VOA慢速英语 2007 1226b

VOICE ONE:

I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.  This is the last in our series of reports about efforts to keep traditional ways alive.  Today we tell about attempts to preserve Native American cultures and languages.

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VOICE ONE:

 
Representative Heather Wilson at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York
In December two thousand six, the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation¹ Act became an American law.  United States Representative Heather Wilson of New Mexico wrote the bill to help stop American Indian languages from disappearing.  She says languages are an important part of American heritage and, once lost, will never be recovered.

The purpose of the law is to help keep Native American languages alive through language immersion² programs.   In immersion programs, the native language is used most of the time to teach different subjects and to communicate with students.

Federal money will be provided to teach endangered languages to tribal³ members, especially children, who do not speak their native language.  Native American programs called "language nests," survival schools, and restoration programs will compete for the three-year grants.  Tribes can receive money to expand existing programs and to create new programs.

VOICE TWO:

To receive federal money, language nests must provide language teaching and childcare for at least ten children under the age of seven.  They also must offer classes in the native language to parents of the students.

Language survival schools have to provide at least five hundred hours of teaching in a native language to each of at least fifteen students.  Survival schools also must provide teacher training. 

Language restoration programs must provide at least one Native American language program for the community and train teachers of such languages.  The restoration programs also must develop Native American language teaching materials.

VOICE ONE:

Willard Gilbert is the president of the National Indian Education Association, known as NIEA.   NIEA works with all tribes to make sure the educational and cultural needs of Native American students are met. Mister Gilbert says the Esther Martinez Native Languages Preservation Act should help create new speakers of languages that are dying out. 

He says there were one hundred seventy-five Native American languages still spoken in nineteen ninety-six.  However only twenty of these languages will still be spoken by the year two thousand fifty without urgent help to keep them alive.

Representative Wilson says native languages were very important to Esther Martinez.  She says passage of the law helps to honor her and her work.

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VOICE TWO:

 
Esther Martinez
Esther Martinez was a Tewa language teacher and storyteller.  She lived in northern New Mexico at San Juan Pueblo⁴, now known by its Tewa name, Ohkay Owingeh.  Missus Martinez worked for years to preserve the Tewa language spoken in six of the northern New Mexico pueblos⁵.  She was honored in two thousand six by the National Endowment for the Arts for her language work and storytelling.  She died in a car accident on the way home from receiving the award.  She was ninety-four.

The National Endowment for the Arts called Missus Martinez a national treasure.  It said Esther Martinez had been a keeper of the language that was the center of Pueblo expression and identity. 

VOICE ONE: 

Esther Martinez grew up in a community where storytelling was the only way of passing on knowledge.  The Tewa language was spoken, not written.  Missus Martinez began to learn to write Tewa in the nineteen sixties when she was fifty-four.  She took some college classes and began teaching the language to children in the San Juan school.  She wrote a San Juan Tewa language dictionary that was published in nineteen eighty-three. 

In two thousand three, "My Life in San Juan Pueblo, Stories of Esther Martinez" was published.  The book contains stories about her life and traditional Tewa teaching stories.  Tessie Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo was a friend of Esther Martinez for many years.  In a foreword to the book Miz Naranjo explains that their people come from a tradition that values the music of language.  In Tewa, she says, the words sing as they are spoken; they create images.  She says the stories in the book honor this love of language.

VOICE TWO:

In "My Life in San Juan Pueblo," Missus Martinez explains about life when she was a child.  She tells about taking care of sheep, grinding corn, and helping⁶ an old man who took care of animals.  She tells about traveling by horse and wagon⁷. And she tells how she got her name, Blue Water, the English version of her Tewa name. 

VOICE ONE:

Missus Martinez learned most of the traditional teaching stories from her grandfather.  In her book she writes: “You who have grandparents to talk to are so lucky, because I treasure my grandparents and the things that I have learned from them.  My grandfather was a storyteller.  Indian people get their lessons from stories they were told as children.  So a lot of our stories are learning experiences.‿

Tessie Naranjo says storytelling connects Pueblo people to their past.  Stories told by older people in the community taught about community values, correct behavior and relationships with other people.  

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen eighty-eight, Esther Martinez began telling the traditional Tewa stories in English.  These stories often involve animals and imaginary creatures. Sue-Ellen Jacobs was a professor at the University of Washington.  She worked with Esther Martinez for many years recording⁸ her stories and developing CDs for the Tewa Language Project.  She says stories serve both a religious and everyday purpose in the pueblo.   

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VOICE ONE:

The Northern Pueblos Institute is part of Northern New Mexico College in Espanola.  Tribal leaders began the Institute about fifteen years ago.  They wanted to create a center at the college level for Pueblo people to do research and take classes.  Tessie Naranjo and Sue-Ellen Jacobs have been directors of the Institute for about three years.  One of the programs the Institute offers is for language teachers in the northern New Mexico pueblos.  They teach children of all ages in area schools and adults at night.  The teachers knew the language but had problems with classroom management.

So the Northern Pueblos Institute decided⁹ to try to help them.  Now, the teachers meet at Northern New Mexico College to share ideas and learn from each other about ways to be effective teachers. 

VOICE TWO:

Through the Northern Pueblos Institute, Miz Naranjo and Miz Jacobs have developed a new program called Pueblo Indian Studies.  It is a two-year college degree program designed to protect the culture of Pueblo Indian people. 

It offers classes such as Agricultural Practices Among Pueblo Indians, Native American Literature and Plants and Animals of the Tewa World.   Tessie Naranjo says some of the young parents in the program want their children to learn the old stories from their communities.  So in an independent study class they will be able to work with Sue-Ellen Jacobs to create CDs of traditional stories told at least in part in Tewa. 

Miz Jacobs says the Pueblo Indian Studies program is trying to support members of the Pueblo communities to help their cultures and languages survive.  However, she says, the program is also seeking students who are not from the Pueblos so they can understand the traditions and culture of the Pueblo people.

VOICE ONE:

Sue-Ellen Jacobs says the community school at Ohkay Ohwingeh is continuing Esther Martinez’s efforts to keep the Tewa language alive.  She says that although the school does not have an immersion program, almost everyone who teaches or works there speaks Tewa.  That means the children hear the language used all day.

Tessie Naranjo says it is important to create new language speakers at the college level, the community level and the individual level.  Everyone must get involved, she says, because without new speakers of native languages, the cultures will disappear. 

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter.  I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Barbara Klein. You can find the other parts of this series at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

 

1 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

2 immersion   

n.沉浸；专心

参考例句：

• The dirt on the bottom of the bath didn't encourage total immersion.浴缸底有污垢，不宜全身浸泡于其中。
• The wood had become swollen from prolonged immersion.因长时间浸泡，木头发胀了。

3 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

4 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit

5 pueblos   

n.印第安人村庄( pueblo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。