Cheyenne and Arapaho students learn language, legends and stories at language camp

You can read the original story at Native American Times.

In a world where only about 10% of the Cheyenne and Arapaho population nationwide still speak their languages fluently, events like the language camp that was held Friday, August 3rd at the Concho Community building (no mention of where that building is located) become more important.

The participants learned Cheyenne words for the parts of the tipi. They were also told the story of the tipi and how different rope wrappings on the tipi represented different Cheyenne societies.

The article didn't mention  anything at they camp having to do with the Arapaho.  It does mention the opportunity to learn Cheyenne and Arapaho  at two places in El Reno,  Oklahoma, so if you live in El Reno or nearby you might be interested in contacting them.

I am glad that they are wanting to preserve their languages but they will need to get more people involved and have more regular courses to make it sustainable.  People need to practice language on a regular basis (at least once a week) to learn to communicate effectively.

I am more concerned with their stories, history, art, and traditions.  The languages will probably disappear in a few generations but they don't have to let all traces of their culture go along with it.  They could video record and document everything, and continue with programs such as the language camp.  They could publish books online.

Storysofa.com and other sites could publish their books, poems, and stories online. Perhaps they could contact language teaching software companies and work together to make interactive courses to teach vocabulary?

Teachers use a visual approach to teach English grammar to deaf students

Deaf students learn English visually

see the original story

According to the original story, Erin Stokes and Gorgeen Spyhalski, had difficulty teaching English grammar to deaf students.   They 'designed' a system of using visual clues, magnets, and symbols to help them.

I assume that the teacher would demonstrate the structure and follow normal teaching methods along with this approach, but it doesn't specifically say so, or say which methods are used with this approach.

This landscape language approach to teaching sounds interesting and I think it could be included along with speech and listening for  learners of English who do not have hearing problems.

I get the idea that perhaps these schools and teachers had relied on the audio-lingual method for teaching English.  That method would of course be inadecuate for people with hearing difficulty since it relies on listening, repeating and making small modifications to the structure in drills.   There are however other methods that could be made more 'visual' through use of computer software, posters, etc. Most teachers include visual elements in class by just writing examples on the boad at the front of the classroom or through the use of hand-outs.

I like the idea of having manipulatable visual elements since the students can become more involved than our usual copy from the board, write example on the board, check example on the board method which gets a bit boring.