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

该项目得到了本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划的支持，该计划是一个NSF范围的计划，尽管每个理事会都管理着自己的REU站点竞赛。该计划支持本科生积极参与研究，努力向他们介绍科学研究，以鼓励他们继续参与国家的科学研究和开发事业。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而设计的研究项目。REU计划是NSF培养多元化、具有国际竞争力和全球参与的科学和工程劳动力这一目标的主要贡献者。社会、行为和经济(SBE)科学局向斯沃斯莫尔学院授予了这笔REU现场赠款，为本科生提供基于社区的协作语言文档方面的强化培训。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了桥梁，通过合作研究使各方受益。它通过记录在濒危语言中发现的关于自然世界的知识库，帮助揭示语言和风景之间的深层联系。由此产生的语言材料支持当地社区的语言振兴努力。它们也将成为更广泛的科学界寻求了解语言复杂性、多样性和普遍性的资源。这个REU网站招募了12名语言学本科生组成的不同小组。该项目首先举行为期两周的强化实践培训班，介绍目前记录尚未充分记录的语言(或语言中的语法领域)的最佳做法。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被现代化、数字化并扩展到新的技术领域的。在第三周和第四周，学生们参加为期两周的实地练习。在土著语言专家的带领下，学生们帮助记录基本的和专门的词汇、民间分类法、地名和民族生物命名法。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)。他们还学习目前在维持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，在研讨会上，学生们反思他们合作的实地考察工作，并为各自的家庭机构准备演示文稿。该REU网站项目由记录濒危语言计划和国际科学与工程计划共同资助。

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.