ED 069 166 AUTHOR EDRS PRICE ABSTRACT This Issue of the 1971-72 Series of Language in Sioux, Is a Bibliographic Essay Dealing Wi
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 069 166 FL 003 514 AUTHOR Slager, William R.; Ed.; Madsen,' Betty-M., Ed. TITLE . Language in American Indian Education: A Newsletter of the Office of Education Programs, Bureau of Indian Affairs;, United States Department of the Interior. INSTITUTION Bureau of Ind` an Affairs (Dept. of Interior), Albuquerque, N. Mex.; Utah Univ., Salt Lake ity. PUB DATE- 72- 4-'--- NOTE 116p. EDRS PRICE - MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS American Culture; American Indian Culture; *American Indian Languages; Bibliographies4 *Bilingual Education; Cree; *Educational Programs; English. (Second Language); *Language Instruction; language Skills; *Language Tests; Multiple Choice Tests; Papago; Test Construction; Testing IDENTIFIERS Sioux - ABSTRACT This issue of the 1971-72 series of Language in American Indian'Educationn contains articles on bilingual education and the testing of language skills. The first, ',The Language of the Sioux, is a bibliOgraphic essay dealing with the studies that have been made to date of the Sioux language and its dialects. ATitle 7 bilingual education project at Loneman Day School in Oglala, South Dakota,. and a Title 1 bilingual eduCation program in theBethel Agency, Juneau Area, Alaska, are reported. Otherarticles examine means teachers use to evaluate their students, progressin English. They include:(1) "Testing Language Skills,"(2) "Common Errors in Constructing Multiplethoice Itenis, and (3) "The Language of rests for Young Children.'! A section -on Indian languages-containsastory in Papago and a sample of the Cree materials presently being developed by the Title 7 bilingual project_on the Rocky Boy reservation in Montana. An information exchange secticnconcerning Indian education is also included. (RL) LANGUAGE IN AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION U.S. DEPARTMENT Of HEALTH,EDUCATION & WELFARE _ OFFICE OF EDUCATION EXACTLY AS RECEIVED,FROM THE THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED POINTS Of VIEW' OR OPINIONS PERSON ORORGANIZA11011-011161NkTING IT. OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION STATED DO NOT NECESSPLY REPRESENT / POSITION OR POLICY. A ':Tewsletter of theOffice of Education Programs Bureau of Indian/Mils United States Department of the Interior UNIVERSITY OF UTAH William R. Slager, Editor Betty M. Madsen, Assistant Editor SPRING 1972 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Rogers C.B. Morton, Secretary ,BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS Louis R.Bruce, Commissioner OFFICE OF EDUCATION PROGRAMS James E. Hawkins, Director DIVISION OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT Otis J. Morgan's, Acting Chief LANGUAGE ARTS BRANCH Robert Rebert, Chief LANGUAGE IN AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION is a neiqsletter intended for teachers and other educators who are involved with the teach- ing of language in the educational system of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It is prepared for the BIA' by the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, Under the direction of William R. Slager and Betty M. Madsen. Correspondence concerning distribu- tion and editorial content should be directed to Mr. Robert Rebert, Chief, Language Arts Branch, Division of Educational Planning and Development, P. O. Box 1788, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87103. Cover design is by Wayne Pushetonequa, a Mesqua.kie student in the Graphic Arts Department, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico.' ii TABLE OFCONTENTS Page Foreword vii Introduction 1 THE LANGUAGE OF THE-SIOUX, byWilliam K. Powers . INDIAN BILINGUAL PROGRAMS 23 The Title VII Bilingual EducationProject at Loneman Day School in Oglala, SouthDakota 23' The Title I Bilingual EducationProgram in the Bethel AgenCy, Juneau Area, Alaska 29 TEST/NG LANGUAGE SKILLS, by John W.011er, Jr. 39 COMMON ERRORS IN CONSTRUCTING MULTIPLE CHOICEITEMS, by John W. 011er, Jr. 61 THE LANGUAGE OF TESTS FOR YOUNGCHILDREN, by Graeme D. Kennedy 69 INFORMATION EXCHANGE: REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS The First Indian Bilingual ProjectsTitle VII Meeting: A Report, by Harry Berendzen 87 - Yakima Curriculum Units, by Dale Otto 93 94 English Language Testing Project atUSC . Annual Convention of TESOL 95 Announcements in Brief An Annotated Bibliography ofYoung People's Fiction on American Indians(Curriculum Bulletin Number Eleven)e compiled by J. M.Graustein 97 . l and C. L. Jaglinsky / Tests of English as a SecondLanguage 98 A New Navajo Course at theUniversity of Utah . 98 Courses in Indian Languages at BrighamYoung University 99 3 Page Trends in Navajo SchoolEnrollment 99 American Indian Authors 100 American Indian Series: American Airlines . 100 Indian Cultura Series: Montana State Historical Society 101 Periodicals 102 . ENDIAN' LANGUAGES Papago/English Story` \ 106 Cree Syllabic Characters '10 Pages from_the Cree Alphabet Book 111 . r FOREWORD school This"is the final issue.ofthis Newsletter for the present INDIAN/EDUCATION has year. :trem the outset LANGUAGE IN AMERICAN tlic teacherS th been .produced by-the.LanguageArts Branch for enthusi- schools for Indian ,students. The Newsletterxhas met with Indian Affairs asm from thoseteachers it reached in theBureau of. this year. However, we are notsatisfied that its full impact can ssible to assure our- be measured, until we havedone.everythi r irlPg . schools. selves that it is maileddirectly to, the teachers in BIA In the. past, we have ,sentmuliiple/dOpies to the key administra, network. tive offices, in-the Bureauof Indian Affairs Education admin- This,bas not proven to beeffipient. In some cases, school the istratorS have viewed this.pablicationas.too esoteric for classroom teachers andhavp'distributed it only to language spe- attitude since the verypurpose cialists. We diSagree Oh this teach- of the publicationis/tbinform and stimulate the classroom ers regarding thelanguages. of.Indian children. / 4 / AMERICAN t', In the coming year'we will attemptto send LANGUAGE IN We will INDIAN EDUCATION directly tothe individual teachers. need the cooperation of allinterested readers to keep our-sub- in the issues scription lists in order. We askour assistance we are planningfor the .coming school year. Robert Rebert, Chief Branch of Language Arts V v INTRoDucTION' In this last issue ,of the 1971 -72 series of LANGUAGE INAMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION, the longer articles are directlyrelated to two subjects of current concern in. the designiaraq planningof lan- guage programs: bilingual education andtestingof language skills. The first article, by William K. Powers, who is adoctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, ,is abibliographic essay-deal- ing with the studies that have))Oen made to kdate of theSiquxlan- guage aild its dialects. Such surveys of the Iikerature provide useful backgroUnd information for all those who aredeveloping .curricular materials for students who are speakers of. an American Indiali language. Hopefully, general surveys of this kindwill soon appear for other language. families...Mr.Powers!s'article is folr lowed by two reports on bilingUal programs thatare.wellAinderway: The Title -VII program for speakers of Lakota (a Sioux dialect) in South Dakota and the Title Iprogram for speakers of Yukin 'Alaska. The remaining three articles will be ofspecial interest to teach- ers who are looking for moreefficient;means of evaluating their _students' progress in English. In "Testing Language Skills,'" Dr. John W. Oiler, Jr. Pho is currently on the staff of theSbuthwest- ern Cooperative Educational Laboratory inAlbuquerque, on leave from the University of California at Los' Angeles) pointsoutthe crucial distinction between discrete-point testing (for example, testing the contrast between /s/ and /z/) and integrativeskills testing (for example, giving dictation). Oiler emphasizes that . integrative skills tests reveal more accurately the student's ability to cOmmunicate. in English, even though such tests are more difficult to grade and evaluateconsistently. Another art cle by Oiler is on "Common Errors in ConstructingMultiple Choi e Items." Teachers who are obliged to construct their own.tests will profit from a careful study of Oiler's examples.The last article is by Graeme D. Kennedy, who is presently teaching at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. While pursuing a graduate degree at the Universityof' Califdrnia at:Los Angeles, Mr. Kennedy had occasion to examine in detail some of thelan- guage tests in common use for youngerchildren. Ilis.study convi c- vii ingly points up, the fact that .these, tests do not take into account the significant difference:1 between child and adult language: The final section on Indian Languages contains a story in Papago and a sample of the Cree.-materials presently being developed by the Title VII bilingual project on the Rocky Boy ;reservation. in Montana. We would like,. as a regular feature in future issues, 1/4 to.present samples of work being prdauced in. bilingual projects throughout the country. The preparation of classroom materials for American Lidian languages is, as all those involved well know, a particularly demanding and challenging task. Since the languages have not been used to date as media of instruction (and since many-of them do not as yet even have an agreed upon orthography), a, number of basic decisions must be made about content and ap-. proach even before. actual lessons arc written. By publishing sam-, Ales of materials along with the addresses, and names of the people in charge, we hope to encourage a sharing of insights into common problems This is the sixth issue of the Newsletter to be prepared at the'- University 'of Utah.. As we have assembled materials for these issues, we have been impressed