Puyuma mother tongue teacher Ms. Yu-yun Cheng had
been attentive to the promotion of indigenous language.
She said that there are over ten thousand Puyuma people
in Taiwan, and “once the mother tongue disappears,
the Puyuma culture is gone.” The indigenous language
belongs to the Austronesian language system. For a
long time it has never developed its own character
symbols. Mouth-to-mouth transmission is the only way
to pass down their culture. Mother tongue carries
the important features of historical and cultural
development. In order to pass the oral indigenous
language certification, Ms. Cheng, who didn’t know
Roman spelling, flew between Taitung and Taipei on
a one-day round trip just to find a teacher to teach
her the spelling.
“I am getting old. What
do I do this for? I am for the Puyuma language currently
lying on the bed of intensive care.” Even though already
a senior, Ms. Cheng wished to beat the time and held
more mother tongue learning seminars and workshops
as chance permitted. She ever taught local language
for indigenous people at Taipei County Hsinchuang
Guang Hua Elementary School. Although there was only
one Puyuma student, Principal Han-dun Li was still
very supportive.
Indigenous language is on the verge of disappearing.
Active measures should be taken in order to promote
the language and carry out cultural rooting. It is
an important task of great urgency. In view of the
disappearing trend of Puyuma language for its tribal
people living in the cities, Ms. Cheng determined
to start her journey of language promotion. She started
from “education.” In 2002, after receiving her “Certification
of Indigenous Language” credential issued by the Council
of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan, she took the
position of a supporting teacher of Puyuma local language
in many elementary schools in Taipei County (Hsinchuang
Si Hsian Elementary School, Lujhou Ren Ai Elementary
School, Shijr Bai Yun Elementary School, Banchiao
Da Guan Elementary School, Shulin San Duo Elementary)
and started off her career to teach and promote indigenous
language.
In
order to better understand the problems facing current
promotion of indigenous language, we’ve collected
some information listed as follows:
• Written records of mother tongue
Indigenous people do not have written words. Everything
is taught orally by teachers while different accent
exists in different places without unification. Currently
it is taught by Roman spelling which is difficult
for students to remember. Besides, there is no mother
tongue speaking environment in the communities, so
the effect is not good.
• Teacher shortage
There is a lack of mother tongue teachers at the
moment. Even teachers of indigenous people are not
capable of speaking their mother tongue.
• Insufficient learning hours
The time arranged to learn mother tongue is only
one class per week. Students cannot fully absorb the
language. There is little chance for students to practice
among themselves and they can’t practice back home,
so they don’t have much impression in terms of learning
mother tongue.
• Social factors
Students often speak Mandarin in their living environment,
and not many of them can speak indigenous language.
Language is not only the
major tool of communication among people, but also
“the internal culture,” a pattern that people identify
themselves. It is our most precious cultural asset.
Through the manifestation of language, people are
able to keep their culture. Different language represents
different vision and different way of thinking. As
language spreads, the spirit of different culture
is able to reflect its features in a way that the
people of that culture can continue to thrive. Disappearance
of a certain language is the destruction of that people.
Indigenous language is on the verge of disappearing.
Active measures should be taken in order to promote
the language and culture and carry out cultural rooting.
It is an important task of great urgency. Only by
doing this can we pave a solid foundation for the
most localized original culture of Taiwan to last
long. We will work harder. We hope our people to identify
themselves, to recognize own culture, and to speak
the language often and harder. Eventually there shall
be one day when you and I can speak our mother tongue
fluently. |
The
Council of Indigenous Peoples makes much of the promotion
of indigenous language and mother tongue language
policy. They have drafted the “Four-Year Action Plan
on Promotion of Indigenous Language.” Their tasks
rang from cultivating teachers, editing teaching materials,
carrying out promotion in the tribe (family), to establishing
the “Directions Governing the Indigenous Peoples Language
Skill Certification Procedure” which specifies the
methods of awarding language skill certification by
means of “document review,” “recommendation” and “written
and oral test.” The “Implementation Guidelines for
Indigenous Peoples Language Skill Certification Procedure”
is made in order to proceed with the aforementioned
methods and to regulate the rules of question design
for language skill certification.
Editing Materials for Indigenous
Peoples
The Ministry of Education has asked the Center for
Aboriginal Languages Cultures and Education to take
on the three-year teaching material editing plan to
publish a Mandarin edition first, then translate it
to languages of other tribes. Since the market profit
for indigenous language textbook is rather small,
not too many book publishers are willing to publish
those textbooks. Therefore, together the Ministry
of Education and the Council of Indigenous Peoples
offer NT$70~80 million as the funds for this three-year
teaching material editing plan, and entrust National
Cheng Chi University to execute. This textbook set
is scheduled to be published in twelve volumes. CD
and VCD format of the textbook set will also be produced
for students of different age groups to learn.
|
Language is not only the major tool of communication
among people, but also the pattern that people identify
themselves. It is our most precious cultural asset.
Through the manifestation of language, people are
able to keep their culture. Different language represents
different vision and different way of thinking. As
language spreads, the spirit of different culture
is able to reflect its features in a way that the
people of that culture can continue to thrive. Disappearance
of a certain language is the destruction of that people.
Indigenous language is on the verge of disappearing.
Active measures should be taken in order to promote
the language and culture and carry out cultural rooting.
It is an important task of great urgency. Only by
doing this can we pave a solid foundation for the
most localized original culture of Taiwan to last
long. |