Post by Okwes on Sept 6, 2006 17:57:07 GMT -5
Free ACORN Software for Preserving & Teaching Native Languages
Dan Harvey, PhD - harveyd@sou.edu>
Sep 2, 2006
North America is home to more than five hundred indigenous
languages. Unfortunately, most of these languages have less than
one hundred remaining fluent speakers. Even tribes with many
speakers, like the Navajo, have only a fifteen percent fluency
rate among the children. Four tribes of Northern California are
examples of languages that are close to extinction. The Hupa,
Karuk, Tolowa, and Yurok each have less than six fluent speakers.
Most of these are elderly, in their seventies and eighties.
Loss of language means loss of the way a people view the world.
It often disconnects the people from their land, the place where
the Creator assigned to them. Loss of language loosens the ties
to those that came before. For this reason many tribes have
active language programs that hopefully will pass on their
languages to the next generation, and in doing so preserve their
culture.
The ACORNS project ([C]quisition [O]f [R]estored [N]ative
peech) has the purpose of developing digital tools that will
assist tribal language revitalization programs. Its name is in
honor of the four Northern California tribes, where the acorn is
considered sacred. Southern Oregon University and Dan Harvey, the
author of ACORNS software, greatly appreciates the support and
many suggestions received from tribal members. ACORNS is a long
term project that involves many graduate and undergraduate
students of Computer Science. It is free for non-commercial use
(meaning that the software is not for resale).
The web-site for download and install is:
www.sou.edu/cs/harvey/acorns
<http://www.sou.edu/cs/harvey/acorns> . We will be adding
additional documentation and tutorials to this site as time
permits. Please contact Dan Harvey (harveyd@sou.edu) if you have
questions or need help with the installation.
The initial release of the ACORNS software, Version 1.0, occurred
in the summer of 2005. We are now pleased to announce the release
of Version 2.0 and our new Sound Editor application. The new
release supports the Cherokee keyboard. It is easy to support
additional indigenous keyboard maps, like that used by the
Anishinabe-Ojibwe. Please contact us if you have a custom
keyboard that you need the program to support.
A short description of AOCRNS Version 2.0 follows:
The ACORNS project allows language teachers, or their students,
to easily create language lessons, with minimal technical
training. The program works in two steps, which is similar to how
the Microsoft's Power Point application works. In the first step
(setup mode), teachers create lessons. The second step (play
mode) is where students execute these lessons for a comprehensive
learning experience. Lessons can be e-mailed back and forth or
posted on the web.
The original version supports 'Picture and Sound' lessons. These
lessons consist of pictures with recorded sounds attached to
places on the pictures. When the student clicks on one of these
places, the program chooses and plays back one of the audio clips
that is attached to that place. Students can optionally also see
the gloss (English) and native spelling. Ten layers are available
to allow multiple levels of difficulty in a lesson. The ACORNS
program allows students to jump from lesson to lesson using
simple mouse clicks.
Version 2.0, the new version, supports 'Multiple Choice' lessons.
These lessons are similar to those in the commercial Rosetta
Stone package, which is used to teach our diplomats.
Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone software normally doesn't deal with
the highly endangered languages. They charge tribes $400,000 for
making a set of novice and advanced collection of language
lessons.
Teachers using ACORNS create a multiple choice lesson by loading
a set of photographs, and loading into each photograph a set of
recorded audio clips. In play mode, the program randomly chooses
four of the photographs and one of the recorded audio clips. It
displays the photographs and plays the audio. The student then
mouse clicks on the picture that he/she thinks is correct. The
program responds with a sound that indicates if the choice is
correct. The lesson continues with ACORNS selecting four more
pictures and another sound clip. The process continues until the
student either jumps to another lesson using a mouse click, or
exits.
Our new release also contains a sound clip editor application.
This program allows you to extract pieces of recordings and
manipulate them in a variety of ways. The functionality is
similar to Audacity software, but allows you to include gloss
(English) and native speech annotations. Like ACORNS, the new
sound editor is for non-commercial use.
We are already planning for the next release of ACORNS. The
planned version will be able to import Native American
dictionaries and use them to create computer games. Hopefully
these lessons will attract student interest. In the long term, we
are looking at providing pronunciation tools to help students
learn how to speak correctly. We also are working on speech
recognition capabilities where the computer hears and responds to
Native speech.
Our desire is for ACORNS to find use among many tribes. We
eagerly welcome comments, suggestions, and feedback.
Dan Harvey, PhD - harveyd@sou.edu>
Sep 2, 2006
North America is home to more than five hundred indigenous
languages. Unfortunately, most of these languages have less than
one hundred remaining fluent speakers. Even tribes with many
speakers, like the Navajo, have only a fifteen percent fluency
rate among the children. Four tribes of Northern California are
examples of languages that are close to extinction. The Hupa,
Karuk, Tolowa, and Yurok each have less than six fluent speakers.
Most of these are elderly, in their seventies and eighties.
Loss of language means loss of the way a people view the world.
It often disconnects the people from their land, the place where
the Creator assigned to them. Loss of language loosens the ties
to those that came before. For this reason many tribes have
active language programs that hopefully will pass on their
languages to the next generation, and in doing so preserve their
culture.
The ACORNS project ([C]quisition [O]f [R]estored [N]ative
assist tribal language revitalization programs. Its name is in
honor of the four Northern California tribes, where the acorn is
considered sacred. Southern Oregon University and Dan Harvey, the
author of ACORNS software, greatly appreciates the support and
many suggestions received from tribal members. ACORNS is a long
term project that involves many graduate and undergraduate
students of Computer Science. It is free for non-commercial use
(meaning that the software is not for resale).
The web-site for download and install is:
www.sou.edu/cs/harvey/acorns
<http://www.sou.edu/cs/harvey/acorns> . We will be adding
additional documentation and tutorials to this site as time
permits. Please contact Dan Harvey (harveyd@sou.edu) if you have
questions or need help with the installation.
The initial release of the ACORNS software, Version 1.0, occurred
in the summer of 2005. We are now pleased to announce the release
of Version 2.0 and our new Sound Editor application. The new
release supports the Cherokee keyboard. It is easy to support
additional indigenous keyboard maps, like that used by the
Anishinabe-Ojibwe. Please contact us if you have a custom
keyboard that you need the program to support.
A short description of AOCRNS Version 2.0 follows:
The ACORNS project allows language teachers, or their students,
to easily create language lessons, with minimal technical
training. The program works in two steps, which is similar to how
the Microsoft's Power Point application works. In the first step
(setup mode), teachers create lessons. The second step (play
mode) is where students execute these lessons for a comprehensive
learning experience. Lessons can be e-mailed back and forth or
posted on the web.
The original version supports 'Picture and Sound' lessons. These
lessons consist of pictures with recorded sounds attached to
places on the pictures. When the student clicks on one of these
places, the program chooses and plays back one of the audio clips
that is attached to that place. Students can optionally also see
the gloss (English) and native spelling. Ten layers are available
to allow multiple levels of difficulty in a lesson. The ACORNS
program allows students to jump from lesson to lesson using
simple mouse clicks.
Version 2.0, the new version, supports 'Multiple Choice' lessons.
These lessons are similar to those in the commercial Rosetta
Stone package, which is used to teach our diplomats.
Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone software normally doesn't deal with
the highly endangered languages. They charge tribes $400,000 for
making a set of novice and advanced collection of language
lessons.
Teachers using ACORNS create a multiple choice lesson by loading
a set of photographs, and loading into each photograph a set of
recorded audio clips. In play mode, the program randomly chooses
four of the photographs and one of the recorded audio clips. It
displays the photographs and plays the audio. The student then
mouse clicks on the picture that he/she thinks is correct. The
program responds with a sound that indicates if the choice is
correct. The lesson continues with ACORNS selecting four more
pictures and another sound clip. The process continues until the
student either jumps to another lesson using a mouse click, or
exits.
Our new release also contains a sound clip editor application.
This program allows you to extract pieces of recordings and
manipulate them in a variety of ways. The functionality is
similar to Audacity software, but allows you to include gloss
(English) and native speech annotations. Like ACORNS, the new
sound editor is for non-commercial use.
We are already planning for the next release of ACORNS. The
planned version will be able to import Native American
dictionaries and use them to create computer games. Hopefully
these lessons will attract student interest. In the long term, we
are looking at providing pronunciation tools to help students
learn how to speak correctly. We also are working on speech
recognition capabilities where the computer hears and responds to
Native speech.
Our desire is for ACORNS to find use among many tribes. We
eagerly welcome comments, suggestions, and feedback.