A Day in the Life of a WAYK Team Member
I don’t know if it’s possible to share an “average” day, but here is a sample day as a WAYK Team Member, based on Thursday June 30, 2017, in St…. Read more »
Posts Categorized: Summer Language Intensive
Techniques and Metalinguistic Comments
Early on in teaching TQs (Techniques), Evan pointed out that an ASL (American Sign Language) sign can be used in at least two ways in WAYK. For example, the sign… Read more »
Circle of Questions and Silly Conversations
At the beginning of the summer language intensive, Susanna and Evan introduced us to the Circle of Questions, a concept used in TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling; read… Read more »
Fairy Killing or Linguistics Terminology?
As part of the Summer Language Intensive we took part in an excellent training in archiving practices (see Rachel Sprouse and Talia London’s blogs for more info). During this training,… Read more »
Mind Meadows
“Mind meadows” are an adaptation of Technique: Meadow brought to us by Justin Slocum-Bailey of Indwelling Language. “Imagine you’re on an island,” our leader starts. The room fills with smiles… Read more »
Relationship Dynamics in Language Learning
I have been thinking about the relationship between a language learner and an “informant”, who may be a native speaker, a fluent speaker, or just someone more proficient than the… Read more »
Birds of St. Paul Island
This year the WAYK Summer Language Intensive is taking place on St. Paul Island, Alaska (Tanax̂ Amix̂ in Unangam Tunuu), nicknamed the “Galapagos of the North”, a name true to… Read more »
Learning a Language While “Low on Spoons”
If you read many of the WAYK blog posts, you may notice that language learning is a dynamic process that includes dozens of learning techniques, process tools, and juggling short-term… Read more »
Language Hunting vs. Language Documentation
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been learning how to “hunt” language. When I first heard what people meant by “hunt” in WAYK-speak, I wondered: is this what I… Read more »
WAYK Terms & Linguistic Terms
In this post, I would like to explore some of the terminology used in WAYK versus that which is used in academic linguistics. This isn’t necessarily to put one up… Read more »
Why Do We “Hunt” Language?
Why do we “hunt” language? I asked Evan why we use “hunting” as a primary metaphor for the Where Are Your Keys approach to language learning. We use the word… Read more »
WAYK and Community Organizing
They say that for the person with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. A few years ago I was formally introduced to community organizing, and yes, now I… Read more »
Reinventing “Languagization”
One of the things that has struck me so far about this summer has been the “organization” of the team. That word alone doesn’t quite capture what I mean; maybe… Read more »
Use the Process Tools, but Don’t Let the Process Tools Consume You
One of many things that I appreciated while interning with the WAYK team is that they equip you not only with tools for learning and teaching language, but also with… Read more »
Layering WAYK with Other Immersion Methods
I was first acquainted with WAYK in 2015, attending a Lingít language circle put on at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I really liked the technique as a way to… Read more »
Archiving Training: Top Three Takeaways
“It’s got to be here somewhere. It just has to be,” I say to no one in particular. “Where did I put it? I swear someone must have moved it.”… Read more »
Archiving Training: Taking a Community-Centered Approach
WAYK’s partnership with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) is now in its third year. This summer WAYK is visiting the Unangam Tunuu Speaking Listening and Teaching (UTSLT) team on St. Paul Island… Read more »
Why I Came Back for Another Summer With WAYK
My name is Erin McGarvey and I am originally from London, Ontario, but am currently living in Edmonton, Alberta. This will be my second year as an intern with Where… Read more »
WAYK Summer Team Introduction: Rachel Sprouse
Allinllachu? Hola! Hello! My name’s Rachel, but to many of my close friends and colleagues, I’m affectionally known as Sprouse. I’m originally from Stonington, Connecticut and spent the majority of… Read more »
WAYK Summer Team Introduction: Robbie Penman
I’ve just come back from my first walk into the middle of Saint Paul, Alaska, where I could see to all corners of the island…and I was sure I could… Read more »