Digital Transmission of Language and Culture:

Rethinking Pedagogical Models for E-learning

D. Victoria Rau & Meng-Chien Yang

Providence University

Web-based interactive language learning materials

Southeast Asian languages: Henry & Zerwekh’s (2002) SEAsite (www.seasite.niu.edu)

Indonesian: Hoven’s (2003) MMInteraktif Tagalog: McFarland’s (2006) CAI program

for teaching Filipino

CALL and endangered languages

Ward & van Genabith’s (2003) working example of Nawat courseware, an endangered Uto-Aztecan language of El Salvador

Rau & Yang’s (2005-2007) Digital Archiving Yami Language Documentation, an endangered Austronesian language on Orchid Island

Developing a pedagogical e-learning model Scollon & Scollon’s (2004) ethnographic

nexus analysis Three central tasks: engagement, navigation,

and change E-learning pedagogy (1) the pedagogies of the e-learning, (2) planning for e-learning (3) e-learning implementation

Context

Austronesian Linguistics Seminar at Providence University since 1999

Participants in Yami e-learning

Content Providers

E-learning Website

University Researchers

Learners

Community Members

E-learning Developers

University students

Significant cycles of discourse (1) how the participants came to be placed at a particular moment

and in a particular way to carry out a particular action; (2) what aspects of the place were central or foregrounded as crucial

to the action on which we were focusing and what aspects were backgrounded;

(3) what discourses in that place were central or foregrounded as crucial to the action on which we were focusing and what discourses were backgrounded;

(4) what discourses were ‘invisible’ in that action because they had become submerged in practices;

(5) what the history of a particular object was as a mediational means for that action;

(6) what the history of a particular concept was as a mediational means for that action.

Two significant cycles of discourse

(1) Classroom interactions (2) Developer meetings

Classroom interactions

Language learning activities Students’ homework assignment Videotaping Featuring the formal (instructor-led),

technology-based, convivial, and directive-oriented ends of the learning.

Developer meetings

Two activities which brought changes to the relationship of the team.

(1) Co-teaching of a course on “Technology and Second Language Learning”

(2) Holding a workshop on Revitalizing Yami on Orchid Island

Changes

(1) what the key points were in the cycle where there was a change or a transformation (resemiotization) and what was happening in the intervals between those points as anticipations of (or reflections upon) those changes;

(2) what the material-physical timescales were on which those cycles operated and how those were constructed discursively by the participants;

(3) how those elements had just come together at just that moment to produce that particular action;

(4) whether the action under examination was a point at which resemiotization or semiotic transformation occurred;

(5) what the narrowest and widest timescales were on which that action depended.

The collaborative teaching experience led the PI to take two actions: Transform her language pedagogy from more

people-based to more technology-based and accelerate the process of developing the e-learning materials

Test the acquisition order of Yami morphology

The workshop led to three major actions taken by the co-PI: to design the e-learning model based on his

interviews with the instructors and the learners;

to organize a group of undergraduate computer science majors to work on an animation project for the e-learning;

to suggest the developers use the e-learning materials to study Yami for a year and pass the proficiency exam

The role of E-learning for an endangered language

1. An application of digital archiving and documentation

2. A tool for teaching an endangered language

3. An attempt to preserve an endangered language

Proposed Learning model for an endangered language

Six components in the model Individual: The learners are the focus of the whole learning

process. Information: The whole documented materials related to the

Yami language, including texts, recordings, video etc., provide the sources of information.

Cultural Practice: The learning is linked to unique Yami cultural items.

Social: As the learning process involves interactions with tutors and peers, the learning process can be described as collaborating or mutually beneficial activities.

Experience: The learners’ on-site experience will enhance their learning strategies and increase their Yami language proficiency.

Documenting and annotating: The learning is integrated into the process of documenting and annotating the Yami language.

Planning for E-learning

1. Collection of learning materials for the Yami language

2. Design of learning activities

3. Production of online materials

Developing the e-learning course

Analyze the learning goal of the learners and describe the characteristics of the learning activities.

Use the proposed model to highlight key components of the learning activities and map these highlighted components to a pedagogical template.

Use this pedagogical template to organize the learning materials and learning activities. The outcome of this step is a set of e-learning courses.

Refine the contextual links of these e-learning courses and provide specific information to these courses.

Introduction to Austronesian languages: Yami language Course Characteristics:

– Basic Yami structure– Yami lessons following a mixed grammatical and

functional syllabus – Course instructor and Yami instructor give

examples and lead the learning activities

Proposed model for the Course (grey circles vs. blue circles)

E-learning Implementation

The Yami language materials collected to build the e-learning platform include: – Yami language course materials by Rau et al.

(2005),– sound tracks of each utterance in the forty

lessons,– images and video clips collected by three Yami

staff members (i.e. Dong and two recruited community members).

Current Components in e-learning platform the Yami course materials, classified into three levels:

beginner, intermediate and advanced; in each lesson, the materials include the Yami text, Chinese and English translation, word analysis, grammar, learning activities, and exercises,

the Yami dictionary, organized in alphabetic order, the system setting tool which includes the interface

setting, the learning log setting, and the web display setting,

the online learning activities which students can use to practice on their own,

the virtual learning group which allows the students to email their learning logs to their own mailbox and the teacher’s mailbox.

Conclusion

The process of developing the e-learning program for Yami

The six components in e-learning design for endangered languages

Thank You