Question on assessing technology for endangered language communities

[Keola Donaghy]

Aloha kakou. I'm sensing at least three different very different  
topics coming together in this thread:

1) use of technology to teach language
2) the use of technology to document languages

and now

3) the use of technology IN the language, or more specifically, in an  
immersion environment.

I'm not an immersion graduate but have taught tech classes to both  
students and teachers in our Hawaiian immersion schools, and had a  
daughter go through 14 years of immersion (preschool-12), now in high  
school. Being an immersion environment, technology is not used  
specifically to teach language, but is used in as many contexts as I  
have ever seen in a non-immersion setting - students are doing  
powerpoint, video recording and editing, producing print materials,  
audio recording all through the medium of Hawaiian. The Ni'ihau school  
on Kaua'i has a recording studio with a radio program that the  
students themselves produce:

http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/12/05/education/doc4938eb1220c5b696686550.txt

Regarding science and technology classes, they are challenging in  
Hawaiian as well as much of the terminology is relatively new, but a  
lot of it depends on the fluency of the teacher and their familiarity  
with the terminology and material. Even for the technology, there are  
very specific ways of expressing certain actions, for example, "go to  
the file menu, scroll down to 'export' and select 'TIFF' from the pop- 
out menu that appears." If there is a lack of consistency in  
expressing these kinds of things it will hamper the student's progress  
in picking up the technology.

I agree with this Maori student about the value of music in language  
instruction in the immersion environment. I've done some fieldwork in  
one of the Punana Leo preschools and wrote a paper (still in progress)  
on their use of music to aid in language acquisition at the preschool  
level.

Keola


On 2009 Now. 3, at 14:55, Richard Zane Smith wrote:

> Most here are convinced our computer technology is fabulous for  
> material collection and storage....and as a skilled tool.it can be  
> used deftly by a committed community
> but we haven't really heard from many students who were raised in  
> immersion programs.
> I was recently in New Zealand for a few weeks and visited a "nest  
> school"
> a Maori immersion school in Whangarei on the North Island. The young  
> man showing me around was a sharp young high school student who had  
> been reared there, and was donating some of his time to help out and  
> to "give back" helping out with the pre-schoolers.
> He told me one of the greatest aides in learning the language for  
> him were songs.
> But I can ask him about the use of computer technology as well?
> Maoris are ahead of many of us by decades and are powerfully  
> grounded people.
> He felt the Maori science classes were VERY difficult since new  
> terms and concepts are endless and could only go so far in the Maori  
> language.
> While coming and going he was greeting and speaking to students  
> casually in Maori and introduced me to the elder behind the efforts  
> to start the school.She gave me great encouragement as i shared with  
> her the difficulties we are facing in the states trying to revive a  
> dormant language(and culture) among our Wyandot nations.
>



========================================================================
Keola Donaghy
Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies
Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani             keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu
University of Hawai'i at Hilo           http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/

"Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam."  (Irish Gaelic saying)
A country without its language is a country without its soul.
========================================================================



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