Sitting Bull College's Lakota Language Capacity Building Initiative

美国国会于1990年通过的《美洲原住民语言法》承认了美洲原住民语言的独特地位和重要性。 美洲原住民语言是有价值的，因为它们包含了语言科学家刚刚开始理解和分析的各种语法特征。然而，所有美洲原住民语言都濒临灭绝，其中许多语言不再被流利的第一语言使用者使用或使用。通过培训熟悉这些语言所在文化和社区的土著语言学家来扩大参与符合国家利益;这些语言学家将他们的各种知识和经验带到语言科学中，并可以更直接地帮助他们家乡社区的基层语言振兴工作，其中至少有一些是由其他联邦倡议资助的。部落学院和大学（TCU），如坐牛学院（站岩印第安人保留地），往往是这些基层语言振兴工作发生的地方。此外，尽管缺乏土著语言学家，但许多社区成员有学习祖先语言的动机。 该项目将利用这一动机，促进TCU教师和学生更好地理解美洲原住民语言的语言和结构。更广泛的影响包括增加美洲原住民在社会科学中的代表性，在TCU语言学方面的能力建设，以及改善TCU参与者在第二语言习得和评估方法方面的培训。该项目由NSF部落学院和大学项目（TCUP）共同资助。坐牛学院的拉科塔语言能力建设计划假设社区成员通常可能不知道语言学家如何帮助他们的语言复兴工作，因为他们没有看到创建程序，材料或其他资源，帮助复兴语言所涉及的过程。同样，社区成员可能不知道他们是否想参加语言科学，因为语言科学通常不介绍给小学或中学的学生，也不总是在语言学习者环境和其他语言振兴活动中教授或包括。该小组将调查如何发展语言科学更深入，更明确的连接到拉科塔语言振兴活动和语言学习促进TCU教师和学生对语言科学的兴趣。该倡议将增加现有的坐牛学院语言课程，以加快学院的学生和工作人员以及更大的立岩社区的拉科塔语言习得。与格、条件从句、时间状语从句以及其他形态和句法上复杂的结构在日常会话中大量使用，因此学习者经常会遇到它们。这个项目将记录这些语法元素在流利的发言者和学习者的讲话，创建一个丰富的语料库的第二语言习得数据，除了流利的拉科塔语发言者的文件。 拟议举措的优势在于，它可以帮助学生通过多种方式教授拉科塔语言，如通过语法，档案材料以及通过与流利的演讲者互动，更好地了解语言科学的可能性和局限性。 通过发展学生的熟练程度和拉科塔语言的元语言意识，这一举措旨在创造热情的拉科塔语言学习者群体，他们不仅将继续学习和使用拉科塔在日常生活中，但谁也将建立坐牛学院作为拉科塔语言研究和收购中心的能力。

The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American Languages. Native American languages are valuable because, among other things, they contain diverse grammatical features that language scientists have only just begun understanding and analyzing. Yet, all Native American languages are endangered, and many of these languages are no longer spoken or used by fluent first language speakers. It is in the national interest to broaden participation by training Native linguists who are familiar with the culture and communities in which these languages reside; these linguists bring their diverse knowledge and experience to the language sciences, and can more directly help with grassroots language revitalization efforts in their home communities, at least some of which is funded by other federal initiatives. Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), such as Sitting Bull College (Standing Rock Indian Reservation), are often spaces in which these grassroots language revitalization efforts take place. Moreover, many community members are motivated to learn their ancestral language, despite a dearth of indigenous linguists. This project will leverage that motivation to facilitate a better linguistic and structural understanding of a Native American language by TCU faculty and students. Broader impacts include increasing representation of Native Americans in the social sciences, capacity building in linguistics at a TCU, and improved training of TCU participants in second language acquisition and assessment methodologies. This project is co-funded by the NSF Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP).Sitting Bull College's Lakota Language Capacity Building Initiative hypothesizes that community members often may not know how linguists can help their language revitalization efforts because they do not get to see the processes involved in creating programs, materials, or other resources that help revitalize language. Similarly, community members may not know if they want to participate in language sciences, as language sciences are not usually introduced to students in primary or secondary schools, and are also not always taught or included in language-learner environments and other language revitalization activities. The team will investigate how the development of a deeper and more explicit connection of the language sciences to Lakota language revitalization activities and language learning fosters interest in the language sciences by TCU faculty and students. The Initiative will ramp up existing Sitting Bull College language courses to speed-up Lakota language acquisition among the college's students and staff and in the greater Standing Rock community. Datives, conditional clauses, adverbial clauses of time and other morphologically or syntactically complex structures are used in basic daily conversations, so learners are confronted with them regularly. This project will document these grammatical elements in the speech of both fluent speakers and learners, creating a rich corpus of second language acquisition data in addition to the documentation of fluent Lakota speakers. The strength of the proposed initiative is that it helps students develop a better understanding of the possibilities and limits of the language sciences by teaching the Lakota language in a multitude of ways, such as through grammars, archival materials, as well as through interaction with fluent speakers. By developing student proficiency in and metalinguistic awareness of the Lakota language, this initiative aims to create groups of passionate Lakota language learners who will not only continue to learn and use Lakota in everyday life, but who will also build Sitting Bull College's capacity as a center for Lakota language research and acquisition.