Modern tool is utilized in the rebuilding of languages

Tue Aug 8 13:03:36 UTC 2006

Fyi.

Thanks

Carolyn

Modern tool is utilized in the rebuilding of languages

August 02, 2006

by: Konnie LeMay <http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=365>  /
Indian Country Today

KAHNAWAKE, Quebec - The creators of a popular immersion
language-learning software program called Rosetta Stone are marketing
their services under an endangered language program geared toward
revitalizing languages. 

Under the program, indigenous communities contract with Fairfield
Language Technologies Inc. of Harrisonburg, Va., to develop language
learning software. The communities provide the language expertise and
images to use. The voices on the programs are those of fluent local
speakers. 

Currently, four programs are under development: for the Kahnawake Mohawk
community near Montreal, (a recently completed program), the NANA
Regional Corporation in Alaska and its Inupiat shareholders, the
Labrador Inuit Association and the Seminole Tribe in Miccosukee, Fla. 

''The way that we teach languages through our software has been very
successful,'' said Marion Bittinger of Fairfield Language Technologies.
Communities contacted the company for help, and the Endangered Language
Program was born. 

Rather than simply a grammar- or writing-based teaching tool, the
Rosetta Stone system harkens to how children first learn to speak:
associating new words with images of situations or objects. The program
uses thousands of images and interactive lessons to prompt students to
understand spoken and written words and phrases. A demonstration of how
the immersion concept works can be found at www.rosettastone.com. 

The name Rosetta Stone was inspired by the stone tablet found in the
northern Egyptian city formerly called Rosetta. The tablet, inscribed
with three writing systems, including hieroglyphics, unlocked the
meaning of those ancient Egyptian inscriptions. 

Unlike some teaching methods, Rosetta Stone does not translate from one
language to another, so English, for example, is not used to teach
Kanien'keha, the language of the Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk, or ''People of
the Flint''). Thus Kanien'keha words don't lose possible aspects of
their meaning in the learning process. 

''The language that you're learning stands on its own feet,'' Bittinger
said. 

This particular Rosetta Stone software, released this past spring, was
the first completed under the Endangered Language Program. 

North America once had about 300 indigenous languages, according to the
company. Today, with only about 25 of those languages spoken fluently by
children and others already lost, an additional 150 languages may
disappear with the current generation of elders. The loss of many
languages can be traced to the polices of both the United States and
Canada to eliminate languages for First Nations children forced into
boarding or residential schools. 

Once the programs are developed and Rosetta Stone assists with training
in the use of the software, the language program is sold and distributed
by the community. 

The visual images in the computer programs are of people and places from
the communities themselves. 

This is a particularly pleasing element of the system, said Kaherakwas
Donna Goodleaf, executive director of the Kanien'kehaka Onkwawen:na
Raotitiohkwa Language and Cultural Centre and manager of the Rosetta
Stone program for the Kahnawake community. 

Incorporating pictures and images from the community make it more
culturally relevant, Goodleaf said. ''What is helpful is that you're
using images, you're using pictures of our own people.'' 

Of the about 8,000 people from the Kahnawake community, some 10 percent
are fluent speakers of Kanien'keha. 

''Language is such a direct link to who we are as a people - language
plays a very vital role. It informs our world view of who we are and
connects us to our land and all the history that comes with it,''
Goodleaf said. 

''To ensure that we continue to survive as distinct indigenous nations,
the Kanien'kehaka Onkwawen:na Raotitiohkwa is taking an aggressive
approach in developing and promoting new language immersion programs for
our community.'' 

Rosetta Stone is just one of the language tools the community has
chosen. In 1999, at the encouragement of local elders, the community
council passed a language law that requires use of Kanien'keha in all
educational, work and business and community settings. The cultural
center produces two local cable network shows aired in the language and
90 percent of the community has this cable network, Goodleaf said. In
fact, the children's puppet show program, ''Tota Tanon Ohkwa:ri,'' has
been so popular that the cultural center is putting it on DVDs for the
community and schools to use and for other Mohawk communities to access.

For the fifth year, the cultural center is about to offer a nine-month
adult language-immersion program, Ratiwennahni:rats. Former students who
are parents were encouraged to set up their own parent language nest
group. 

The cultural center is setting up a computer lab so community members
can access a language-learning experience designed to meet individual or
group needs. ''This is where the Rosetta Stone plays in,'' she added. 

Hope for the future of this voice of the people runs high for Goodleaf,
who sees a strong shift in language preservation and usage in the
community thanks to the efforts of parents, schools, leadership and
businesses. 

''In 20 years, we'll have the majority of our community members
communicating in our language, whereby Kahnahwakero:non will be
speaking, reading and writing in our language.'' 

Those efforts are succeeding and shined through at the cultural center's
annual language variety-night show in which schools from the Kahnawake
and other Kanien'kehaka communities do skits or entertainment in
Kanien'keha. It was so beautiful and hopeful that evening to hear and
see preschool children in the audience talking to one another in
Kanien'keha, Goodleaf remembered. 

The joy was especially felt by community elders, she said. ''They were
so happy to see these children walking around and talking to each other
in our language.'' 

Carolyn Hepburn

Director, Native Education and Training

Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology

443 Northern Avenue

Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 5L3

Phone: (705) 759-2554 ext. 2499

Fax:     (705) 759-0175

Web:    www.saultcollege.ca/NativeEducation
<http://www.saultcollege.ca/NativeEducation>  

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