Workshop aims to boost Native languages (fwd link)

Thu Feb 5 16:53:49 UTC 2009

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Workshop aims to boost Native languages
Education director says new process will provide framework for teachers

By Eric Morrison | JUNEAU EMPIRE

Sealaska Heritage Institute is looking to reinvent the wheel of how the
indigenous languages of Southeast Alaska are taught.

New education director Jim MacDiarmid is hosting a two-day workshop Wednesday
and today on a developmental language process he has created to help educators
instill the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages into the long-term memories
of their students. The nonprofit educational and cultural arm of Sealaska Corp.
has been at the forefront of Alaska Native language curriculum development in
recent years, but MacDiarmid said incorporating this new process will help
provide a better framework for teachers to present the languages to the
students.

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http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/020509/loc_385027774.shtml