Partners and Projects
Maskwacis, AB and Alexis, AB
Enbridge Community Linguist Certificate Pilot Program
In 2013, Enbridge, Inc. provided CILLDI with a generous gift which allowed us to offer the full range of Community Linguist Certificate courses in two communities in Central Alberta: Maskwacis (Cree) and Alexis (Stoney). Students in both communities could take courses and earn university credits toward their Certificates. By delivering the courses directly in the community, we were able to tailor the course content to the specific language spoken in the community, allowing for more specialized instruction. Students from both communities graduated with the Community Linguist Certificates in 2015.
CILLDI Instructor Conor Snoek and CLC students in Maskwacis, AB, part of the Enbridge Community Linguist Certificate Pilot Program
Old Massett, BC
CILLDI worked with the Haida community of Old Massett, on the northern shore of Haida Gwaii, to develop language resource materials as part of their community language revitalization efforts. These materials include a user-friendly Haida grammar guide, a workbook for beginning and intermediate students, a classroom activities guide for language teachers, and an updated bilingual dictionary. We also assisted in the delivery of a four-month intensive Adult "language boot camp".
Alexis, AB
CILLDI is working with the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation in producing a Stoney-English bilingual dictionary for learners and fluent speakers in the community. This is the first large-scale dictionary for Stoney.
Otavalo, Ecuador
CILLDI has worked with speakers of Imbabura Kichwa from in and around the highland community of Otavalo, Ecuador, to produce a Kichwa-English bilingual dictionary. The dictionary was published in Summer 2015 by the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito. We also developed a website to host the dictionary as well as other learning resources for Kichwa, and working with Computer Science students at USFQ to develop an app version of the dictionary.
Oroha, Solomon Islands
CILLDI worked with native speakers of Oroha to document their language. Oroha is an endangered language spoken in 4 small villages on the island of Small Malaita, in the central Solomon Islands. In February 2015, The CILLDI team travelled to the Solomons to continue work on an Oroha-English bilingual dictionary, and to record narratives and conversation for a corpus of spoken Oroha.
Old Crow, YT
From December 2013 to February 2014, CILLDI travelled several times to the Gwich'in-speaking community of Old Crow in the Yukon Territory to offer community workshops on immersion language teaching strategies, classroom materials development and community language revitalization.
Wabasca, AB
In Summer of 2013, CILLDI delivered two CLC courses (LING 111 and LING 211) in the Cree-speaking community of Wabasca in northern Alberta.
Tsuut'ina, AB
In 2009, CILLDI delivered all six courses of the Community Linguist Certificate program in Tsuut'ina, AB. A total of 12 students earned their Community Linguist Certificates during that program.