Ling 427/527 - Linguistics for Native American Communities
M-F 8:00-11:30 AM
3 Units
COE 455 (WOW Classroom)
(Linguistics for Native American Communities/Intro to Linguistics for Grad Students)
Mosiah Bluecloud
Course Description:
This course is designed for students either entering fields related to linguistics but whose area of study is not linguistics itself, or for those that are merely curious about the discipline and want to know more. Students will learn different types of language analysis and a great deal of fun facts pertaining to some of the core areas of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax. In addition, the relationship among these sub-disciplines to other areas such as language acquisition will be explored as a means of understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the field. It is hoped that students will begin to appreciate the role linguistics plays in their own work, either as a tool for teaching or for advancing their own language revitalization work.
TLS 428/528 - Documenting Conversational Speech in Indigenous Communities
M-F 8:00-11:30 AM
3 Units
COE 308
(Curriculum & Instruction in Bilingual & Second Language Settings)
Ray Huaute
Course Description:
This course will provide students with hands-on training, as well as a basic understanding about various strategies and approaches to documenting conversational and other types of speech genres in Indigenous language communities via an Indigenous research paradigm. In particular, this course will examine certain well-established approaches and philosophies towards language documentation that have formed the foundation of mainstream linguistic documentation and how those approaches may be problematic for Indigenous communities. Students will also examine alternative approaches to the “mainstream” model such as a “community-based” model and other approaches that place culturally specific insights, protocols, and ways of knowing at the center of their research framework, and how this ultimately results in documentation that is both well-informed and culturally relevant to the community.
Ling 497B/597B - Introduction to Natural Language Processing for Indigenous Languages
M-F 1:00-4:30 PM
3 Units
COE 333
(Workshop in Linguistics)
Rolando Coto
Course Description:
In this class students will learn the basics of Natural Language Processing, and how artificial intelligence can be used for Indigenous language documentation and revitalization. The class will include practical examples on how to make chatbots, speech recognition sytems and text predictors. It will also study how current artificial intelligence works, and what ethical and practical challenges it presents. Students don't need previous programming experience to take this class.
Ling 421/521 - Indigenous Language Revitalization: The Family Domain
Online - Asynchronous
3 Units
(Language Maintenance, Preservation, and Revitalization)
Adrienne Tsikewa
Title: Indigenous Language Revitalization: The family domain
Course Description: This course will explore several areas related to language use in families. This includes, but is not limited to, family language practices, planning, and policies, first and second language acquisition, intergenerational transmission of language and culture, and language ideologies. The primary goal of the course is to introduce students to the various factors involved with Indigenous language use in the home.
This course is entirely asynchronous but is a paced course, meaning that you can learn on your own schedule but there is a start and end date as it will follow AILDI’s summer schedule. Lessons will be module based (tentative plan).
Summer 2023 Instructors
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Mosiah Bluecloud (he/him), an enrolled member of the Kickapoo tribe of Oklahoma, began working in Indigenous Language Revitalization in 2008. He started as an intern at the Sauk Language Department. He transitioned from an Audio and video technician to a member of the Sauk Language Department’s Modified Master Apprentice Program in 2010. After 1,280 hours of learning Sauk as an Apprentice and 668 hours of professional development training in Native Language Teaching Methodologies, Mosiah Became the Lead instructor of the Sauk Language. He taught community classes across three counties, a Sauk Language course at Bacone College, and two levels of Sauk at Shawnee Highschool. He left the Sauk Language department and got his B.A in Linguistics Spring 2016, from the University of Oklahoma, and established the Kickapoo Language program later that fall. He went back to school at the University of Arizona and completed his Masters in Native American languages and Linguistics in Spring 2020 and is now a PhD Candidate in the Linguistics PhD program at The University of Arizona.
Adrienne Tsikewa invited (Zuni) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned an MA in Native American Languages and Linguistics (NAMA) from the University of Arizona in 2013. During her time at Arizona, she served as a Graduate Assistant for the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI). She recently taught online with AILDI during the summers of 2020 and 2021. Her research interests include language documentation and description, language reclamation and revitalization, sociocultural, applied linguistics, bilingualism, and code-switching.
Ray Huaute (Chumash, Cahuilla) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Linguistics Department at the University of California, San Diego. His main research interests are in the areas of phonology, morphology, language acquisition, language documentation and description, and language reclamation.
Rolando Coto is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Dartmouth. His work focuses on the creation of computer tools and models that can understand Indigenous languages. He does this to accelerate language documentation and to create tools that increase language vitality.