從族語復振談教育科技的社會實踐力
主講人:王淳民 (教育學院副院長 )
2021年12月15日
Does it matter whether a seemingly obscure language spoken by a few individuals in one isolated corner of the world goes out of existence? Some people argue that language loss, like species loss, is simply the reality of life on an ever-evolving planet. While I personally think we shouldn’t be so short-sighted “When humanity loses a language, we also lose the potential for greater diversity in art, music, literature, and oral traditions.” Cited by the UNESCO. Languages are channels of human heritage. Language itself is oftentimes the only way to convey a community’s songs, stories, and poems. Thereby neglecting a perishing language is to let history be erased.
Professor Wang mentioned in his lecture by implementing these endangered languages in our education and adding technology to the equation the revitalization of this lost art might not be far from reality. For example, there is a multitude of sites devoted to single languages or languages of a specific region that unite speakers and provide multimedia teaching tools for easier learning and arousing interest, which is the most essential aspect is not merely learning a new language but also learning in general. What’s more, I’ve once read an article about North American tribes making use of social media to re-engage their kids to their heritage. Utilizing a digital talking dictionary, that was created to preserve the dying language. Digitalization might just be the true salvation of preserving endangered languages.
To conclude Joint efforts must be put in to help restore a culture. Through the collaboration of the local community and the government with the added assistance of technology. “Optimism” is the best word to describe the future of threatened language restoration.
學生回饋
As I spent most of my childhood years in Canada. Taiwanese was basically an entirely new language to me. Hence I always had a challenging time in Taiwanese class often being teased for my eccentric pronunciation and lack of knowledge of the language. However, as I matured I started to realize the significances of learning native languages and the history it conveys. Speakers of minority languages have suffered a long history of persecution. For instance, back in times of martial law. To compel all populace of accepting Chinese as the official language many native Taiwan children were often forbidden to speak their native language in school, which in this case was Taiwanese. Now after generations, an alarming amount of children are losing connection to Taiwanese, some like me are incapable of uttering even a word let alone communicating with others. And if the situation is this bad for Taiwanese, the largest spoken native language in Taiwan. I can’t imagine the predicament for other less-spoken languages.
在這次王教授的演講中,有個生活哲理讓我有所感思。我覺得這是一個在現今很重要的生活哲理,畢竟我們常在思考如何當個時間管理大師,以最有效率的方式解決所有任務,反而很少思考我們做這件事的本質與用意,更別說未來會面臨的成效與問題。就像我之前都會在要考試前再狂抱佛腳,想說要用甚麼方式最有效率地把所有考試範圍塞進腦子裡。書桌前就會出現一台平板一台電腦一本原文書的奇景,以三管齊下的方式瀏覽龐大的知識量,然後隔天考完試所有記憶就會物歸原主。以心理學探討的記憶領域來說,分散學習絕對比密集學習來的有成效,或許不像後者那麼的有效率,但卻是能讓知識存在長期記憶的不二法門。現在,我努力地讓分散學習在我的生活中實踐,雖然剛起步,但頗有意義。「Do the right thing, Do things right」這一句琅琅上口slogan 其實富有含意,而我正開始有所領略。
在第二節,老師和我們說說有關學生心性的培養,介紹了人生版本的冰山理論給我們。冰山少部分浮出水面的是能看到的外貌、才能等,大部分藏在水面下的是看不到的個性、自我認同等。心性的培養便是自我了解和形成冰山下方的部分,當我們的冰山底部越大越充實,冰山自然就向上浮了!在成長的過程中,我們被比較,也要求自己能比得贏他人,培養看得到的技能是不可避免且需要的。但當大部分的人都關注在我們的冰山頂端時,除了要求自己是強大完美的,我們自己應該更關心他人看不到的部分是不是健康充實的。越了解自己的狀態、個性、理想,才能建造更適合自己的外在條件或能力,也能有更持續且穩固的基底支撐自己前進。〈教育的國際視野〉不同於其他課程,看著課本大綱就能知道今天要學些什麼。每個禮拜三走進國際會議廳,都像來到沒有疫情的平行時空,漫步在機場航廈飛往一個未知卻又期待的地方。王淳民老師在每一堂課將擁有不同故事的講者帶到我們面前,今天也由他來和我們說書他的故事,為學期末做一個豐富又安定的結尾。
這次的主題以及王淳民老師推廣族語復振的故事讓我聯想到我在高中的英文專修班做的專題研究。雖然說英文是當前的主流語言,但在台灣偏向填鴨的英文教育制度下,背誦單字和學習刁鑽的文法語句容易讓學生喪失對學習語言的熱忱,加上社群媒體與手遊的盛行,大多數的學生都將自己的課餘時間花在手機上,不僅縮減許多課外學習的時間,也減少了認識自身文化的機會。因此,我們在專題研究中結合了新興科技、桌遊、台灣文化等元素,製作了一款名為「Taiwan A-Z」的撲克牌。在這副撲克牌中,我們將26個英文字母結合撲克牌花色,利用A到Z介紹台灣在地文化,例如字母A代表阿里山森林小火車(Alishan Forest Railway)和安平古堡(Anping Fort)的卡牌,我們也用英文錄製其圖案的背景知識影片並用QR code的方式呈現在卡牌上,最後製作成一組52張的台灣文化撲克牌並自行設計成桌遊。這項專題研究提供一個讓我深入認識台灣在地文化的契機,透過文化、桌遊與英文的結合,我讓語言的學習變得更靈活有趣,提供一個認識在地文化的國際平台。