Movies

I wasn't very techy in the movies project. I tried hard to view them, expecially the Hunters. I enjoyed learning some new words. The most trouble I had with any of the lessons, was writing. I could say the would correctly, but when I had to test out or spell it would get it wrong.I have written words a hndred times, to make sure I get it right. And it helps to test, as it picks out where you need to brush up on for sure. (smile) Language Now and BKFI (now sure of the acronmyn0 there are excellent language tools. I am so glad to be able to utilze them. I will treasure them for a lifetime. (Thanks Brian). We need to compile our language resources, games, or whatever we have found on the internet. It has been fun doing research too, I have learned many subjects as we were guided through this by the instructors. It helps to be focused, we read the Hadley text, I remember I had to tell myself, this is not hard, not hard to read, not hard to comprehend, just think positive and it will come around and you will like it. Surprisingly, it happened. It is a wonderful resource too, as we plan and develop our own curriculum for teaching the language. I have loved reading all the discussions, and being assigned to different groups, it makes it easier to express yourself, when you are with a bunch of trusted cohorts and teachers. Hope everyone had so much fun as I have doing the assignments and attending class as I have. I know the Creator smile upon us, as we learn the language and continue to teach others what we learn. I am so proud of the young ladies in class, they are wonderful role models for other students, and community members, they are doing a wonderful job for Mille Lacs and the Academy. Take care and will see you soon. Please excuse all my typo's. (smile ) Phyllis

Final assignments and work?

Boozhoo Everyone;
It is so nice out today. It is time to start the garden and flower beds. Akina niwi objitoon i'iow gitigaaning, mina nawaa waabigwan, wendaaminogiizhigad oma noongom, I was telling Jeff that all last week, we netted in Mille Lacs. That was an awesome time. I can't began to tell how much all the times I spend with my sons, fishing, camping, netting and eating out, doing all the fun things, it means so much to me as i love, my grandsons and their sons so much. We try to do alot of family things together whenever we can. That is the time too, when I can listen to my language tapes and prepare my lessons for the next week. I have just more class and then it's finals. Tuesday will be my last class for the quarter. It has been fun and quite the learning time for me too. That is one of the extra inventives for me to teach as I can learn right along withthe students. I am so amazed at the students, as they learn, they pick up quite fast on the sound, the tone, and expression of the words. Words seem to pick up meaning as we communicate. I listen close to hear the true sound from them. They in turn, can ask me to repeat as many times as they need to hear clearly what the word or phrase is. They seem to enjoy the reviews and are not stressed out like I thought they would. They like my class and the calmy atmosphere that it takes on. They are also very helpful, and respectful. We made some copies of materials and tapes last class too, and they really enjoyed that I shared that with them. These were old tapes put on to cds. I had permission to use them from the staff at Lac Du Flambeau. They are so helpful too, so is Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife program staff. I order and purchase different items for class from them. They are a wonderful resource to use. I will be teaching Intro. to Tribal Culture, next Fall, not language. But I hope I can fill in or work with the staff in the Language Nest.
It has been truly a blessing for me to be with the Cohort this session. I love all the members and have had fun times online, (smile) when I could get there. You have been wonderful students to be with and work with. In fact I think of you as my family too. We have all worked hard and it showed when we did our speeches. Everyone did wonderfully well on all of the presentations. I was so happy to be a part of it. I will be happy to see everyone at the Language Seminar as we help Brian and learn some more new information and gain some more resources. Gigaawaabimin miniwa noongoom. Dedahgwash.

Speech

Hey everyone, Boozhoo, Aaniin azhiiayaayag?
Just a brief note to see how everyone else is busying doing. (smile) A wegonen waa izhiitegeyin?
Niin oma nii anokii ii'iow gaagiigidowin, Just practicing my speech, and loving it. I am in control final on this internet techy stuff. I am so proud I can finally post. Ha. Don't work too hard. Noongom nii gii gaadoon waawaanoon, I hid some easter eggs for my granddaughter. Nii gii chi wisinimin gaaye. Ha. We had a wonderful Easter dinner too. Niimiinwendan gaagiidoyaan oma noongom. I am having fun talk to you's today. I am teaching commands to my students, so next post , I will do some for the cohort. Have a fun week. I work tomorrow. Nii wii anokii wabang.
Good talking to everyone. Wings Far Reaching (Dedahgwash)

Speech

I forgot to say I do have the language BKYI of I hope that is the acronym. (smile) I do the Language now and access the Immersion sites. I learn something new each time I listen too it, and I find humor in some of their sayings and conversation.
I would like to send you my class plans for the past 2 days, but there a re too many sheets. We went through 8 pages of lists today in 1 1/2 hours. It was fun getting back into teaching and working with the students. We had so much fun. I am so proud of them, that they continue to learn and don't hesitate to try and try each new word. They definitely need praise for their hard work. I will have some new language teachers for the future. Take care and have fun enjoying our Spring weather finally. Dedahgwash

Questions

Boozhoo teacher,
Hey, chi-miigwech for the words for Headstart. I have a million projects going, and I appreciate all the help I can get. I am doing their invitation in Ojibwe, so will send you a copy when it is complete. Still practicing on my speech. Haven't accessed the new list you created yet, but will by tomorrow. Plugging away and appreciating the wonderful language, our language. I am so glad to be a part of this class, it is so inspiring and I am learning alot of new words, phrases, sounds, new of listening. Enjoying silence, and learning to better my meditation skills. Life is truly spiritual, and I appreciate it more than ever. Hope this can be my needed blog too. I will do a better job soon, as soon as I get caught up a bit. Loving the assignments and good help. Dedahgwash

Teaching

Hey Brian and the group
I am back to teaching a 2nd level language class for a friend of mine, who had a set of twin girls in Duluth. The babies were born early, so the mom has to stay there with them for awhile. They were born early, and are low weight etc. They are doing wonderful however and so is the mom and dad.
I will keep you updated on the babies. Little cuties, I saw some of their pics on the computer.
Fun class I am having. Today we did a session on babies (animals) that is. Refresher and also we had some on commands and directions. The kids are doing wonderful in class and we have funsaying the words and practicing each word list. (Like the animal and bird lists).
Gaawaabimin naaguj. Dedahgwash

Mino giizhigad noongom agwaaging. Giizhaate bungi. Chi Ogiizis Gizhide Maagizha Biboon gii majaa. (smile)

Questions

Boozhoo Brian
Have a couple of questions? Giizhitaawaag Oshkigikinoo'amaagiziyeg Does this mean graduation for Headstart kids. I am trying to do their invitations, but I am not sure if that is what to use?
Let me know today, if you get this. I have a meeting for designing it coming up.
I am practicing my speech daily. I am sounding pretty good, like I know something. Ha.
I know the words on the beginners list and the advanced list. I look forward to the new assignments. Please get back to me on the Headstart graduation question. Do you have a word for Headstart? How would you say graduation? Gaawaabamin naaguj. Dedahgwash

speech

Boozhoo Brian
Hey, The MIS guy stopped in this a.m and got me on the speech mode. He had to add FireFox or FoxFire to my computer, now I can utilize the speech recording. I knew something was going to work out for that. smile Dedahgwash

Speech

Having fun today practiicing my speech. Unable to record. My grandson and I spent the better part of the morning trying unlock the system. I tried to unblock the pop ups but that didnt' do it either. Will try to get up to see you Brian if you let me know a day I get to see you. Let me know. I feel terrible, I have found no success with the part of the course. I have downloaded the speech, and can hear it, but I can't seem to find the way to record. Dedahwash

speech

I am counting to 10. each time I try to get into the wimba tools. I haven't yet found the way. Today I was able to download the speech by Brian and listened to it. Sounded good. Now, if I could only record myself, that would be awesome. Guess, I will have to go to Duluth and see if Brian can find it for me. I will try on my lap top today too, I will look to see if the pop blocker is the problem. Definitely teaching me humbleness and patience. And I think I am good counting to 10 in Ojibwe now too. (smile) Numbers were always a problem for me, and now I am working on it. Ha. Check in again later. Dedahqwash.

Wimba Tools

Brian
I am unable to utilize or download the wimba tools. I tried at work and at home. I don't know what to do. Is this system on FireFox only? or is it in the Language Now part of the program. I was able to utilize and view the video for recording the speech, but can't get into it? Any ideas I can check out? Anybody else can e-mail me too. Thank You. Phyllis

Language

Boozhoo Everyone

I am still just practicing on the Hunter and Elder movies. Hay, the scoring isn't that good or it's the speaker. Ha. (smile the speaker being me). It was a nice week off, I still try to practice daily on my speech. That is going a little better. I put some index card together with my speech on them, that way I can pull it out of my purse and practice when I am sitting waiting some where. Mostly, it is a tool for memory lapse.( A Great Big Grin) Just having some fun, hope everyone else is doing good too. The weather is absolutely beautiful today, yesterday, we had a blizzard on the first day of Spring, that was a bummer. Check with everyone later. Have a good week. See you soon. Dedahgwash

Vicki

Hi Brian
Say do we still have Vicki Nelson to review our papers?

Speech

Hi Again Brian
I know this is spring break, but I figure you will read mail and get back to us next week. So I am just continueing posting so I can achieve something else in the mean time.
When I go to sample speech recording, you are on there talking, I don't see the little click box you talked about. The voice Board recording must be the key, if I can find it. Smile. I will look for the trust and trust always key? Then new compose will pop up? Got the directions fairly well, but not I need to find the right spot? to do the directions. Point me to something, in case I missed something. Thanks Phyllis

Speech

Hi Brian
I am having difficultiy in trying to record. I plug in the wimba tools part, but nothing happens.
It keeps downloading forever and then what? Is the voice recording in the language part of the program or on our other site. Moodle? Idid pull down the speech and printed a copy. I have been practicing that part, I am good there. Now that I know that pretty well, I wanted to try recording practice sessions, but can't find out how to record. I was able to view the video on the instructions, followed it well, but couldn't hear well enough. I guess I need to go somewhere else in my system to turn up the volume.

Speech

Hi Brian;
I would like repeat instructions on the speech segment. I go to record, but nothing happens. Just me I suppose.
Boozhoo Niijii gikinoo'ammganidog
Bungii eta go ni wii gaagiigid omaa noongom
Bungii eta go ninitaaojibwem
Dedahgwash nindizhinikaaz
mai'igan niin nidoodem
ingodwaasimidann ish iswaashwi nimbiboonagiz
waawiiyegamaag nindoonjibaa
niiswi niniijaanisug nindayaawaag
midaaswi ashi niizh nooshishayug in da ya wag
nindanookii oma gikinoo'omaadiiwigamigong
niminwendam omaa ayaayaan noongom
niminwedam gaye giikinoo'amaagooziyaan
miio'ominik waa ikdo yaan noongom
miigwech bizindawiiyeg
dedahgwash

Blog 3 additonal

It is so much fun, visiting the movies. Learning some new words. I don't care too much for the keeping of scores, (smile) but I guess that is a way of showing success, and a measurement of making progress. As I wnet through the hunting part, I put myself back in the day with my Dad and I as we used to go out snaring rabbits, we would put them out and go back an hour or so later and we would have some. It was fun walking in the woods with him, talking, laughing and getting food for supper. My dad never spoke Ojibwe to me though. He never used it, but I learned it from my Grandfather and Grandmother. I loved him just the same. smile I have gained some good knowledge from the Hadley book, after I scolded myself and put my mind in a more postive frame. That really helps. I went through the next few chapters with a breeze I hope my posts will show that. I hope when we finish up with this part of our learning, that we will do our own movies and others will be able to use it for a learning resource. Sounds fun. Until next post, Dedahgwash

Chapter 3

Just thought I would pop in with some of the Chp. 3 material. I would suggest that we book our rooms early for April. That is netting season too and all the rooms will be limited again. Or maybe the netting is in March. Anyway, someone should check it out.
I liked the Hypothesis and Corrollaries. This made sense, that we practice language in a range of contexts. This is a must, students should be encouraged to express their own meaning as early as possible after productive skills have been introduced. This would be a must too, for the new babies. The sooner they hear it, the language, drum sons, music, etc, they learn it fast. That's why we need the babies from the beginning at birth in language nests. Even it is helpful to hear music and language when they are still in the womb. So Grandmas please talk to the little babies as soon as you can.
I can't express enough, the urgency for active communicative interaction for students. Practice makes perfect. This will lead to more proficiency and at a more rapid pace for new learners of our language.
We need to use authentic language in our instructions.
I sat in a class a couple of weeks ago, that played with command tasks (functions). This seemed to help the students remember better. There was also body language, questioning looks, asking for miina wa ikidoon, Please say it again. We had fun using this type of system.
This is good advice: Instruction should be responsive to the effective as well as the cognitive needs of students, and their different personalities, preferences, and learning styles should be taken into account. Also, that should take into consideration, their receptiveness, attitude about learning and a good heart for wanting to learn the language. At least that is what I expected of my students. This also included their traditions, culture, beliefs and a good self acceptance of who they were. It is fun teaching and loving the students for efforts. I am so proud of them and I compliment them and praise them for trying and completing tasks and assignments. We have fun in class and that also sets a postive atmosphere to learn the language.
I read a little on the defintions section. This is to include all of us in teaching and learning the language. These included the works of Edward Anthony (1963)who described the hierachiccal levels of conceptualizations. 1. approach, which was defined by a set of theoritical principles; 2. method, which as a procedural plan for presenting and teaching the language; and 3. technique, which involved strategies for implementing the methodological plan. I put this into my head by the letters AMT, a sure way to keep it in my brain and prioritize the levels of conceptualization. smile.
There was an interesting not: "therefore, it is not what activities are used so much as how they are used that distinguishes methods from one another". As a teacher, we adopt certain activities and apply our methodology to fit our plan. Sounds good to me.. It always helps to add your own thoughts, methods and beliefs to our own way of teaching too. Kinda of our own play on words or something in our own way that makes it easier for the students to learn.
Rivers (1991) further clarifies the major characterisitcs of the audiolingual method by listing Mouton's (1961) "five slogans" of the method.
1. Language is speech, not writing.
2. A language is a set of habits/
3. Teach the language and not about the language.
4. A language is what native speakers say, not what someone thinks they ought to say.
5. Languages are different. (Rivers 1981, pp.41-43).

In the discussion on drills, I use this type of teaching too. We sit in a circle and go around and each person repeats the word. Repetition drills, in which no change was made. Students simply repeat after the teacher' model. My mentor instructor does this type of teaching too. We did not or tried not to do the transformation drills. We stuck to the repetition, adn didn't try the transformation drill until we were in Level 3 or Level 4 of language. We worked mainly with memorizing material, word lists, animals, birds, plants etc. repeating word lists, manupulating the words in order for us to communicate together. We were more into memorizing words and soem sentences. We also did some work with TPR expecially when we did the task principle: Activities that involve the completion of real-world tasks promoted our lerning. The meaningfulness principle: Learners must be engaged in meaningful and authentic language use for learning to take place (Richards and Rodgers 1986, p.72). It is important that we use our own language, our own dialect, be from our own community, or area, be authentic in order for us to learn the language. In our classes we use the double vowel system. We also have insturctors from Mille Lacs, they have a dialet of their own too. We sometimes adjust our own learning to accept and adopt some of their dialect words. We also used classroom activities, games, etc to ehance our learning and made it more fun for learning. (There was an interesting not in the text: Adult learning can be modeled after the way children learn their native language. (TPR, pg. 118) This chapter was fun to read and it affrimed many of the ways I have learned regarding teaching and methods. Interesting and I gaimed more knowledge on teaching and different methods. Phyllis

Hypotesis 3

Hypothesis 3
Thank you for the assignment. Yes, I will expound some on the Hypothesis 3. 3. Especially the feedback issue. The article discussed some pro's and con's of correction and feeback. Feedback refers to the process of giving students information so they can tell if their production or comprehension of the language is corrcct, and correction refers to the results of feedback on it's effect on learning.(Long, 1997;Ellis, 1990, p. 71). The thrust of this hypothesis is that there is a role for form-focused instruction in a proficiency-oriented approach, used in judicious blend with communicative language teaching practices. There is a whole continuum of feedback strategies. We need to see the values and need for correction and feedback. There was some discussion on postive input enhancement and negative enhancement. Higgs and Clifford (1982) suggested we might be able to help students produce more accurate speech if we adopt "output" hypothesis, similar to Krashen's input hypothesis. Back to the discussion on feedback. We need to see that instruction and evaluative feedback is useful in faciliating the progression of student skills toward more positive and precise language use. There was two-sides to the issue of feedback and correction. Either was/is more positive toward comprehension or it wasn't. It is a way of evaluating comprehension. Psychologists have shown repeatedly tht concept of learning with advance organizers and clues is always better than learning without clues. Thous would totally enhance a learner of the language. The system would give positive motivation to learn the language and the way students express themselves and getting their ideas across clearly and precisely. Phyllis

weekend college

Hi Brain
Thanks for all the good info. this weekend. I am more positive about the Hadley book now. I read and read and put post it notes when I came across something hard or difficult to understand. I go back there later and try again. It seems to get better each time I reread. I like reading chp. 3 and 4. Things are falling into place now. I try to be positve in al the areas of reading, and be a good example for the other students too, I know a person can get frustrated, but it pays to read and reread the material for me. I hope that helps some one else in their reading. The class today was really fun. I hope you will send me a recording of the voice assignment, in the techy stuff tht is. I was so thankful for Gabe and Jeff, they helped me figure out the blog hang up. smile. I know the boozhoo speech have done it for some of my other classes. It is fun tht we will learn new things here especially recording ourselves and listening to each other. The main object I teach my classes is to speak to each other or anyone who will listen, do commands, and do some TPR.
Again thank you for the session today that was wonderful. And thanks for the good lunch. Thank you for supporting me on the mix up of some words and phrases. My instructor that day, asked why I was putting my red betooshigan in the oven? He did with a somber face and legitamite question. He didn't criicize me or disrepect me. I was thankful for that. We did have a good laugh about after. Gawaabaamin mina wa. Dedahgwash

Nursery Rhyme

Hi Brian
Tried to do this rhyme for Headstart. Does it look right to you?
Star Light Star Bright
Anang waazakone Anang Waaseyaa

First I see tonight
Nitam Anang niwaabidan dibikad

I wish I may I wish I might
Ni bagosendam maagizhaa Ni bagosendam daa

Have the wish I wish tonight
Ayaaw ii'ow bagosendan ni begosendam oma dibikad

Post II

Post II

How Do We become proficient in a second language is the question?

I read several theories in this chp.I found it true , that we would benefit on many parts of the theories. But not to depend on just one as the saviour. Each of them help us to develop our own ideas on teaching our language. It also helps to develop and/or clarify our own set of principle for language teaching. I am including some of the questions listed in the text. 1. Do adults learn foreign language in a manner similar to the way children acquire their native language. Very good question, I think that in some ways we do and some ways we don't. We adopt some similarities. Not a tried or true system. 2. Are humans born with a special capacity for language that is specific to our species. I believe this to be true, our language is special to us, it is part of our identity, part of our culture, so I make the assumption that is specific to our species. (Anishinaabe). Our language has special meanings, a special living souls, special sounds, intonations, glutteral stops, etc. We are given this language at birth and we were never given the opportunity to use it. So now as adults, we have to use it and learn it as the babies would. Practice makes perfect. 3.How does our knowlege of our native language affect our learning of a new language. This isn't a new language, or foreign language. It is our language we were born with. If we don't use it we lose it. Brian's quote: Use it or lose it. It is helpful to us, not a hinderance. that we know some of the words before hand. 4. What is the optimum type of "input" for adults who are begining their study of a foreign lanauge? They do profit best fro listening to fluent speakers. The more you hear it, they better you become and more comfortable and trusting to speak for yourself. We can use a basic framework to sart the input and work with the individual in order to correspond with what they already know.5. What role does interaction with native speakers, teachers, or target language have in laguage acquistion? They play a great role in the language comprehension. They need the native speakers to interact with in order to learn and to follow their mentoring and role modeling. In this day and age, we tend to follow the leader and adopt the practices of the teacher, in the language curriculum or language model, their by accepting the information presented the teachers. They present good information. 6. What is the role of explicit grammar role instruction in adult foreign language learning? In some cases, they can learn, other times, they would need the grammar specifics, that will help them achieve language goals. All language has some rules that are very necessary in order to learn a language. They are specific grammaticals that will enhance the language learning process. No doubt. 7. Do language learners acquire grammatical features in a predictable order when language learning occurs in natural use situations? That's a hard one to predict. I would tend to guess, that it would help in a natural use situation. Natural ways seem to be the ideal way to teach. An environment that students feel comfortable and is very environmentally setting for learning. (Natural use situation). 8. What is the role of practice in adult language learning? In the Elder and mentor practice, It is like learning the skill of others. You are acquiring the skill (fluent language skills) from the mentor. Language learning isn't different from other forms of human learning. 9.Do students need to have an opportunity to practice new forms and sturctures in "controlled acitivities" before being asked to communicate their own meaning using those features? Yes it is a good way to monitor learning skills and would give them the oppourtunity to learn some skills, before being asked to perform, and then be assessed. We have that quality of watching, learning, watching learning and then performance. We tend to monitor the siuation, appraise it, and learn what the goal is before we perform. Good point there I feel. Good way to learn. After they have learned the basics ina language class, then it safe to expect them to paricipate and engage in conversations. It is important to let the students perform in the activities controlled situations, no they perform better in the controlled performance or form-focused activities. 10.What is the role of feedback in language learning? It is imporatnt for the students to learn the correct woding in language class. It is important to check for errors and do corrections, any corrections help promote beter communications between the teachers and the other students. It is helps to minimize corrections, but it is important to clairfy the words as you proceed, students understand the need for this type of claification and are not intimidate by it. We all learn together, and all get corrected together. Team correction. No one is offended. Loads of good information to learning language. It is good gain all the good knowledge available as it creates and builds many resources as we move along in own language teaching and learning.

Krashens Monitor Theory: First and Second Language Acquistion are Similar.

The acquistion-learning distinction: "which states that adults have two distinct and independent wa;ys of deveoping comptence in a second language" Acquisiton which is subconscious process "similar, if not identical, to the way children develop ability in their first language"; and learning, which refers to conscious knowledge of the rules of grammar of a second language and their application in production. I picked this to do some follow up on my aother piece on chapter 2. It is gives more information and clarifys my answer on acquistion and grammaticals.

The natural order hypothesis, which maintains tht acquistion of grammatical stuctures (primarily morphemes) follows a predictabel order when that acqisiton is natural. (i.e., not via formal learning).

The monitor hypothesis, which states that acquistion is the sole initiator of all second-language utterances and is responsible for fluency, while learning (conscious knowledge of rules) can function only as an "ediotr or "monitor" for the output. The monitor operates only when there is sufficient time, the focus is on form, and the language user knows the rule being applies. Another clarification on my comments on the language of acquistion stated earlier. Not menat to confuse anyone, in the readings or what was implied. Hopeful it clairifies my statements.

The input hypotesis, which maintains that we acquire more language only when we are exposed to "comprehensive input" language that contains sturctures that are " a little beyond" our use of concept, our knowledge of the world, and other extra linguistics use directed to us. According to this hypotesis, acquirers "go for meaning" first, and, as a result, acquire sturcture as well.Communication is successful and there is enough of it . A final part of the input theory part manitains that speaking fluency cannot be taught directly, but rather "emerges" naturally over time. I like this explanation cleared up some of what i thought I said in an earlier statement.

Interesting reading and a lot of hypothesis and theories. Good ones. Didin't get to the # 5 part of the reading. Phyllis

Test Blog

This is the new blog of Phyllis Lowe.