Phraselator

[Claire Bowern]

I'm going to be a bit of a devil's advocate here, although do let me
preface these comments with a note that I am very sceptical of the use
of the phraselator, in either its original intended use or in language
revitalisation.

One thing I saw a lot in one of the communities I worked with was a very
negative reaction by elders to young people making any attempt to speak
the language. I lost count of the times I heard "you can't speak your
own language but look at the way this White person can speak so well".
It was awful - it made it impossible for me to make friends my own age
in the community and it was a real turn-off for people who would have 
otherwise been very interested in the work. But at the same time I was 
being employed to make language teaching materials!

So, some sort of "phraselator" program - maybe on computer through the 
school - might actually be more useful to this community. Sure, it's not 
going to replace community interaction, but if there's already no 
community interaction, it's hardly a replacement.

Claire