<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Well, the Press does restrict the number of pages per volume, so it would be an open question whether it would be possible (depending on how many papers were submitted). But… what about someone giving a paper on this topic at the next conference? Or even organizing a session?<div><br></div><div>- Monica<br><div><br><div><div>On Mar 5, 2014, at 10:51 AM, Regna Darnell <<a href="mailto:rdarnell@UWO.CA">rdarnell@UWO.CA</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Thanks for that suggestion, John. I have found this exchange fascinating, though I mostly just listen. Haven't done such work directly for a long time.<br>But why couldn't it be part of the next Proceedings?<br>Cheers, Regna<br><br><span>On 03/05/14, <b class="name">John Steckley </b> <<a href="mailto:John.Steckley@HUMBER.CA">John.Steckley@HUMBER.CA</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote cite="mid:571F0D02DCD53E468620FE60C8DD0C1825A21427@ironhide.humber.org" class="iwcQuote" style="border-left: 1px solid #00F; padding-left: 13px; margin-left: 0;" type="cite"><div class="mimepart text html"><span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"><p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">This is a fascinating electronic conversation. The editor in me says that this material should be put together in a collected work. The literature needs the
commentary I have been reading over the last few days.l<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">John Steckley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> ALGONQUIANA [mailto:ALGONQUIANA@<a href="http://LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Danielle E. Cyr<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, March 05, 2014 10:11 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: Other emotional consequences for others<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Thanks for the reference to Paul Proulx, Stephane. And for all the tips on dealing with emotional aspects of language teaching and learning. I do the same, when teaching linguistics
to speakers of Quebec French who believe that their language is a "degenerated" form of European French.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">As for the "naive Chomskyan" view on language, when I used the term
<i>lay people, </i>of course I meant every one, not only Aboriginal ones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">It's always a good idea to weave historical linguistics into any language course.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Danielle<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">---- Original Message ----<br>
<b>From</b>: <a href="mailto:stephane@goyette.com">stephane@goyette.com</a><br>
<b>To</b>: <a href="mailto:ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a><br>
<b>Sent</b>: Wed, Mar 5, 2014, 6:12 AM<br>
<b>Subject</b>: Re: Other emotional consequences for others<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Mary Ann Corbiere--<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">There may be a deeper problem here: your story reminds me of the following:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Proulx, Paul. 1986. “Anxiety Management in Native language Instruction”. In: Cowan, William. PAPERS OF THE 17TH ALGONQUIAN CONFERENCE. Ottawa, Carleton University. pp. 279-286.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">In a nutshell, Proulx describes the case of a native student, Johnny (a pseudonym, naturally), Cree by heritage, who experienced extreme distress when having to produce Cree
sounds or structures (specifically Cree ones, please note!). You and others may find it a fruitful read. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">The "naive Chomskyanism" Danielle Cyr referred to in another message (i.e. the tendency to believe that the L1 of one's ancestors is somehow "inside" your mind already), however,
is a phenomemon that is pervasive among non-natives, if my experience is any guide: I have experience teaching French and Linguistics at several North American Universities, and I have had many would-be learners of French who believed that their French family
heritage would gave them an advantage over their peers...and who, by the time they realized that French would be no easier for them than for their peers without French family heritage, had typically fallen behind, often so much so that they dropped out of
the class altogether.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">In my experience one good way of dealing with speakers of stigmatized languages/dialects (in the classroom) involves being clinical. I once had a semi-fluent speaker of Acadian
French in a small French language class, who seemed to be doubly ashamed (of not being fully fluent, and of the language she wasn't fully fluent in being Acadian and not "real" (her words) French). When presenting French grammar to the group that semester I
would make observations (to all students) about how some varieties of spoken French, such as Acadian, differ from the standard. The semi-speaker definitely seemed to become more motivated over the course of the semester by my treating the differences separating
Acadian from Standard French systematically, by my showing which aspects of Acadian are similar to standard French (grammatical gender and associated morphology) and which are less similar (much of verb morphology), and she herself probably began to see that
these differences aren't due to the former being some kind of degeneration of the latter (which is definitely what she seemed to believe when the semester began).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Another method (okay, tooting my own horn here) involves teaching historical linguistics. I once had a native speaker of a working-class British dialect (who was clearly very
insecure about it) in a history of the French language course, and when I described one of the changes separating Vulgar from Classical Latin (loss of the /h/ phoneme), and pointed out that a similar such change can be found in (for example) working-class
British accents today (including hers), she at first seemed floored by the notion that her accent was something other than a mark of collective moral and intellectual inferiority. As I went over the many changes separating Latin from French, showing how all
too many of them (palatalization, /h/-dropping, loss of unstressed syllables...) are operating in English today, she definitely seemed to accept, slowly but surely, that lack of social prestige does not equal linguistic indequacy. I doubt she remembers anything
much from the class, but I like to think that I contributed to reducing her linguistic insecurity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Stéphane Goyette. <br>
<br>
<br>
Mar 4, 2014 12:55:05 PM, <a href="mailto:ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">
ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Hello everyone,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">I am heartbroken by the test I am currently marking. Why? Several reasons: the student is a mature student (i.e. came to university perhaps 5 or 8 years after finishing high
school - not sure if student went to college before coming here); student's mother is a Native language teacher; test was 'open book' in a sense. Since I don't want students too stressed out about the assorted elements and patterns they need to know, I said
they can bring a cheat sheet consisting of one sheet using both sides and designed any way that best helps them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">This is Test 2 of the course that follows introductory A. The course gets into sentences with intransitive verbs and 1st and 2nd person actors. Test 2 entailed what, where,
when questions with 3rd person actors (e.g. What's going on there? When will he get back?). Tests from the very first one in the intro course last fall always include a dialogue script translation. The scripts use lines I imagine can be said in some realistic
everyday context and hence, as they progress through more lessons (i.e. more varied structures), a greater variety of structures can be used making the dialogues more realistic -- though not entirely since everyday speech by fluent speakers naturally uses
more complex structures periodically.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">In spite of that, the student can't bring in the appropriate puzzle pieces let alone park them in the right spot, and so writes for example, "Aaniish pii ga-meeting shkwaa-te?"
when the sentence needs to say "Aaniish pii meeting ge-shkwaa-tek?" The lessons give the elements needed and explain thoroughly how to identify the elements needed -- e.g. "She's" is a contraction of "She is" hence sentence is in present tense, etc. etc. etc.
Each lesson includes Gwejtoon ('Try it out') exercises after each section and a self-test at the end of each lesson, and answers to all so students have many models of sentence patterns, and conjugation tables, etc. they can select examples from to include
in their cheat sheets. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Does the student have some kind of learning disability? or was just unprepared for the kind of work one needs to do in university? or just assuming the language comes naturally
to Native students? The student knows some words and inserts such periodically -- e.g. maampii for 'here' to ask "Max maampii na?' when the translation needed to be "Yaa na Max?" The verb 'be (somewhere)' -- which they've heard me use umpteen times in class
-- is listed in the mini-lexicon appended to each test so they don't have to remember a bunch of verbs and other terms and their spellings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">In any case, I imagine the student must feel stupid to see the mistakes made. I emphasize to them that I'm always happy to give extra help to anyone who would like it and
the student has never asked for such. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">What to do, when even the Nadia Comaneci's don't work?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">MAC<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
>>>> "Danielle E. Cyr" <<a href="mailto:dcyr@YORKU.CA">dcyr@YORKU.CA</a>> 03/03/14 6:27 PM >>><br>
>Hi All,<br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">I've seen all these factors at play in the community I worked with several years ago. It is, indeed, very difficult to counteract, especially in a culture where teasing and
laughing at each other is pervasive. What helped a little bit was to explain language variation as a natural phenomena among languages. Another useful concept was language identity, both at the social AND individual levels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Beside these, another tool that I would have loved but did not really happened. was the teaching of the written language and grammar. Teachers just held to the notion that
their language was an oral one and, therefore, should not be taught through too much writing. Grammar, they tough, would discourage or bore the students.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">However, it is known that teaching the grammar and the writing of aboriginal languages is key to keeping students motivated. Because, firstly, it provides a lot of
<i>help yourself </i>tools, so students can make faster progress through studying on their own and memorizing morphological paradigms. It is a lot easier to start speaking when one knows all the verb forms of a conjugation, for instance. Secondly, students
who have the opportunity to study and understand the grammar of their heritage language are usually in awe when they see the beautiful articulation and complexity of these languages. Pride is a great source of motivation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Another thing too, is that it is of crucial importance to get the students to understand that learning a new language takes at least as long for an adult as for a child -
more or less 3-4 years full time. So they have to be patient with themselves and with others. Once the have understood that learning a language takes time and patience, and a certain amount of modesty, if not humility, generally there are better results.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Finally, as we know, Aboriginal people love to joke, tease and laugh. So, engaging students to start telling jokes in their heritage language may prove to yield good results
in terms of motivation. I say this based on my own experience. I've learned several languages, and I can tell you that when I reached the level of understanding and/or telling jokes, I felt I had achieved something. At some point, I was even able to make my
Mi'gmaq teacher laugh. I had to prepare myself for the chapter on fishing. When my teacher arrived and asked me, in English, what I had done the day before, I had prepared a reply based on lobster fishing. I used all of my little knowledge in Mi'gmaq, saying
that yesterday the weather was lousy, with strong winds, rain and big waves, but I didn't care and went lobster fishing even though. My teacher started laughing. And she laughed even more when I added : This is all true ! I'm no liar !<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Hope this can be of some use.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">N'multioq m'set uen !<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Danielle Cyr<br>
><br>
><br>
>---- Original Message ----<br>
><b>From</b>: Bernie <<a href="mailto:plnal@HOTMAIL.COM">plnal@HOTMAIL.COM</a>><br>
><b>To</b>: <a href="mailto:ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">
ALGONQUIANA@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a><br>
><b>Sent</b>: Mon, Mar 3, 2014, 4:20 PM<br>
><b>Subject</b>: Re: Dealing with emotional consequences of historical trauma in the language classroom<br>
><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Hey Con,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Unfortunately much of what you write is true. What hurts most in the Nova Scotia area is when fluent speakers knock the ones who missed out on the language because of the
residential school experience. Some of these victims are lawyers today who are accused of not having/or told will never have an accurate understanding of the Mi'kmaw culture and therefore will NEVER be good representatives of our nation. Being told that due
to their lack of facility in the Mi'kmaw Language, they're just not Mi'kmaw enough. This stings them very badly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">I set the wheels in motion to repair this erroneous way of thinking. Those lawyers will be my future students this summer coming. I'm hoping I will be able to get them to
see things differently simply by lecturing on the conceptual differences between English and Mi'kmaw at least for starters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">It kind o' reminds me of Obama's plight with many people in the U.S. when it was stated that he just "wasn't Black enough."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Hasta luego mi amiguito.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">berni<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
><br>
>Sent from my iPad<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
>On 2014-03-02, at 2:47 PM, "Conor Quinn" <<a href="mailto:conor.mcdonoughquinn@MAINE.EDU">conor.mcdonoughquinn@MAINE.EDU</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Dia dhaoibh, a chairde!<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">One of the harshest aspects of language endangerment that I've seen is that each generation gets slapped with shame no matter which way they go. The speaker generations get
made to be ashamed for speaking their supposedly inferior (etc.) language, while the non-speaker generations get made to be ashamed for not being able to speak their heritage language. And people who are somewhere between completely fluent and completely
non-speaker get shame(d) for not speaking it well enough.<br>
> <br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">The first kind of shame is the one that gets the most attention in language revitalization circles, but the latter two are just as pervasive and painful for those who experience
it. And it's quite possible to experience all three at once, and/or in different combinations.<br>
> <br>
>The last two strongly influence learner success and persistence. If you feel that (despite all the historical, social, etc. pressures outside of your control), you somehow "should" already know language, then it puts an enormous amount of pressure on you:
"If I don't learn the language, I won't be [fill-in-the-blank] enough...AND it will disappear." This makes every stumble in learning the language even more fraught than it already is for any second-language learner. Which very often can be overwhelming,
and drive people away completely.<br>
> <br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">So it's probably helpful to have these three kinds of shame brought up and out front, so that everyone can feel a lot safer.
<br>
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><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Particularly since these feelings are most often experienced very individually. That there's something wrong with ME, that it's MY deficiency. Having that public/group acknowledgement
that all of us are also going through one or more of these shames can help a lot. We're no longer individually isolated in them, and can work together to help each other find good ways to keep them from holding us back.<br>
> <br>
>This also helps these three different groups work together better. If I'm a speaker with shame type #1, and you are a learner with shame type #2, we both might not fully understand what's worrying the other person when we go to speak the language. Since
what holds us back might be really quite different.<br>
> <br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">This public acknowledgement is perhaps most important for intermediate-status speakers. It gets mentioned, but it still doesn't really get addressed nearly enough how often
people who are not 100% perfectly fluent get shamed and scared out of speaking by the more fluent speakers. Not just the really harsh language policers---who very often call those speakers lazy/inattentive, not realizing that they were never given the same
degree and quality of exposure to the language---but even people who just let themselves laugh at these speakers' errors.
<br>
> <br>
>These reactions terribly reliably drive great potential speakers back to the safer space of the dominating language. We can't ask all the fluent speakers to "please be nicer to and less judgmental of the less fluent speakers", but precisely because of that,
it's that much more crucial to set up and constantly work to maintain safe places for them to speak what they can.<br>
> <br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Public/group discussion of this range of feelings---helping people work their way to finally feeling that they really do have nothing to be ashamed of, and in fact plenty
to be proud of---is, as far as I can tell, probably not just a good idea, but really essential.<br>
> <br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Till later, keep safe and sane.<br>
><br>
>Slán,<br>
>do chara<br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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><br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 12:19 AM, Tanya Slavin <<a href="mailto:tanya.slavin@gmail.com">tanya.slavin@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Ben, thank you so much for the links. I'm definitely going to suggest this documentary to the workshop participants.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Tanya<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">2014-03-01 14:20 GMT-05:00 Ben Levine <<a href="mailto:watchingplace@gmail.com">watchingplace@gmail.com</a>>:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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> <br>
> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Hi Tanya - We made the documentary
<i>Language of America</i> (<a href="http://languageofamerica.com/" target="1">languageofamerica.com</a>) with just this use in mind. We show the film ( it’s 80 minutes divided into 12 minute chapters) or parts of it and use it to trigger an emotional response
which then let’s students own their family and tribal experience and identity. We facilitate the discussion which is to say give the responder the support they need whether it be encouragement or connecting their experience to an other’s or even balancing
conflicting responses, basically creating a safe space where the fragmented pieces of experience can come together. There’s more on the web site and also more about our work at speaking
<a href="http://place.org/" target="1">place.org</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Please be in touch if you wish more information.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">Ben Levine and Julia Schulz<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">On Feb 28, 2014, at 8:24 PM, Tanya Slavin <<a href="mailto:tanya.slavin@UTORONTO.CA">tanya.slavin@UTORONTO.CA</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Dear all, </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">[I just sent this message to another mailing list, but I figured I'd send it here as well, apologies if you're getting it twice!]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We're having a local workshop on indigenous language teaching at the University of Toronto, an event organized for school and university language teachers to share ideas on
some of the challenges specific to native language teaching in an urban setting. One of the topics that we hope to address in some way (perhaps as a roundtable discussion) is the question of how to deal with emotional consequences of historical trauma in the
language classroom. One of the biggest obstacles for aboriginal students wishing to regain their language is the painful history of their relationship with it (e.g. their parents were forbidden to speak the language, they may have grown up discouraged speaking
their language or feeling that their language was somehow inferior). All that baggage influences negatively their success in the classroom: they either reach a certain plateau or can hardly progress at all, or are unable to start speaking the language. As
a result, the drop-out rate of native students in a university language classroom is much higher than that of non-native students wishing to learn a native language. I witnessed it myself when I was teaching Ojibwe in a university setting, and I'm seeing it
now teaching it in a community setting. The question is how to deal with that and help these students succeed (also keeping in mind that they don't necessarily have the support of their community in an urban setting). Is it a good idea to actually raise this
issue in the classroom, in order not to ignore the elephant in the room, so to speak? Would having separate classes for native and non-native students help the issue?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">So I wanted to ask if anybody had any ideas about this they would be willing to share, or experiences they had, or any stories they have about students that were dealing with
this obstacle. If that's ok, I'd love to share your ideas and experiences at the workshop (obviously, giving everybody credit for them), which would also hopefully generate a productive discussion. I would appreciate any ideas you might have, and thank you
in advance!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><br>
><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Tanya<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Monica Macaulay</div><div>University of Wisconsin</div><div>Department of Linguistics</div><div>1164 Van Hise; 1220 Linden Dr.</div><div>Madison, WI 53706</div></div></div></span>
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