Question on assessing technology for endangered language communities

Wed Nov 4 12:05:37 UTC 2009

I was thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to put together an online
survey to get a little better idea what is happening with technology
in terms of this thread...it might provide some interesting
results...I could do it myself...but not until the end of January...if
folks are interested they could send me the questions they would like
to ask and I could put them together in a questionnaire and then
construct the webpage...off the top of my head Keola Donaghy's
distinction (pasted below) might be a good place to start...we could
ask questions regarding each:

1) use of technology to teach language
2) the use of technology to document languages
3) the use of technology IN the language, or more specifically, in an
immersion environment.

Other ideas are quite welcome.

Cheers,
Shannon

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Troy Anderson <milluk at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ha!  I am reminded that I already argued for technology supported language
> revitalization back in '92... c.f., pages 122 to 129 of this
> pdf: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/13/77/c5.pdf
> Funny excerpts:
>
> $2000 for a 1.2 GB hard drive
> Pressing CDs - $1,000/disk
> My part-time adviser's map of Amerind (go easy man)
> My referral to Upper Coquilles as somehow separate from Milluks politically
>
> Tech has certainly become cheaper!  Everything else appreciated well except
> for the the linguist's salary, which I had in there for $30K... terrible
> ________________________________
> From: Troy Anderson <milluk at YAHOO.COM>
> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Sent: Tue, November 3, 2009 6:38:07 PM
> Subject: Re: [ILAT] Question on assessing technology for endangered language
> communities
>
> Kele Kiu!  Ayu gusdic domiRis!
>
> Great thread!  /me has learned all sorts of things!
>
> I would add the following for Milluk's case (technically not endangered
> since Milluk's last native speaker was my great-great-grandmother who died
> in 1961).  Tech, for me, drives language learning and exploration. Whether
> working on grammatical issues, coining new terms for the Coquille Tribe,
> developing the Milluk font, or a myriad other uses, tech rules!   Milluk and
> tech are so entwined probably because I am so entwined with the two, they
> seem inextricable to me.  Various linguists have done work on Milluk without
> the tech help, but I don't know how I could function without it.  That said,
> I am still using my dark ages 1987 Word Cruncher program in DOS to do my
> explorations (feel free to suggest how to upgrade to something better!).
> That all said, teaching my daughters (wow, powerful Myaamia video...
> inspirational) Milluk is proving to be only partly tech aided.
>
> My advice to endangered language communities is to gather everything you can
> but do so smartly.  While I share the rather dubious distinction of having
> studied linguistics with John McWhorter at Stanford, I do not share
> his pessimism reflected in the other thread.  There's so much we cannot ask
> a Milluk speaker.  If tech helps, do it, but for ____-sake don't you dare
> not start something with an elder because the tech isn't handy or
> affordable.  Harrington, Jacobs, Dorsey, Frachtenberg, Swadesh are my
> constant companions... but would much prefer my great-great-grandmother.
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Keola Donaghy <donaghy at HAWAII.EDU>
> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Sent: Tue, November 3, 2009 5:22:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [ILAT] Question on assessing technology for endangered language
> communities
>
> 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.
> ========================================================================
>
>
>