TEA Center: Reclaiming the O'odham Language

部落学院和大学计划（TCUP）的一个目标是促进TCUP机构内的知识领导力的进步，这将支持他们解决其部落，社区或广泛的美国的科学或工程优先事项。与这一目标相关联的是TCU企业发展中心（TEA中心）资金链，它为TCUP机构提供支持，建立基于主题的中心，其工作应用学院的STEM教学和研究能力，以实现其确定的社区的利益。O 'odham语言中心（OLC）由Tohono O' odham社区学院的人员构思和指导，直接与TEA中心的概念保持一致，这将对Tohono O 'odham民族在收回O' odham语言方面产生重大的积极影响。使用跨代的方法，OLC将努力通过在保留地的开端中心提供语言沉浸课程来延续语言，其目的是培养作为O 'odham Nation公民的学前学生的语言流利性。将开展一系列综合性活动，其中包括社区教师流利地使用O 'odham语言，并协助学生家庭发展自己的流利程度，以支持收回他们的土著语言的总体目标。OLC将采用有证据的-基于教学方法的语言浸入式课程，同时为特定的学校和社区环境定制课程，发生.这项工作最初将集中在三个先行中心，这些中心已经具备了语言课程的基本要素。随着教学模式随着时间的推移而优化，这项工作将扩大到包括Tohono O 'odham国家的所有六个头部启动中心。教师将通过现场实践以及与语言学家和语言教育专家的专业发展来提高自己的专业知识。为了促进更大的知识基础，OLC将在整个部落学院社区，Tohono O 'odham社区，其相关部落以及亚利桑那州和北美的其他土著社区传播其调查结果。通过沉浸式课程和教学模式的发展，广泛的资源将成为可用，可用于通知跨部落社区的语言连续性努力。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to promote the advancement of intellectual leadership within TCUP institutions that will support them in addressing the scientific or engineering priorities of their tribes, communities, or broadly of the United States. Linked with this goal is the TCU Enterprise Advancement Centers (TEA Centers) funding strand, which provides support for TCUP institutions in establishing thematically based centers whose work applies the college’s STEM instruction and research capacity to realize benefits for their identified community. The O’odham Language Center (OLC), conceived and directed by personnel from Tohono O’odham Community College, directly aligns with the TEA Center concept in the significant positive impacts it will have on the Tohono O’odham Nation in reclaiming the O’odham language. Using a cross-generational approach, the OLC will strive to perpetuate the language through the delivery of language immersion programs at Head Start Centers on the reservation in a manner designed to develop the language fluency of pre-K students who are citizens of the O’odham Nation. A slate of comprehensive activities will be undertaken that includes the engagement of community instructors fluent in the O’odham language and assisting students’ families in developing their own fluency in support of the overarching goal of reclaiming their Indigenous language.The OLC will employ evidenced-based pedagogical methods in the language immersion programs while customizing the curriculum for the specific school and community settings in which activities will occur. The work will be focused initially in three Head Start Centers that have foundational elements of a language program already in place. As the instructional model is optimized over time, the work will expand to include all six of the Head Start Centers on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Instructors will advance their own expertise through in situ practice as well as professional development with linguists and language education experts. To contribute to the greater knowledge base, the OLC will disseminate its findings throughout the tribal college community, the Tohono O’odham community, its related tribes, and other Indigenous communities in Arizona and North America. Through the development of the immersion curriculum and instructional model, a wide range of resources will become available that may be used to inform language continuity efforts across tribal communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.