Question on assessing technology for endangered language communities

Wed Nov 4 14:31:12 UTC 2009

Kweh Shannon
This could be an interesting study.
It might be helpful to define terms like "technology" too, because,
as it has been hinted at previously,even a pencil can be deemed technology.
My waterdrum and horn rattle could then of course be a form of technology
too.

I hope with a study like you suggest, there would be student voices *
(evidence)*
about what has brought *them* personally to fluency and which "technologies"
worked
to help them get there....assuming, of course, loving and dedicated
teachers!
It seems we already have brilliant and convincing arguments from
"outside-the-classroom
professionals" justifying years of painstaking, tedious, life consuming
work in front
of computer screens.

I assume, teachers working with students( as myself) *continually* want to
learn:

----what does a *successful* foundation for language/cultural development
look like?
----what *tried* methods actually work the best (for non-immersion and
immersion)?
----what *tried* techniques can be a waste of my time and students time?
----where is *evidence* to evaluate *usefulness* of all the cool
technologies available?

just some thoughts....
(and I know, I keep bringing discussion back to the actual classroom)

Richard Zane Smith
Wyandotte Oklahoma

On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 6:05 AM, s.t. bischoff <bischoff.st at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> > ========================================================================
> >
> >
> >
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20091104/2debe6d2/attachment.htm>