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<Paper uid="I05-4005">
  <Title>An Integrated Framework for Archiving, Processing and Developing Learning Materials for an Endangered Aboriginal Language in Taiwan</Title>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="32" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1 Introduction
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> The impact of globalization and urbanization has caused many aboriginal languages on our planet to go extinct. This language death process not only reduces the number of native languages but also wipes out the cultural heritage connected with those languages (Xu 2001). Therefore, preservation and archiving of these endangered native languages is vital and critical.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> Many projects around the world are seeking to preserve these endangered native languages (e.g., Lublinskaya 2002; Psutka 2002).</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> The attempt to preserve an endangered language includes several steps: documenting and recording the oral and written literature, compiling the grammar and a dictionary of the language, and annotating the documentation related to this language. It is also important to find an effective approach to teach the endangered language to the ethnic group using the language, particularly to members of the younger generation, who often live in urban areas without any connection to their place of origin.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> According to a study by Whaley (2003), the factors required to help an endangered language  survive include: 1. a well developed preservation and maintenance program for the language; 2. use of information technology in the preserving project; 3. a new world order, especially economic and political shifts; 4. an environment for learning and explor null ing the language.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> Based on the above discussion, it is important that an endangered language preservation and documentation project should be comprehensive and carefully planned. This project needs to take advantage of state-of-the-art technologies and establish an environment for learning. null In order to successfully document and preserve a Batanic language, Yami, we propose an approach of archiving and development of an environment that fosters learning of the language. The Yami language, used by the Yami tribe on Orchid Island, is an oral language in which most of the content is closely connected to the traditional life style and cultural heritage. However, many Yami people have moved to cities in Taiwan and have lost their connection to the Yami society on Orchid Island. The death  of the older generation has hastened the decline of the Yami language. According to Rau's (1995) sociolinguistic survey on Orchid Island, Iraralay is the only community of the six villages on the island where children still use some Yami for daily interaction. Although Yami has been offered as an elective in elementary school since 1998, Yami is gradually being replaced by Mandarin Chinese. Among the junior high school students on the island, 60% either believed Yami would die eventually or were uncertain about the fate of the language.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> The approach proposes a comprehensive series of steps to collect and record the Yami language. In addition, the work includes development of a learning method that will be effective with Yami youngsters who live in urban areas. Although the complete work of documentation will take many years, the Yami language is in danger of being lost due to rapid urbanization. Therefore, we have developed a strategy to make language items available in learning materials as soon as they have been collected, taking advantage of information technology and computer networking. Using these technologies we have developed an integrated platform for documenting, processing and learning that will help both Yami youngsters and other students taking Yami as a second language. The integrated platform is built on a main web server with several supporting servers. The main server is designed as the server for resource management and the supporting servers are designed for different purposes. The purpose of this design is to effectively edit the oral recording of the Yami language and to make the language learning materials. The proposed platform includes three subsystems:  1. a subsystem to manage and edit the digital archiving of the Yami language, 2. a subsystem to handle the workflow of collecting oral recordings of the Yami language, 3. a subsystem to create and manage the  Yami language learning materials.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> Each subsystem is installed on one or two servers. All these subsystems will be described in detail in Section 3.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> Although most ideas in the proposed integrated framework has been used for other language documentation and learning, the proposed framework is an initiative for archiving and teaching an endangered language. The attempt of our study is not only to use technologies to preserve an endangered language but also to develop a well-accepted platform for this language. Hence, people can learn and appreciate this language and its cultural heritage.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="8"> The proposed framework is used in an ongoing grant-supported project for archiving and documenting the Yami language (ELDP, MDP0114). The collection of Yami language materials began in 1994. Currently, we are implementing the computer systems and database in this integrated framework. In the later section, we will report on our current progress.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="9"> The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 is a description of the process of collecting the material for archiving. Section 3 shows the proposed integrated framework and a brief description of related methodologies.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="10"> Section 4 illustrates the current development of the system, followed by conclusion and future directions in Section 5.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="11"> 2 Materials to be Documented In addition to digitally archiving the 20 narratives, reference grammar, trilingual dictionary with 2000 entries (Rau &amp; Dong, 2005), and multimedia pedagogical materials (Rau et al. 2005), we also collaborated with local consultants to document daily conversations, business transactions, festivals, and ceremonies.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="12"> The topics were selected based on consultation of previous research on Yami ethnography, and are designed to meet the standards stipulated by the R.O.C. Ministry of Education for developing Austronesian teaching materials in Taiwan. The topics are closely related to those selected for inclusion in four volumes of Yami multimedia teaching materials the second author is currently developing.</Paragraph>
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