A Task-Based Approach to Curriculum and Material ...

A Task-Based Approach to Curriculum and Material

Development to Support Crow Language Revitalization

Edwin Ko (UC Berkeley)

First International Conference on Revitalization of Indigenous and Minoritized Languages, April 20th 2017

OVERVIEWBACKGROUND

MATERIAL DEVELOPMENTFUTURE RESEARCH

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTTASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING

BACKGROUND

CROW (APSÁALOOKE)

§Crow(orApsáalooke)isaSiouanlanguageprimarilyspokenontheCrowReservationinsoutheasternMontana,USA.

§Noknowndialects,althoughthereseemstobeanawarenessofvariantsforcertainwords.

Imagesource:http://www.mtlsa.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Reservations_MAP_base.gif

§CloselyrelatedtoHidatsa,alanguagespokeninNorthDakota.

§GeographicallyproximatetotheNorthernCheyenneIndians.

§TheCrowTribemadeCrowtheofficiallanguageonthereservation.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONTEXT

§Around3,000-4,000 firstlanguagespeakersofCrow,butmostspeakersareovertheageof30(Golla etal.2008).

• Spolsky (1974)notesthatstronglanguagemaintenancedueinpartto:ØSizeofthereservation.ØLocationofreservationonancestralland.ØStrengthofnativetraditions.

§ In1969,therewasaboutan82%fluencyrateamongCrowchildreninschoolslocatedwithinthesurroundingarea(Dracon 1970),butIn2005,thisfiguredecreasedtoaround25%(Watts2005).

• AsurveybytheCrowTribefoundaround28%fluencyrateamongitsmembersin2014.

§Today,mostCrowspeakersareelders,andalthoughmanyofthemiddlegenerationcanunderstandthelanguage,mostdonotspeakit.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONTEXT

Asaconsequence,thevastmajorityofchildrenontheCrowReservationareunabletounderstandorspeakthelanguage.

DOMAINS OF LANGUAGE USE

§ It is not uncommon to hear the language being spokenwithin the public spheres.

§There is a number of realms in which use of Crow ismaintained.

• Meetings held by the tribal council and by elders.• Sermons and prayers.• Announcements made during Crow Fair, an annual festival heldin August.

§There are signs and labels in Crow, but are typicallyrestricted to tribal buildings and select road signs.

Still,Englishistheprominentlanguageinallothersocialdomains.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION

§Prior research on bilingual education in CrowCountry by several scholars:

• Dracon (1970), Matthews (1976), Read (1978a, 1978b),Crawley (2008),Watts (2005).

§There was push for bilingual education from 1971,when bilingualism was more prevalent, resulting inthe creation of many bilingual learning materials.

§Today, there are efforts by various organizations(e.g. Little Bighorn College, Crow LanguageConsortium) in teacher training, material andmobile app development, language classes, andcultural summer camps.

LANGUAGE IN THE HOME

§Languagelossistheresultinparttotheoveralldecreaseinlanguageuseacrossallsocialdomains.§Thereisaconstantrefrainthatlanguageusemustgobeyondtheclassroomandpermeateothersocialsettings,especiallythehome(e.g.Hornberger 2008;Hinton2010,2013).

• Watts(2005:171):“Tosurvive,theCrowlanguagemustexistandflourishoutsidetheclassroom; itmustbeheardacrossthedinnertableandinthecommunity,but,asneverbefore,theschoolsystemisbeingcalledupontotakealargerandlargerroleinthemaintenanceofthelanguage.”

GOAL OF THE CURRENT PROJECT

§What are the most pervasive social domains thelanguage can and will likely be used?§How can we effectively and efficiently increase usewithin these domains?

Re-introducingandpromotinglanguageuseinthesedomainsasafirststeptowardsincreasing

proficiencyratesinCrowCountry.

BACKGROUND OF PROJECT

§TravelledtotheCrowReservationforamonthinAugust2016tohelpdevelopaCrowlanguagecurriculum.

§WorkingwithBirdieRealBird,retiredteacherandthenHeadofEducationoftheCrowTribe.

§IncollaborationwithCrowAgencyPublicSchoolwhichservesstudentsPre-KtoGrade5(circa.ages4-11).

§SupportedinpartbytheMontanaIndianLanguagePreservationPilotProgram.

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (LONG 2015)

§Educational framework for second languageteaching, premised upon theory and researchfindings in a variety of domains including secondlanguage acquisition.§Promote the use of authentic, meaningfulcommunication through real-world ‘tasks’.•E.g.Askingfordirections,orderingameal,puttingupateepee.


§Analytic approach with Focus on Form.•Aims to leverage both implicit and explicit learningprocesses and mechanisms.

§Thisapproachislearner-centered:• Increasestudentmotivation.•Promoteasenseofinvestment.•Towardsindigenouseducationsovereigntyandawayfromwesternizedidealsofteaching(RiestenbergandSherris,underreview).


§TBLT has been relatively well-studied among globallanguages like English.§Its impact in revitalization contexts on languages likeCrow, where the number of speakers is declining atan accelerated rate, is still largely unknown.•Applied to at least two revitalization contexts(Riestenberg and Sherris, under review):ØSalish Pend d’Oreille in Montana, USAØMacuiltianguis Zapotec in Oaxaca, Mexico

MOTIVATIONS

Goal: promote language use in social domains thatare prevalent and in which the language will likely beused.§Use of authentic, meaningful communication throughreal-world ‘tasks’.•Bringing the language beyond the classroom.

§Needs analysis.•What do the learners want or need to learn?•What do the learners think is likely to be used?

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (TBLT)

Steps and processes (Long 2015):1. Identifying target tasks via needs analysis.2. Classifying target task into task-types.3. Deriving pedagogic tasks.4. Sequencing tasks to form syllabus.

NEEDS ANALYSIS: ELDERS

Q. “…whatkindsofthingswouldyoutalktothekidsaboutonadaytodaybasis?Whatwouldyou

likethekidstobelearningtosayinCrow?”


Themes Responses

Expressingrequests Doyouwanttoplay?,CanIplay?, Whatdoyouliketoeat?,Whatdoyouwant?

Vocabularyandgrammar demonstratives,imperatives,kinshipterms,mealterms(e.g.salt,pepper,etc.).

Short monologues describingthings,astoryaboutthedayofachild.

Cultural Flagsong,prayers,Christmaschurchsongs.


Othersuggestionsandobservations:§Learningonthemobileapp.§Eldersasavaluableresourceinlanguageefforts.§Labelsandsignage.§Multimodality– “speakandalsousethehands”.

NEEDS ANALYSIS: CHILDREN

§Surveyed Crow Agency, a town on the reservation, in search ofparticipants.

§Started by asking friends of Birdie Real Bird if we could brieflytalk to their (grand)children.

§During the summer months, people are out and about anddifficult to get ahold of…

§After almost two hours of searching, we only managed to speakto four participants.

• Three girls and one boy, aged 7-14.• Only grandparents spoke Crow.


Q. Whatkindsofthingswouldyouliketo sayinCrow,perhapsonadaytoday

basis?WhowouldyouspeakCrowwith?


Who would you speak Crow with?§Family members (especially their grandparents).§Friends who are speakers of Crow.

Themes Responses

Expressingrequests Wouldyouliketoplaywithme?,Wouldyouliketogoswimming?,CanIhave…?

Vocabularyandgrammar Demonstratives andimperatives.


Mostcommonresponse:Idon’tknow.

Therejustisn’ta‘need’tousetheirancestrallanguage– mostcanalready

getbyknowingonlyEnglish(Riestenberg andSherris,underreview).

2. CLASSIFYING TARGET TASK-TYPES

SALUTATIONS§Greetings§Kinshipterms

SMALLTALK§Declaratives§Interrogatives

MEALTALK§Demonstratives§Imperatives§Expressingrequests

3. DERIVING PEDAGOGIC TASKS

SALUTATIONS§Greetingsomeone(asyoupassthemonthestreet).

§Addressingfamilymembers.

SMALLTALK§AskingabouttheCrowlanguage.

§Tellingsomeonehowyoufeel.

§Talkingabouttheweather.

MEALTALK§Pointingoutanobject.§ Identifyinganobject’slocationandproperty.§Describinganobject.§Askingsomeonetopassyouorsomeone

elsesomething.

Techniques:RoleplayandWhereAreYourKeys.

4. SEQUENCING TASKS (LONG 2015)

Valency (or communicative value) and criticality§What is the coverage of certain grammaticalstructures introduced via particular tasks? Howcrucial are they in comparison to otherconstructions?§For example, the Crow declarative marker -k hashigh valency and criticality (in contrast to switchreferencemarkers).


Frequency§What is the (perceived) likelihood to encountersimilar real-world tasks outside the classroom?§Possibility of combining with other tasks.

•For example, greetings can be coupled withvarious other tasks like talking about theweather, and so greetings can be introducedearlier on in the syllabus.


Learnability§In tune with the learners’ developmental stage:what is teachable at that stage?

Complexity and difficulty§Complexity of tasks (see Robinson 2009).

• Language used to accomplish tasks is factored intocomplexity of tasks.

§Whereas complexity is unchanging and dependenton the nature of the task, difficulty is influenced bytask complexity and individual differences.

CURRICULUM

MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN CROW COUNTRY

Recallthattheeldershighlightedtheimportanceandallureoftechnologyamongchildren.

§In their survey, Morris and Meinrath (2009:10) found that U.S.Indigenous respondents used “digital multimedia andcommunications technologies at rates that are much higher thannational norms.”

§But, the decision to use digital technology in revitalization mustbe grounded in the context (Galla 2016).

Askingseveralchildren,“Whatdoyoudoinyourfreetime?”Theirresponse:theinternet.

DEVELOPMENT OF ON-LINE MATERIALS

• Exploringtheuseofreveal.js – anHTMLpresentationframework.

• On-linepresentationframeworkfornon-programmers:http://www.slides.com.

• Flexibleandparticularlysuitedforpresentinginformationsequentially.

•Designedtobeself-pacedandinteractive.• Accessibleviacomputer,tabletorphone.• Printableforuseintheclassroomorinthehome.

TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER

POINTING OUT AN OBJECT

USE IN CROW AGENCY PUBLIC SCHOOL

Imagesource:http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/education/crow-agency-school-builds-language-instruction-from-the-ground-up/article_412d8e18-cd1a-56a4-a19f-20d523048a61.html

LIMITATIONS

§ApartfromthevoicesofthefluentspeakersofCrow,thesematerialsdonotlookor‘feel’Crow.

• Criticalculturallysustaining/revitalizingpedagogyasnecessarytounderstandingandguidingeducationalpracticesforNativeAmericanlearners(McCarthyandLee2014).

• Creatingeducationalmaterialsrequiresateamofpeoplewithavarietyofdifferentskillsets(e.g.instructionaldesigner,illustrator,languagespecialist,andlinguist).

§Missingfromtheneedsanalysis:teachersandparents.

FUTURE RESEARCH

NEXT STEPS

§Recently awarded a Foundations for Endangered Languagesgrant to continue these efforts.

§Proposed plan:• Evaluate the use and effectiveness of the current materials.• Interview Crow language teachers about their use (or lackthereof) of these materials.

• Additional collaboration with St. Labre Indian Catholic HighSchool.

• Larger-scale, more inclusiveneeds analysis.• Workshop to discuss TBLT and these materials, and tenmethodological principles (Long 2015).

AHO!(THANK YOU!)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project was in collaboration with the Head of Education of the Crow Tribe, BirdieRealBird. Special

thanks toDonnaOldElk,KateRiestenberg,LaraBryfonski,JasonCumminsandMarkSicoliatvariousstagesofthisproject,andtomembersofCrowNationfortheirkindness,hospitality,andtheirwillingnessto

shareaspectsoftheirculturewithme.

ThesematerialsaresupportedinpartbytheMontanaIndianLanguagePreservationPilotProgram.Any

opinions,findings,andconclusionsorrecommendationsexpressedinthismaterialarethoseoftheauthor(s)anddonotnecessarilyreflecttheviewsoftheMontana

IndianLanguagePreservationPilotProgram.

REFERENCES (1/2)Crawley,C.K.S.2008.CulturesOutofSyncBilingualEducationontheCrowIndianReservation(Doctoral

dissertation).UCBerkeley,Berkeley,CA.Dracon,J.I.(1970).TheextentofspokenCrowandCheyenneamongIndianstudentsoftheCrowandNorthern

CheyenneIndianreservations.PhD.dissertation,MontanaStateUniversity.Galla,C.K.(2016).Indigenouslanguagerevitalization,promotion,andeducation:functionofdigitaltechnology.

ComputerAssistedLanguageLearning29.7:1137-1151.Golla,V.,L.Campbell,I.Goddard,andM.Mithun (2008).NorthAmerica.In:AtlasoftheWorld’sLanguages,

secondrevisededition (R.E.Asher&ChristopherMoseley,editors).London&NewYork:Routledge.Hinton,Leanne."LanguagerevitalizationinNorthAmericaandthenewdirectionoflinguistics."Transforming

Anthropology 18.1(2010):35-41.Hinton,Leanne,ed.Bringingourlanguageshome:Languagerevitalizationforfamilies.Heyday,2013.Hornberger,N.H.(2008).Canschoolssaveindigenouslanguages?Policyandpracticeonfour

continents.Hampshire,UK:PalgraveMacmillanLong,M.(2015).Secondlanguageacquisitionandtask-basedlanguageteaching.JohnWiley&Sons.Matthews,H.(1976).BilingualEducationatCrowAgency.StudiesinLanguageLearning1(2):265-289.McCarty,T.andT.Lee.(2014).Criticalculturallysustaining/revitalizingpedagogyandIndigenouseducation

sovereignty.HarvardEducationalReview84.1:101-124.

REFERENCES (2/2)Morris,T.L.,andMeinrath,S.D.(2009).Newmedia,technologyandInternetuseinIndiancountry:Quantitative

andqualitativeanalyses.Flagstaff,AZ:NativePublicMedia.Robinson,P.(2009).Syllabusdesign.InM.H.Long&C.Doughty(Eds.),Handbookofsecondlanguageteaching

(pp.294–310).Oxford:Blackwell.Read,J.(1978a).ASurveyofBilingualismamongCrowIndianStudents.Unpublishedstatisticalreportofthe

CrowCentralEducationCommission's1976languagesurvey.Read,J.(1978b).ASociolinguisticStudyofCrowLanguageMaintenance.UnpublishedPhDDissertation,

DepartmentofEducation,UniversityofNewMexico,Albuquerque.Riestenberg,K.andA.Sherris.Underreview.Task-basedLanguageTeachingtoSupportMacuiltianguis Zapotec

andSalishPendd’Oreille LanguageRevitalization:MethodologicalPrinciplesandtheRoleofInvestment.CanadianModernLanguageReview:Specialissueon“IndigenousLanguageTeaching,Learning,andIdentities”.

Spolsky,B.(1974).AmericanIndianBilingualEducation.InternationalJournaloftheSociologyofLanguage,DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1977.14.57.

Watts,J.G.(2005).Crowlanguageteachers'viewsoftheincorporationofthewrittenformofCrowinlanguageclasses.Ed.D.dissertation,MontanaStateUniversity.

Link to resources: http://eddersko.com/crow

Twitter: @eddersko

Email: [email protected]

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