REU Site: Building digital tools to support endangered languages and preserve environmental knowledge in Mexico, Micronesia, and Navajo Nation

该项目由本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划支持，该计划是nsf范围内的计划，尽管每个理事会管理自己的REU站点竞赛。本项目支持大学生积极参与科研，引导大学生从事科学研究，鼓励大学生继续投身国家的科学研究和发展事业。REU项目让学生以有意义的方式参与正在进行的研究项目或专门为此目的设计的研究项目。REU计划是NSF发展多样化、具有国际竞争力和全球参与的科学和工程劳动力的目标的主要贡献者。社会，行为和经济（SBE）科学理事会授予斯沃斯莫尔学院这个REU网站拨款，为本科生提供以社区为基础的协作语言文档的强化培训。该项目在美国学术界、墨西哥、密克罗尼西亚和纳瓦霍民族的土著语言学家之间架起桥梁，通过合作研究使各方受益。它通过记录濒危语言中关于自然世界的知识基础，帮助揭示语言和景观之间的深层联系。由此产生的语言材料支持当地社区的语言振兴工作。它们也将成为更广泛的科学界寻求理解语言复杂性、多样性和普遍性的资源。这个REU网站招募了12名语言学本科学生。该项目以为期两周的强化实践培训课程开始，培训内容是目前记录语言（或语言中的语法领域）的最佳实践，这些语言尚未得到充分的记录。学生直接从专业语言学家和土著语言专家那里学习濒危语言是如何现代化、数字化和扩展到新的技术领域的。在第三周和第四周，学生参加为期两周的实地实习。学生们在由土著语言专家领导的团队中工作，帮助记录基本和专业词汇、民间分类、地名和民族生物学命名法。他们探索并帮助记录每种语言的丰富知识库，这些知识库独特地编码了自然环境（植物、动物、天气、地理等）。他们还学习当前在维护土著语言和支持全球语言多样性方面的最佳做法。该项目以为期一周的研讨会结束，学生们在研讨会上反思他们的合作实地工作，并为各自的家庭机构准备报告。这个REU站点项目是由濒危语言记录项目和国际科学与工程项目共同资助的。

This project is supported under the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program, which is an NSF-wide program although each Directorate administers its own REU Site competition. This program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in an effort to introduce them to scientific research so as to encourage their continued engagement in the nation's scientific research and development enterprise. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects designed especially for the purpose. The REU program is a major contributor to the NSF's goal of developing a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally-engaged science and engineering workforce. The Social, Behavioral and Economic (SBE) sciences Directorate awarded this REU Site grant to Swarthmore College to provide undergraduate students with intensive training in community-based collaborative language documentation. The project builds bridges between indigenous linguists in the US academic community, Mexico, Micronesia, and the Navajo Nation, with collaborative research that benefits all parties. It helps uncover deep connections between languages and landscapes by documenting the knowledge base about the natural world found in endangered languages. The resulting linguistic materials support local communities' language revitalization efforts. They will also be a resource to the broader scientific community seeking to understand language complexity, diversity and universals.This REU site recruits a diverse group of twelve undergraduate students of Linguistics. The project begins with a two-week intensive, hands-on training session on current best practice for recording languages (or areas of grammar within languages) that have not yet been adequately documented. Students learn directly from professional linguists and indigenous language experts how endangered languages are being modernized, digitized, and expanded into new technological domains. In weeks three and four, students participate in a two-week field practicum. Working in teams led by indigenous language experts, students help record basic and specialized lexica, folk taxonomies, toponyms, and ethno-biological nomenclature. They explore and help document the rich knowledge base in each language that uniquely encodes the natural environment (flora, fauna, weather, geography, etc.). They also learn current best practices in sustaining indigenous languages and supporting global language diversity. The program concludes with a one-week workshop, where students reflect on their collaborative fieldwork and prepare presentations for their respective home institutions. This REU Site project is co-funded by the Documenting Endangered Languages program and also by the International Science and Engineering Program.