Scarce resources hobble Dene language teachers (fwd)

[Mia Kalish (LFP)]

Hi, Carol,

I have a draft of the first chapter of my dissertation. It has a good
overview.

Fauconnier and Turner's CBT shows how "metaphors are made". However, they
contend that almost everything above the level of perception is represented
as a conceptual metaphor, that is, a human conceptualization that defines
how people think about a particular thing. For example, Points on a Line is
a metaphor. F&T talk about how the metaphoric structures blend to form new
understandings. For example, they have one that says, If Aristotle had been
a general in the Korean War, he would have used the catapult. This is a
blending over time, and of course, through two wars. (Aristotle was the
person who fried the ships in the harbor with a parabolic shaped piece of
glass). F&T are rather extensive, because they have a collection of
structures and ways that those structures come together.

Lakoff & Nunez talk about mathematical metaphors. For example, all creatures
can count; many of these abilities have been studied and reported on. The
process of "knowing", without words, how many of something there are is
called subitization. The limits on this facility are 3-4 items. However, to
count, we need a metaphor. We need a Numbers as Objects metaphor that allows
us to map the thingy to the number. Technically, it's pretty low level stuff
to explain in words. It probably sounds pretty obscure to you, but here's
how I see it:

If we can decompose math into these basic metaphors, and then create Flash
movies of the metaphors in action, we can show the transformations. Since
the earliest perceptual skill is visual motion, it makes sense that
materials that move are more effective than materials that don't. Part of my
goal is to make materials faster; we spend altogether too much time trying
to develop materials for learning. Another part is to make those materials
rich enough to make lots of information available, and fast enough so that
people are interested and inspired to use them. Finally, I think they should
work for people who don't have a large collection of materials. I think they
should have cultural references, and that their development should include
families and communities.


:-) ??
Mia

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of McMillan, Carol
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:35 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] Scarce resources hobble Dene language teachers (fwd)

Mia, that sounds fascinating.  For my master's thesis many years ago I
developed elementary math curriculum based on the Nuffield Math Project,
an environmental math program.  I'm not familiar with Fauconnier and
Turner of Lakoff and Nnez, (I'm way out of date) but I wish I had the
time to find out more.  Do you have an introductory part of your
research you could send?  mcmillan at televar.com
Carol

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mia Kalish (LFP)
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 1:43 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] Scarce resources hobble Dene language teachers (fwd)


I will be doing my dissertation soon, and part of my research will be to
look at how we can build materials for revitalization. I hadn't intended
to do a distance component, but if there are people who would like to
participate in my research, they would get the materials to use for
their tribes and schools.

I am working on mathematics materials using Fauconnier' and Turner's
Conceptual Blending Theory, and Lakoff and Nunez's embodied theory of
mathematics. The nice thing about these is that the mathematical theory
can be totally abstracted from the English, and recontextualized into
the culture of the People. (I think its pretty cool).

I don't have money for travel, so everything we do would have to be done
over the web and via cell phone :-) but it could be both fun and
informative. It's pretty high-tech, lots of Flash movies, voice, and
some evaluation of how successful the materials were at meeting the
goals and objectives, something the teachers might be interested in.

I people know other people who would be interested in doing something
like this, they could contact me.

I tried to find the lady mentioned in this article, but there doesn't
seem to be any web site for the Princess Alexandra school. I found a
contact and a snail mail address. . . .,.

Mia


-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of phil cash cash
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 12:59 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [ILAT] Scarce resources hobble Dene language teachers (fwd)

Scarce resources hobble Dene language teachers

Last updated May 5 2005 09:07 AM CDT
CBC News
http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=language-aboriginal-0
5052
005

FORT SMITH, N.W.T. - People working to keep aboriginal languages alive
in the N.W.T. say there's a critical shortage of resources to teach the
subject.

School libraries are full of texts in English or French, but Dene
language instructors often have less than one shelf of written materials
to work with.

Instructors met in Fort Smith last week to talk about their quest for
new resources.

"It's a lot of man-hours," says Joanie Lafferty, who teaches at Princess
Alexander School in Hay River.

"It's not as easy as opening a book and going to chapter six to read
lessons one to three. You actually have to build it."

Lafferty and 16 other instructors spent three weeks creating resources
for aboriginal language teachers.

Gladys Norwegian, an experienced educator and language expert,
coordinated their efforts.

Norwegian would like to see more of the money that is now spent on
cultural programming reinvested in the development of resources for
language instruction.

"There's many of them that are just trying to make do with what little
materials they have and it is really important that they have a lot to
work with to make sure students learn the language," she says.

"Culture can be done anytime but to learn the language you need
resources."

Participants in the workshop represent each of the communities in the
Dehcho and Akaitcho regions, and funding for the project is coming from
divisional boards of education.

The books and projects they create will be available to aboriginal
language instructors across the Northwest Territories.