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Diné College East - Shiprock Campus
Language:
Diné
(Navajo)
Program
Base: Center for Diné Studies
Goals:
- To
preserve and perpetuate Diné language, culture, history,
and philosophy.
-
To prepare students to enter teacher certification programs.
-
To become Diné language teachers.
-
To become well-prepared bilingual teachers.
-
To become bilingual to work in interpretation, anthropology, linguistics,
and related fields.
Brief
Description:
One of the unique goals of Diné College, formerly Navajo
Community College, is to promote and perpetuate Navajoness through
the Center for Diné Studies (CDS). The purpose of CDS is
to provide students with an opportunity to acquire the fundamentals
of language, basic principles, and information in the major areas
of Diné knowledge: culture, history, and philosophy.
The
purpose of the Associate of Art (AA) degree in Navajo Language is
to prepare students to enter teacher certification programs and
become (a)Navajo language teachers or (b)well-prepared bilingual
teachers. Students can also proceed to work in interpretation, anthropology,
linguistics, and other related fields. Diné College also
offers AA degrees in (1) Navajo Culture, (2) Navajo History and
Indian Studies, and (3) Navajo Bilingual-Bicultural Education. This
year the education department was put under the direction of CDS;
thus, CDS offers an AA in Elementary Education. In addition, CDS
has two certificate programs: Bicultural Specialist and Instructional
Assistant.
The
Navajo Language Program (NLP) branches out to offer language courses
in outlying communities in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. NLP also
works with public schools to produce curriculum units. The multimedia
lab produced a Diné teaching CD for schools complete with
Diné alphabet, phonics, stories, and teachers' guide.
Materials:
Very limited text. Historical selections written in Diné,
materials developed by students and the instructor, and products
from the Native American Materials Development Center (NAMDC), which
are available now through Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc. in Pine
Hill, New Mexico. (English texts are used as guides in methods courses
on language teaching.)
Support:
Diné College has a budget for the program supplemented
with a grant now and then. The CD was generated with a grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1996 through the CDS
Multimedia lab. Although there is no budget for the multimedia lab,
it continues to work with schools.
Contact
Information:
Bernice
Casaus, Director of Navajo Language Program
Diné College East
P. O. Box 580
Shiprock, NM 87420
website:
http://shiprock.ncc.cc.nm.us/Dept/cds/index.html
email: bcasaus@ncc.cc.nm.us
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