World Languages Multimedia Package

Languages Multimedia Package is designed for use by instructors teaching core linguistics to large groups of beginning students. Though the material can be later adapted for other delivery systems, this project is specifically for in class presentations; the initial users will be instructors for Linguistics 100, which currently has an average enrolment of more than a hundred students. The package will allow the instructor quick and easy access to professional-quality multimedia presentations for teaching basic linguistics. For the initial phase of the project, we will develop the following thematic components:

1. Phonetics (moving mouth and cross-linguistic vowel system chart).
2. Distinctive Features in Phonology (sound samples and accompanying visual representations of languages with distinctive tone, length, and stress).
3. First Nations Languages {interactive map of BC native languages, sound and word samples from selected local languages). Other components can be added at later stages.

While some aspects of the project will require professional developers (specifically computer graphics and software interface design), graduate and undergraduate students will do most of the rest of the work, including some important parts of the multi­media development. The project will be assessed by supplemental student evaluations and TA and instructor questionnaires at the end of the test period.

Henry Davis, Linguistics, Faculty of Arts
Strang Burton, Sto:lo Nation