U of A Project

[Susan D. Penfield]

Greetings,

First, I'd like to thank Phil Cash Cash for getting this list up and going
and thanks also to all who have so joined and participated so quickly. This
speaks to a strong shared desire to understand and promote the realm of technology
as it relates to language revitalization.

The U of Arizona recently received a large grant from the Bill and Melinda
Gates foundation to build a model for training tribal members to work with
technology related to language learning. Our project will specifically train
members of the Colorado River Indian tribes, specifically speakers its two
most endangered languages( Mohave and Chemehuevi), for the purpose of developing
this model of both technology and training which will then be disseminated
through a website ( under construction). This project will include work with
the Critical Languages program and the Faculty Center for Instruction and
Innovation as well as the Department of English.  Those of us involved in
this project will particularly welcome the discussions on this list. We are
open to ideas about any technology that is currently being used to promote
language learning ( hence revitalization).

As an applied linguist, who has been working with the CRIT tribes for many
years, I'm extremely excited about this project. However, there is a lot
of work to be done and sharing information will be a very important part
of that.

We welcome comments, questions, ideas and any discussion which will promote
a better understanding of how technology (of all types) might enhance language
revitalization efforts.


Best,
Susan

Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.
Department of English
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721