static documents designed as online "flyers" for public
consumption and an interactive set of chat rooms. The online flyers would
be modeled on those of the LSA (FAQ
<<a href="http://www.lsadc.org/web2/faq/faq.htm" eudora="autourl">http://www.lsadc.org/web2/faq/faq.htm</a>>)
and cover relevant topics for our region (e.g., Appalachian English,
Native American languages, region specific ethnic variation). The
chat rooms would allow the interested public from across the region a
chance to virtually meet and discuss common interests. Expert monitors
would be set up to respond to unanswered questions in the classroom and
watch for hate speech.</font><font face="Wingdings" size=1>
<dl>
<dd>Ø<x-tab> </x-tab></font><font face="Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook">High
school honors program for young scholars interested in regional language
scholarship. This program may take the form of either curricula designed
for high school honors classes or even visiting teachers from
universities.</font><font face="Wingdings" size=1>
</dl>Ø<x-tab> </x-tab></font><font face="Century Schoolbook, New Century Schoolbook">CD-Rom
atlas of the region (following Labov, William, Sharon Ash, & Charles
Boberg. 2001. <i>The Atlas of North American English</i>. Mouton de
Gruyter. See
<<a href="http://ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html" eudora="autourl">http://ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html</a>>
for details.)<br>
<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Century Gothic, Avant Garde">@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@<br>
Kirk Hazen, PhD<br>
Director, West Virginia Dialect Project<br>
dialect@wvu.edu<br>
Department of English<br>
West Virginia University<br>
Morgantown WV 26506<br>
(304) 293-3107 (p)<br>
(304) 293-5380 (f)</font></html>