Hawaiian Language Immersion Sabatoged by Standardized Test

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Laura Brooks

Presented by: Guest Blogger Katie Carroll

This year students in Hawaiian Language Immersion Programs are preparing for another Hawaiian Aligned Portfolio Assessment (HAPA) that will be nearly impossible for them to pass.

According to an article in the Honolulu Civil Beat, Hawaiian Language Students Getting Lost In Translation, Advocates Say these assessments are prepared in English than translated into Hawaiian creating inaccuracies in the wording of the questions among other issues.

A bill has been put before the House of Representatives to create an assessment in Hawaiian but according to reports from the Department of Education it could cost $ 7.8 million to create a separate test for the 350 students in the immersion programs.

According to the Department of Education for the State of Hawaii the HAPA was designed so that students enrolled in the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program would be given an assessment that fit their curriculum in their primary language but instructors in the immersion programs say that the current assessment is not meeting its original purpose and goals.

According to the article the bill has received tremendous support, however the Department of Education is not taking a position on the bill and district officials are in search of a way to improve the HAPA without using so many financial and personnel resources.

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Audio Books Bring Cherokee Language to Students and Public

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Basla Andolsun

By Katherine M. Carroll, guest blogger

The Cherokee Nation Foundation has created a reading center with audio books to help preserve the Cherokee Language. The center was created through a partnership with Cherokee Media Ltd.

The Foundation hopes to eventually expand the project to create 250 audio kits to be used in schools within the 14 counties. The audio kits will include three print books and one audio book. Audio kits will be made available to the general public for purchase starting this spring, with proceeds going to the advancement of the audio book initiative and to fund the creation and distribution of the books.

In 2002 the Cherokee Nation conducted a survey and found that no one under the age of 40 was conversational in the language and of the 300 people they surveyed only 52 spoke the language in their homes.

Since that time, an immersion school was created and various technologies have been implemented in order to revitalize the language and help preserve it.

“The immersion school is now a charter school and Cherokee literacy is its main goal. The (audio book) project was designed around the needs of the first grade classroom, in cooperation with first grade teacher Glenda Beitz,” explain Whitney Pancoast, executive assistant at the Cherokee Nation Foundation.

“Beitz previously taught in English language classrooms,” Pancoast said in an e-mail. “She wanted to bring the same learning opportunities to her Cherokee classroom. The audio books were her first choice to expand literacy efforts and assist in enunciation skills,”

Other classroom technologies and tools include digital textbooks purchased by the Cherokee Nation Foundation and eventually an ethnobotany book that will examine the relationships between the Cherokee culture and its uses of plant life throughout history. This book will be produced through the Cherokee Nation Natural Resources department.

The audio books were donated by Cherokee Sisters America and Samonia Meredith of Noksi Press and narrated by Cherokee elder Wynema Smith, who also authored the original stories. So far two books have been introduced into the school and a third is expected to be available this spring.

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Native Values, Language Embraced at Montana School

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Basla Andolsun

Indian Country Today published a story this week about a school experience that directly counters the one we blogged about below. Twenty-six eager students at White Clay Immersion School on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Harlem, Montana are hard at work learning the A’ani language. While the school’s curriculum is composed of standard classes like math, science and reading – classes that students need to be successful – teachers know that success also means embracing traditional native values.

 
Director of the school, Dr. Lynette Chandler told local television station KFBB,

“Historically, Native people have not had a good relationship with education. So I wanted to turn that around and make it a holistic experience –basing it first and foremost on bringing back our language, revitalizing it, having it spoken every day, and used every day.”

Dr. Chandler’s insight is welcomed at a time when students elsewhere are sometimes still punished for speaking their heritage languages.

To see a short video about the school, click here.

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Student Punished for Speaking Menominee

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Basla Andolsun

According to a report in the Shawano Leader, a student at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Shawano, Wisconsin, was not allowed to play in a January 19 basketball game as punishment for speaking Menominee.  Twelve year old Miranda Washinawatok was benched by her coaches after her teacher, Julie Gurta, told them of Washinawatok’s “attitude problem.” The student had translated the words “hello,” “I love you” and “thank you” for classmates. Gurta had once before asked Washinawatok not to speak Menominee, claiming that because she couldn’t monitor what the student was saying it was inappropriate for her to be using the language in class.

Miranda Washinawatok was quoted by the Shawano Leader as saying, “We would have translated what the words meant if she asked. I want to be able to talk in Menominee because it’s part of my culture; I like to express that.”

The principal of the school and the teacher and coaches involved met last week with Washinawatok and her mother, Tanaes Washinawatok (who happens to be the director of the Language and Culture Commission on the Menominee reservation) and offered an apology.  Deacon Ray DuBois of the Diocese of Green Bay, however, has said that without getting a full account of the story from both sides he can not comment on whether or not the punishment was appropriate.

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iPhone App Teaches Navajo

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Basla Andolsun

If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and want to learn Navajo, there’s an app you should check out. Navajo Toddler works by displaying digital flash cards with cartoon images and corresponding written and spoken words in Navajo. The app’s designer, TinkR’ Labs, recommends Navajo Toddler for ages 2 to 9, but based on the feedback we’ve seen, it seems like it’s pretty popular with adults too.  If you’d like to give it a try it’s available to download for free from the iTunes store.

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Language Revitalization in the New Year

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Basla Andolsun

2011 saw a number of accomplishments for Native languages, from locally-driven revitalization efforts to President Obama’s signing of an executive order increasing funding for Native language and culture programs. Here’s a sneak peak at some of what we can expect from 2012:

  • The Falmouth Institute will be hosting its Fourth Annual Native American Language Revitalization Summit in Phoenix in March. An impressive line up of expert presenters will be sharing effective strategies on topics from how to run a successful master-apprentice language program to how to remove barriers to revitalization work. Summit participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with presenters and fellow attendees working on the front lines of language revitalization efforts.
  • The Myaamia Project will continue with a number of research projects aimed at strengthening Miami language and culture. Projects include the translation of Jesuit documents from the late 1600’s and the creation of a cookbook with information on how to identify, harvest, store and prepare edible plants.
  • The Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair at the Sam Noble Museum at the University of Oklahoma celebrates its 10th Anniversary this April. Students will have the opportunity to show off their spoken or sung language skills through judged competitions. The children will also be sharing books, videos and poster art they created.
  • The Euchee Language Project in Sapulpa, Oklahoma will be offering free language courses for Euchee community members. Classes are grouped by age, with courses for children, teens, adults and elders.
  • The Northwest Indian Language Institute will be hosting an overnight Lushootseed Immersion Week in August.  Participants will be “living, sleeping and eating Lushootseed” for the duration of the week. Classes feature games and activities designed to make the learning process fun.

If you know of other exciting language revitalization work happening this year please post a comment to let others know about it!

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Project Helps Digitize and Post Language Videos

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Basla Andolsun

With the popularity of You Tube and sites like it, language activists are finding that posting language videos online can be a great way to engage learners. The ability to share these videos over the internet provides access to a much larger pool of learners, from potential speakers who are geographically separated to those who are too shy to practice speaking in social settings. A problem that many communities are facing, though, is that some of their best language material comes from video or audio recordings that may be decades old and isn’t formatted properly to post online. A project sponsored by Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage is stepping in to help indigenous communities across the globe work around that problem. Digitizing the Inuit and Aboriginal Media Archive (DIAMA) offers to digitize up to five videos for free and will co-sponsor a search for funds for archives interested in digitizing their complete collections.

In addition to helping communities clean, reformat and digitize their treasured footage, DIAMA has created its own You Tube-esque site where people can upload learning materials, including videos, images, audio files or text files for their own culture education area. The site, located at www.isuma.tv, currently has over 2600 films in 46 languages.

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Language Achievements of 2011

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Basla Andolsun

If you’re in the mood for some good news, check out this upbeat article in Indian Country Today highlighting some of the victories for Native languages in 2011. The impressive list includes language and technology accomplishments, outstanding work by local schools and communities, and the promotion of indigenous languages through film. The achievements of 2011, combined with President Obama’s recent signing of a Native language-related executive order, point to the momentum we have going into 2012.

If there’s exciting revitalization work going on in your community, let us know! We’d love to post about it on Spoken First.

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