Words As Big As The Screen: Native American Languages And The Internet

McHenry, T. (2002). Words as big as the screen: Native American languages and the internet. Language Learning & Technology, 6, 102-115.

This article talks about how much of the research and revitalization efforts of Native American languages were primarily conducted by non-native educators, linguists, and anthropologists studying native cultures and languages. This presented many problems given the history of Native American cultures and languages at the time of contact to present day. Given the need for Native American educators, linguists, and anthropologist, this article encourages Native Americans to pursue these roles and further create modes for Native Language Education. McHenry quotes Morrow (1987) by stating natives and researchers want Native Americans to make “the best of both worlds” by maintaining fluency in English while learning or maintaining the Native language. She suggests that Native Americans create Native WebPages as a means to help language revitalization efforts. The emphasis here is that Website promotes native authorship, authenticity, and factuality of the information.
As I read this article, I am forced to rethink my personal Webpage for this class and will visit this Tulalip Elementary School Website. This article hit the nail for me and made me rethink the direction, goal, and aim for my personal Website. I understand and the article points that Websites alone cannot save endangered languages, however can promote Native pride through self conservation, self knowledge, and just simply seeing your Native language online.
“If Native Americans can acquire the materials and skills needed to produce quality Web sites, they may introduce their language and culture to people whom they have virtually no chance of ever meeting in person.”(p. 110). I like how the author reviewed the Lushootseed page by looking at the Webpage for its technical aspects, linguistic aspects, and cultural aspects. This gives me a direction in creating my own Webpage, and I am thinking of some essential questions as I begin to create this site. Some questions to think about include: is the text manageable, easy to read, are vocabulary in context, what levels of lessons are presented, does audio match correct vocabulary, does this encourage TRP (Total Physical Response) or do I want it to, and is this Website reliant on English.