Some Computer Strategies for Achieving Literacy in Australian Languages: The Yintarri Project
Abstract
Yintarri is a West Australian government community school situated at Coonana: 180Km due east of Kalgoorlie. It has about sixty children who enter school speaking Wangkatja, a Western Desert language. There is no formal bi-lingual program; the language of instruction being English. The Yintarri Project is an International Literacy Year (ILY) funded program which uses touch-sensitive boards with microcomputers to assist in the development of literacy in both Wangkatja and English. This is accomplished, at Yintarri, with Concept Keyboards and Acorn BBC microcomputers though the same facilities could be provided with all other major types of computer. The project won a major ILY Literacy Achievement Award for its ‘Outstanding Contribution to Literacy‘.
References
Cummins J., 1990?: Empowering Minority Students: a framework for intervention. A draft for Harvard Educational Review.
Dench P., 1990: Using Computers to Achieve Literacy in Minority Lanuages, in McDougall A., & Dowling C. (Eds.), Computers in Education, Proceedings of the IFIP TC3 Fifth World Conference on Computers in Education, Elsevier Science Publishers, 639– 643.
Dewsbury A., 1989: Leaping Into Literacy-Instant Writing in Early Literacy. Hands On, Proceedings of the 7th Annual Conference, N.S.W. Computer Education Group.
Folds F., 1986: Desirable Characteristics of Computer Courseware in Tribal Aboriginal Schools. The Aboriginal Child at School, 14, 3, 37– 43.
Harris S., 1989: Culture Boundaries, Culture Maintenancein-change, and Two-way Aboriginal Schools. The Aboriginal Child at School, 17, 5, 3– 19.
Hudson J., 1983: Grammatical and semantic aspects of Fitzroy Valley Kriol. Work Papers of SOL-AAB, Series A Vol. 8, Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Johnston A., 1989: Integrated Language Development with the Concept Keyboard. LOGIN, The Journal of the Educational Computing Association of W.A. 3, 2, 26– 29.
McDonald H., 1986: Context and Strategies for Writing with Urban Aboriginal and Islander Students. The Aboriginal Child at School, 14, 2, 3– 15.
McGregor W., 1988: A survey of the language of the Kimberley Region. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2, 90– 102.
Michael I., 1991: (in publication): First Steps with the Concept Keyboard: Users module, The First Steps Project, Ministry of Education, W.A.
