Tag Archives: language revitalization

Module 2: Weblog 4: Ntsayka Ikanum’s Story

Ntsayka Ikanum is an Indigenous tribe of Grand Ronde, Orgeon. This website is a documentation and archive of their history, tradition and current culture. There are videos of elders speaking in their Indigenous language and telling stories with English subtitles at the bottom. The language is also scripted in writing with the spoken alphabet recorded. Currently, the Ntsayka Ikanum tribe is practicing language revitalization. There are immersion pre-schools and kindergartens for the young children to learn the language fluently.

There is also information about their history, their struggle of relocation, current community events and traditions, and stories of their elders. There are many audio clips within the website to hear the language and listen to the stories or song being told/ chanted.

The title of the home page is Our Story , I feel that this website was created by the tribe members to take control of their history and represent their own tribal identity through their own stories from their perspective for the world to understand.

http://www.grandronde.org/ikanum/index.html

Module 2: Weblog 3: Global Language Hotspots

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My third weblog is about Global Language Hotspots. Language hotspots are small geographic areas of high diversity grouped with endangered languages. This website defines five categories of language endangerment and rates the various language hotspots around the world according to the appropriate category.

The website defines and expresses the concern of language endangerment. “A language dies when the last speaker of that language dies, and the world loses the knowledge that was contained in that language. Even before the last speaker dies, a language is useless when it no longer defines a community and cannot be used to communicate meaning.”

I think the purpose of this website is to educate people about language extinction and become aware of how important language is to culture. One section has an interactive map of all the language hotspots in the world. When you click on a specific hot spot area for example the Northwest Pacific Plateau, it will give you information on the area and rank the category of language endangerment.

This website was also created by language researchers who go on expeditions to high risk language endangerment areas and help to create language revitalization programs and make interview recordings with the elders.

This website had a lot of information and statistics about world language endangerment and show the reality of how quickly languages are being lost forever.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/langhotspots/index.html

Module 2: Weblog 2: Language Retreats

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My first weblog was about Aboriginal language revitalization strategies. There were links posted of specific examples of language revitalization initiatives. This example is an immersion program to promote the Tlingit language of Alaska. In this immersion program, the language learners go on a 10 day retreat to remote communities where they can only speak the Tlingit language.

This is unique because the aim of the program is to create a natural setting where the language can be used and re-create the feeling of living in an all-speaking Tlingit community. It creates an opportunity for Tlingit speaking people to converse with others and new language learners to learn from the elders. Previous students of these retreats have also moved on to become teachers of the language and take on the responsibility of keeping the language alive. It was also noted that the Aboriginal communities created tighter bonds as a culture since they have been able to communicate in Tlingit language.

Not only are Aboriginal Alaskans trying to revitalize their own language they are also creating a model for learning language for other southern Aboriginal tribes to adopt to help revitalize their own language.

After reading this article, I thought it was a useful strategy for these learners to go on a retreat together. In our readings this week, Turner emphasized how stories are connected to the land and how important it is to create that relationship. I think this shows a great example of how the Aboriginal Alaskans connect their language to the land in a retreat making it more meaningful.

http://www.sealaskaheritage.org/news/news_article_sitka_immersion_2004.htm

Module 2: Weblog 1: Strategies for Language Revitalization

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The topic of my final assignment is about Indigenous language revitalization using technology. I have not yet narrowed down my topics. Hopefully after researching my five weblogs this week, I will be able to find an interesting aspect to focus on.

My first weblog for module 2 is about language revitalization strategies. I will summarize some of the key points made:

Master/Apprentice programs- one on one learning between an elder and the learner.
Mentorships- intermediate level language learners pair up to practice conversing together.
Immersion- language immersion should start with children when they are best are learning language. Pre-schools and kindergarten with Aboriginal language instruction.
Bringing language back into the home.
Putting language back into everyday situations.
Reviving traditional community practices such as basket weaving so the language can be used in context.
Help develop written language so it can be used as a community resource.
Recording voice and videos of elders speaking Aboriginal language and performing traditional ceremonies.
Creating realistic goals for the community.
Curriculum development to enhance Aboriginal language learning.
Dictionary development.
Using online language tools.

There are many useful strategies for helping to revitalize Aborginal language on this website. There are also links to communities who are already using many of these strategies. I will check out these links to find some specific examples of language revitalization in action.

http://www.fpcc.ca/language/toolkit/Language_Revitalization_Strategies.aspx

Module 2 – Post 3 – Preservation of Language

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One of the hallmarks of a distinct culture is its distinct language. Indigenous peoples of North America have struggled to preserve their language in the face of strong western influences and the legacy of colonialism. Speakers of traditional languages become fewer and fewer with each passing year. Groups such as the Indigenous Languages Institute are working to try to restore the role that these languages have in Indigenous culture in the preservation of unique cultural practices and history. Whats interesting about the approach taken by this group is that they embrace traditional learning methods of teaching as well a computer based/seminar education in order to help a wider range of students rediscover the language. Interestingly, this approach exposes people outside of Indigenous groups to these languages who do not have the same attachement to Place as a Aboriginal learner would. The goal is to make the language relevant to all people by increasing awareness to the languages vibrant nature as well as its deep historic traditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzOkn0PRxNM

Module 2: Post 2 – Bilingual Cree Program in K-8 Education

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While searching to see what a bilingual K-12 indigenous education program may look like I stumbled across this article with video: ‘Saskatoon Bilingual School Welcomes Many New Faces‘ from Global News (Sept 11, 2013).

I found it interesting (and sort of ironic) that this school (Catholic) would have been shut down due to low student enrollment if it had not been for the initiation of this Bilingual Cree Program. Since its inauguration 7 years ago, the Cree class went from 12 students to now over 250 students; growing/expanding every year from K to 6 level with the goal to reach grade 8 in subsequent years. They have 10 Cree speaking teachers and support staff, and attribute community outreach to the growth of the program.

Digging deeper, I could not find any information on the curriculum or teaching methods used in this program at St Frances Catholic School. Drawing from Lorna Williams’ interview questions on bilingual aboriginal language programs, I wonder: In which language do they teach in? How much English to Cree do the teachers work on? What methods do they use to support the maintenance of the children’s language?

Lorna also spoke about Cree not being a popular subject and attributed this to the lack of financial support in the development of such programs. The Cree program at St Frances however, can be used a good example of how integrating aboriginal programs into school curriculum builds community while providing a venue for teaching and preserving aboriginal language and culture. The principal of the school exclaims, “We started to involve the community a lot more and share with our elders and get input from them… the program goes deeper than just academics.” Although there could have been better circumstances as to how this program came into fruition, it’s nice to see schools putting culturally responsive curriculum into practice.

Statement Connecting Blog to Research Project

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Language Revitalization Using Technology

The final weblog I posted last week was about the first graduates from Nawahi, the Hawaiian Immersion University. I was inspired by the news article as many of the first graduates continued finding careers using their own Native language after University.

Language preservation is a vital component to keeping Indigenous cultures alive as language itself holds different meanings, metaphors and values that cannot be expressed once it’s gone. According to Cultural Survival “More than 70 could fall silent in the next 5 years unless immediate action is taken to teach them to younger generations of tribal citizens.” I would like to focus on how technology can improve and empower Indigenous cultures through language revitalization.

Language revitalization seemed to be a resonating theme in many weblogs I posted. Native American Public Telecommunications is a site that provides media, film, podcasts, music and radio created by a board of Native Americans about Native North Americans. Cultural Survival is a website for all Indigenous cultures around the world to connect. To help protect indigenous languages from disappearing, there is a radio broadcasting section to share radio spoken in different Indigenous languages around the world. Since most people have access to radio, new generations can enjoy listening to their own language.

The digital divide creates boundaries for Indigenous people who are unable to connect and use technology as an educational tool. According to Cultural Survival “Indigenous Peoples constitute about 5% of the world’s population, yet account for about 15% of the world’s poor.” I would also like to explore the theme “Is technology culturally neutral?” as I carry out my research.

References

Eisenlohr, P. (2004). Revitalization and new technologies: cultures of electronic mediation and the refiguring of communitiees. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33 (21), p. 21- 45.

Hermes, M. (2012). Designing indigenous language revitalization. Harvard Educational Review, 82 (3), p. 381- 402.

Hermes, M. (2013). Ojibwe language revitalization, multimedia technology, and family language learning. Language Learning and Technology, 17 (1), p. 125 – 144.

Hinton, L. (2003). Language revitalization. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 23, p. 44- 57. Doi: 10.1017/S0267190503000187

Warschauer, M. (1998). Technology and indigenous language revitalization: analyzing the experience of hawai’i. Canadian Modern Language Review, 55 (1), p. 139 – 159.

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/

http://www.fpcc.ca/language/toolkit/Language_Revitalization_Strategies.aspx

http://www.nativetelecom.org/

http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/langhotspots/revitalization.html

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices/revitalization/

Module 1: Post 5: Hawaiian Language Immersion

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I have been gaining interest in language revitalization. One of the most successful places in creating a language revolution is Hawaii.

This website is a news article featuring some of the first graduates from Nawahi, the first Hawaiian Immersion University. It began as a pilot program driven by Hawaiian activists, the entire curriculum was instructed in Hawaiian but there would not be fully qualified professors teaching when the University first started in 2001.

The article focused on a girl named Kuuwehi Hiraishi, who is currently 28. It is difficult enough graduating from an English program to find jobs in your qualified field. However Hirasihi was able to graduate in journalism and found a job as a news reporter with the Hawaii News Now Sunrise newspaper in the Hawaiian language news segment.

In an interview with Hiraishi, she was proud to say she is able to use her language in her career and the skills she learned in University. She was also confident to say that she thinks careers in her language will become more and more available for students as they graduate from Nawahu University.

Hawaii has used technology as a way to help revitalize the Hawaiian language. This example allows hope for other Indigenous cultures to create educational programs in their own language and use technology such as radio broadcasting to keep their languages from disappearing.

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/March-2012/Na-Puka-Kula-Hawaiian-Immersion-Graduates/index.php