TPR

[Paula Meyer]

I would like to discuss the interface of TPR (and TPR-S) with elder Native
language teachers.  This can include culture, modes of communication, etc.
If you are a language bearer, what are your experiences with TPR?  What do
you think of it as a method for getting your students to know the language?
If you are a program coordinator, how has TPR worked in your program?  If
not TPR, what?
Paula

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 11:33 AM
Subject: [ILAT] Dictionary may preserve language of the Miami (fwd)


> Wednesday, June 29, 2005
> Dictionary may preserve language of the Miami
>
> The Associated Press
>
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050629/NEWS01/50629039
9/1056
>
> MIAMI, Okla. - Without a fluent speaker left, the Miami Tribe of
> Oklahoma hopes to revive its language through the publication of a
> dictionary.
>
> Daryl Baldwin, a co-editor of the dictionary, said the book is drawn
> from records spanning three centuries, beginning with dictionaries
> created by French missionaries of the late 17th and early 18th
> centuries and including word lists and texts collected in the 19th and
> early 20th centuries. The project, a collaborative effort with Miami
> University of Ohio, began in 1991.
>
> "Our language is rich and complex," said Baldwin, 42. "The dictionary
> proves it is a lie that the 'savage' Indian only needed 2,000 or 3,000
> words to communicate."
>
> The language died out as part of an English-only campaign the U.S.
> government conducted in an assimilation policy that lasted into the
> 1960s.
>
> "I never learned the language," said Floyd Leonard, the tribe's
> 78-year-old chief. "It wasn't something that was done when I was a
> child."
>
> Baldwin, an Ohio native and Miami Tribe of Oklahoma member, said a
> language is part of what defines a people.
>
> "Most of us have been removed from our cultural heritage," Baldwin said.
> "We started asking, What is Miami? Without speakers of the language,
> it's hard to get a glimpse of what that means. Language is culture."
>
> The dictionary came out about two weeks ago. Other projects planned
> include a field guide to plant species found in the tribe's historical
> lands in Ohio and Indiana expected to be finished later this year, and
> a mapping project that will reclaim tribal place names, which is under
> way.
>
> An audio CD of Miami speakers that contains vocabulary, phrases,
> conversation, the Miami origin story and the Lord's Prayer was
> completed in 2002.
>