Description:
While Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is being superseded by an integrated approach to language learning and technology, it still has great potential to assist indigenous peoples in becoming print-literate in their own languages. This can also help to combat the disempowerment experienced by indigenous people as their world is penetrated by others with radically different backgrounds. This paper reports on research on an application of CALL implemented among the Kunib dji, a remote, indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the use of talking books in Ndj bbana, a language with only 200 speakers; the books were displayed on touch-screens at various locations in the community. Investigations into the roles of the computer to support language learning and cultural understanding are also reported. The computer was found to be a useful tool in promoting Kunib dji collaboration and cultural transformation.
Description:
While Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is being superseded by an integrated approach to language learning and technology, it still has great potential to assist indigenous peoples in becoming print-literate in their own languages. This can also help to combat the disempowerment experienced by indigenous people as their world is penetrated by others with radically different backgrounds. This paper reports on research on an application of CALL implemented among the Kunib dji, a remote, indigenous Australian community. It focuses on the use of talking books in Ndj bbana, a language with only 200 speakers; the books were displayed on touch-screens at various locations in the community. Investigations into the roles of the computer to support language learning and cultural understanding are also reported. The computer was found to be a useful tool in promoting Kunib dji collaboration and cultural transformation.
Description:
In a remote Aboriginal Australian (Kunibidji) community, three touch-screen computers containing 96 Ndjebbana-language talking books were made available to children in informal settings. The computers' popularity is explained by the touch screens' form and the talking books' intertextual and hybrid nature. The Kunibidji are transforming their culture by including new digital technologies that represent their social practice.
Description:
In a remote Aboriginal Australian (Kunibidji) community, three touch-screen computers containing 96 Ndjebbana-language talking books were made available to children in informal settings. The computers' popularity is explained by the touch screens' form and the talking books' intertextual and hybrid nature. The Kunibidji are transforming their culture by including new digital technologies that represent their social practice.