Bubble Policy: How Can Immersion Bubbles Help an Indigenous Language Community?

In my last blog, I wrote about the obstacles to maintaining an immersion bubble. In this blog, I ask how the immersion bubble, as a kind of “language policy”, can further the interests of an Indigenous language community. There are two related benefits to immersion bubbles, as I see it. One benefit is that they… Read more »

Bubble Policy: Why Do People Break or Keep Up Immersion?

The idea of creating an “immersion bubble” is probably nothing new in language learning. Nor is it new within the field of language revitalization in the 20th and 21st centuries; creating immersion bubbles has been a goal of many revitalization movements at least since the kōhanga reo pre-school immersion initiatives in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the… Read more »

How to Use a Hunting Book

Take notes like a pro, or like a 5th grader, so long as you do it! In 2015, during my first summer with WAYK, Evan and Susanna gave me a hunting book to use for tracking the chinuk wawa I was learning. I’ll be honest: I didn’t really like or use it. I found it… Read more »

Keep Calm and Calendar On

Summer Language Intensives have a lot going on. All the time. Whether it’s lesson prep, an important conversation to be had, hunting language from elders over tea, or even just keeping the coffee station running, there’s always something that needs to be done. How does one keep everything going smoothly, especially with a larger team?… Read more »

WAYK Workshop versus Summer Language Intensive

I first met Evan and Susanna at a handful of WAYK workshops, which were each about two to five days long: three workshops at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage and one at the Songhees Wellness Center in Victoria, BC. Because of my attendance at these workshops, I was lucky enough to find out… Read more »

Technique: Angel

Learning a language is exciting, but it can also be scary. I get nervous when I stumble over new sounds, hoping no one nearby noticed. My cheeks feel hot every time I ask someone to pronounce a word so that I can understand and copy the sounds correctly. Suddenly it feels as if my ability… Read more »

Linguistic Terminology Part 2

Read Myles’ first post about linguistic terminology here. Working in the field of linguistics over the last few years, I have noticed some divisions in terminology that I would like to highlight in this blog. As North American linguistics begins to turns away from its roots in “salvage linguistics” and more towards collaborative community-based research,… Read more »

5 Group Immersion Activities

Before I arrived at the St. Paul Unangam Tunuu Summer Language Intensive, I wondered what we would do on a typical day. I knew that there would be no teacher standing at the front of the room, no textbooks. How would we fill our time from nine to five? I discovered here a variety of… Read more »

Relaxing in Immersion

Picture this: I grab a beautiful blue egg shell, a white feather, and two model birds, and join my group at a table in the back room for immersion time. Without any discussion or planning, we five young women blow up an imaginary immersion bubble to bid farewell to English – from here on out,… Read more »

Master Teachers and Techniques

Have you ever watched a master teacher at work? As a student teacher walking into a master teacher’s classroom for the first time, it is easy to have the misconception that the students are magically doing what they are supposed to be doing. The truth is that the teacher is using techniques to seamlessly facilitate… Read more »

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Latest

  • Language Hunting in Latin

    [vimeo http://vimeo.com/15491950] In this video you’ll see footage of the September 2010 Latin WAYK Weekend Workshop at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, WY. Towards the end of the weekend at a typical WAYK workshop, the steadily improving language hunters participate in the “Tea with Grandma” scenario, where attendees hunt language from fluent elders with no… Read more »

  • WAYK Latin – Ubi sunt claves tuae?

    Well, Evan Gardner and I (Willem Larsen) both just returned from Lander, WY, where we’ve been helping the good people of Wyoming Catholic College revitalize Latin. Lander has several noteworthy aspects to it – it’s a lovely town to have a steak dinner in, and it’s also the location of the NOLS headquarters (National Outdoor… Read more »

  • Iliodor Philemonof on Traditional Unangax Art and Regalia

    [vimeo 14780588] In this video Iliodor Philemonof, elder speaker of Unangam Tunuu (Aleut), provides the language for some traditional items and art of the Unangax people. This video was filmed during the 2010 “Where Are Your Keys?” Unangax Language Camp at the NW Indian College, on the Lummi Reservation, in Bellingham, WA.

  • VIDEO: “Tea with Grandma” at the 2010 #WAYK Unangax Language Camp

    [vimeo 14757931] We feel strongly that we’re doing work no one else is doing – work that teaches communities a particular kind of real-world, practical, all-ages, all-weather skills at learning and teaching language in any environment. “Tea with Grandma” is a prime example of this – at every workshop we do, we run this scenario… Read more »

  • “the Walk” in Unangam Tunuu with Iliodor Philemonof

    [vimeo 14724207] This is a video of “the Walk” Unangam Tunuu curriculum, generated by and for the campers at the 2010 WAYK Unangax Language Camp. Note that there are no translations or subtitling, as this is meant as a refresher for attendees.

  • VIDEO: Unangam Tunuu Universal Speed Curriculum

    [vimeo 14723748] This video contains the Unangam Tunuu Universal Speed Curriculum, and is a refresher for attendees of the 2010 Unangax Language Camp at the NW Indian College. It contains no subtitles or translations, and is meant to serve as a guide for improving players’ accent and pronunciation. If you’d like to see Unangam Tunuu… Read more »

  • The New, Easy WAYK Video Tutorial

    [vimeo 14722295] I really think we out-did ourselves this time – Evan and I finally may have brainstormed a format in which you can easily learn the core WAYK game via internet video. This video covers all the techniques needed to play a two to four person game. For larger groups, check out our supporting… Read more »

  • WAYK/Unangax Language Camp 2010

    In partnership with Becky Bendixen, of NW Unangax Culture, the NW Indian College on the Lummi Reservation in Bellingham, WA, and the fluent knowledge of Iliodor Philemonof, Unangax Pribilof dialect speaker, we had 7 days of language revitalization play and learning. The age span was quite broad, from children age 9 or 10 to folks… Read more »

  • Can WAYK Revitalize Latin Too?

    This September 23, 24, and 25, Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen will be holding a WAYK workshop at Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming. Believe it or not, Latin still has a living tradition of daily conversational vitality, as carried through the centuries in the church and monasteries. Latin is the official language of the… Read more »

  • 2010 “Save Your Language” conference group photo

    Here’s a bit of long-overdue news – we promised a group photo to the attendees of Vancouver, B.C.’s June WAYK conference hosted by Squamish Nation language instructor Dustin Rivers. Click on the picture to download a large-sized version of the image. Thanks for playing everyone!

  • Seattle WAYK Workshop, September 4th and 5th.

    Join us in Seattle for our next WAYK workshop. Registration costs only $125 – we won’t be pricing WAYK workshops this affordably for too much longer! Register now, and we look forward to seeing you there.

  • VIDEO: Fundamental Techniques of WAYK 6

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CxBcFYRzDU&hl=en&fs=1]

  • VIDEO: Fundamental Techniques of WAYK 5

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNBiXzzy9Mg&hl=en_US&fs=1]

  • VIDEO: Fundamental Techniques of WAYK 4

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OalhSLOKLDQ&hl=en_US&fs=1]

  • VIDEO: Fundamental WAYK Techniques 3

    As time goes on, techniques are constantly improved or innovated. We’ve recently made a few short videos (below you’ll see the third, click here for the first and second videos) that show the current state of an array of fundamental WAYK techniques as of August 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Ww51iTRpk&hl=en_US&fs=1]

  • VIDEO: Fundamental WAYK Techniques 2

    As time goes on, techniques are constantly improved or innovated. We’ve recently made a few short videos (below you’ll see the second, click here for the first) that show the current state of an array of fundamental WAYK techniques as of August 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZF_EgUqNKc&hl=en_US&fs=1]

  • Free Tutoring in WAYK Via Skype

    An ongoing issue of trying to share WAYK over the internet, is the paradox of it being so easy to learn in person, yet so difficult via video, podcast, and text. We’re making a special offer; every Thursday, we’ll have a few hour-long slots dedicated to tutoring folks struggling to learn the game via the… Read more »

  • VIDEO: Fundamental WAYK Techniques 1

    As time goes on, techniques are constantly improved or innovated. We’ve recently made a few short videos (below you’ll see the first) that show the current state of an array of fundamental WAYK techniques as of August 2010. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3_KPcBmJbg&hl=en_US&fs=1]

  • “We’ll All Get There Together”: WAYK Chinuk Wawa Night

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zvGRVH7hJo&hl=en_US&fs=1] Scenes from a recent WAYK Chinuk Wawa Night. Note again the variety of conversation, from Novice to Advanced, and how different speaker-teachers wield (or don’t wield) sign language, depending on who’s involved, or on the lunatic fringe, of the conversation. The beginning, highly structured, novice-level WAYK conversations are there to teach technique use (“the… Read more »

  • Flyer for WAYK Unangax Language Revival

    Here’s a flyer you can distribute for our upcoming event in Bellingham, WA, August 24th-30th.