Though most students cringe at the thought of a test or quiz, young Tlingit learners actually have been asking for more quizzing.
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is adding to its “Learning Tlingit” app, including quizzes and two interactive games. SHI President Rosita Worl said children were actually requesting more testing in the app.
“This is the magical thing about these interactive games,” Worl said in a release. “Students have fun learning, they retain the information and score highly on the tests — so they want to take the quizzes.”
The app, which is available for iOS and Android, includes numerous vocabulary games and even a podcast. One of the new games, “Ax Hídi” (My House), teaches more than 70 Tlingit words for household items. Participants take a virtual tour through a home and learn how to talk about the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom and more.
A second new game, “Move the Murrelet,” where users take a murrelet (a small seabird) and move it all around a boat to learn positional phrases such as, “above the boat,” “inside the boat” and more. Both of the new games include both the spelling and pronunciation of the Tlingit words and phrases. Both new games also include quizzes.
The app, along with SHI’s language website, is an attempt to bring language education into the 21st century and reach an audience that experiences the world through phones, tablets and computers.
“We know our students are learning our Native languages in new ways, and technology plays a big role in that,” Worl said. “This is our effort to help learners revitalize Tlingit by learning the language through their mobile devices.”
Native Alaskan languages are hanging by a thread in many communities, as decades of forced assimilation by white settlers greatly reduced knowledge of the languages. For example, there are only six fluent speakers of the Tsimshian language left in Alaska. Numerous efforts are being made to bring the languages back and keep them alive, including this app, which came out in August 2016.
Education Project Coordinator Katrina Hotch said the app has been downloaded 1,985 times on iOS and Android, and Sealaska’s other app “Tlingit Language Games” has been downloaded a total of 1,289 times. Hotch said there’s not currently a timeline for adding the Tsimshian or Haida to the app.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
