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 and disparage another but just to look at the different approaches each group of terminology uses. In general, I would say that academic language tends… Read more »
For this post and more in the future, I’ll be writing about how WAYK techniques can be useful in life outside of language-learning contexts. Although just about all WAYK activity focuses on second-language acquisition, we’re also aware that WAYK’s techniques can be–and often already are–useful in learning material in any discipline. No matter how concrete… Read more »
While language hunting, when you periodically discover single words and concepts in your target language, you ask for them to be included in a Craig’s List (CL) of like concepts/words, accelerating your movement through the language and raising the chances of remembering the single word you discovered. Lists are an ancient mnemonic. There are many… Read more »
Youtube user westernabenaki has produced some great videos recently, applying WAYK to the Abenaki language. Another great example of someone we’ve never met or personally mentored taking the WAYK skillset and running with it! We get a thrill every time this happens. This first video is a Craig’s List song (yes, you can make CL… Read more »
42 minutes and 56 seconds. [direct download] Evan, Peter, and Lisa gather for another Chinuk Night debriefing conversation. 1. Technique “Same Conversation” Peter and Evan collaborated on the conversation of “sharpening tools” 2. Technique “Craig’s List” Peter and Evan created a new CL, “How Do They Move” 3. Technique “Where Are Your Keys?” Lisa tells… Read more »
45 minutes and 52 seconds. [direct download] 1. Technique “Tea with Grandma” 2. Technique “Same Conversation” Leanne Hinton’s work with the Master/Apprentice system. Hang out with your elder, as much as possible, to learn their language. It seems to be missing the apprentice’s training in rigorous language hunting to accelerate the acquisition of language from… Read more »
58 minutes and 17 seconds. [direct download] Willem and Joel (a veteran of a Portland WAYK workshop), with Peter and Sara listening, talk over Joel’s experiences that Chinuk Night. Then later, Evan and Willem discuss how the evening of Chinuk Wawa games went. 1. Technique “the Walk” Joel experienced “the Walk” for the first time,… Read more »
27 minutes and 2 seconds. [direct download] Willem interviews Peter and Sara about the games they led for the most recent Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon) Night. We discover that yet another newbie has zoomed through language acquisition, but not mastered basic WAYK techniques. Peter then describes “the Walk” that he led, as documented in this… Read more »
[direct download] Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen interview each other regarding a visit to Kent Siebold’s “Theories of Knowledge” class at Cleveland High School, in Portland, Oregon. 1. Technique “Too Cool for School“ Kent has been the host of the monthly WAYK nights at his large, rambling, 100 year old house. They went to Kent’s… Read more »
1 hr, 45 minutes, and 30 seconds. [direct download] In this really long episode, almost two hours long, we debrief our Chinuk Wawa conversation night, and realize that we’re experiencing the feeling of turning the corner on the revitalization of the language. We bask in the glow for a bit, and address many issues that… Read more »
1 hour, 15 minutes, and 51 seconds. [direct download] 1. Technique “Agile“ Why did we offer a WAYK workshop for IT professionals who belong to the Agile software development community? WAYK teaches “teacher-trainers”. WAYK is a pattern language; a mentoring language that (in an open source, ever-improving fashion) codifies the successful strategies involved in teaching… Read more »
50 minutes and 56 seconds. [direct download here] 1. Technique “Where Are Your Keys?” What Evan means when he asks “Does she play WAYK?” 2. Technique “Fluent Fool“ Does Johann play “WAYK?“. The ideal “fluent fool” has no conventional training in teaching at all. 3. Technique “Shared Experience“ Finding the ideal “same conversation” for Willem… Read more »
[vodpod id=Video.3289634&w=425&h=350&fv=] Squamish Nation WAYK instructor Dustin, now begins adding more and more complex language structure into the game, taking Justin (Chinook Nation WAYK instructor) all the way to “Is that my snake? No, that is not your snake, that is my snake”, using all the techniques he can to continue to stretch Justin’s fluent… Read more »
[vodpod id=Video.3289465&w=425&h=350&fv=] In this video Squamish nation WAYK instructor Dustin continues leading Chinook Nation WAYK instructor Justin in a game of Squamish language WAYK. Dustin has now begun to add to the complexity of the language structure, by moving to using negation with “No, not, don’t”, as in “No, that is not a snake, that… Read more »
[vodpod id=Video.3285762&w=425&h=350&fv=] In this video Squamish nation WAYK instructor Dustin continues leading Chinook Nation WAYK instructor Justin in a game of Squamish language WAYK. To accelerate the acquisition of fluency, before making their conversation more complex, Dustin begins throwing more “techniques”, what we consider “the rules of the game”; in this case, techniques “Slow/Fast” and… Read more »
More amazing work from Jay and his grandmother, a speaker of a Palestinian dialect of arabic. If you haven’t yet, please start with his 1st video, “What is that?”, and his second video, “Craigs List Me/Mine You/Yours”. [vodpod id=Video.3264055&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
For any thing that we want to learn (or revitalize), we first need to open up a regularly occurring space for it in our lives. This first step, even if you don’t quite know what to do next, opens up all the possibilities. It gives you a learning laboratory in which to explore and play…. Read more »
And now, Evan’s follow up: I am so excited for you Jay! Learning your own language from your own elder… A wonderful source of pride for your entire family and especially your grandma! I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard of people looking at books instead of talking to their elders… Read more »
The second question you ask in the WAYK game: “Who is that?/Whose is that?”, setting it up with a “Craig’s List” of pronouns: Me/Mine, You/Yours, He/His, She/Hers. Why do we start out so simply, and add bite-sized pieces, one at a time, constantly “starting over, starting at the beginning”? Abbot and Costello’s famous routine shows… Read more »
