|
| Eric in action, teaching adult class at Pechanga. |
I began work on Luiseño fourteen years ago, with
native speaker, Villiana Hyde. We closely collaborated until
her death in 1994. Our work culminated in: a) the publication
of Yumáyk Yumáyk (1994 UC Press),
a fourteen hundred page series of bilingual texts in Luiseño
and English; b) the publication of an eighteen hundred page
bilingual dictionary of Luiseño (Luiseño/English
and English/Luiseño components) with complete declension
of all nominals (nouns and adjectives), and complete conjugation
of all verbs (Elliott, UCSD Doctoral Dissertation 1999);
c) the complete revision of Hyde’s Introduction
to the Luiseño Language (Malki Museum Press,
1971), to be republished by Malki (manuscript accepted for
publication in 2002); d) the compilation of an additional
seventy lessons on advanced Luiseño (manuscript in
preparation, approximately four hundred pages in length)
to enable the interested student to tackle the complex language
of Yumáyk Yumáyk. In 2001, I began
teaching Elementary Luiseño at Pauma Reservation
for Palomar Community College. I am still employed by Palomar
Community College and the Elementary Luiseño Courses
have now become part of the regular curriculum offered by
the Department of American Indian Studies. For the academic
year 2001-2002 I also worked at: a) Rincón Reservation’s
Headstart Program, teaching 3-5 year olds Luiseño
through immersion; b) the All Tribes American Indian Charter
School of Rincón, where I taught the Luiseño
language to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders; c) Rincón
Indian Education After School Program, where I instructed
second through sixth graders in the Luiseño language.
In July of 2002 I began working for the Takic Language Program,
a joint venture of the University of California, Riverside,
and Pechanga Indian Reservation. My work involves teaching
Luiseño to adults, immersion teaching of Luiseño
to 3-5 year olds at Pechanga Preschool, after school immersion
programs for school aged children, and translation and transcription
of Luiseño language data recorded in the 1920’s
and 1930’s on wax cylinders and other media.
I began work on Serrano twelve years ago, with native
speaker Dorothy Ramón. We collaborated until Mrs.
Ramón lost the power of speech in 2002. I still
visit Mrs. Ramón regularly. Our work on Serrano
culminated in the publication of Wayta’ Yawa’ (Malki
Museum Press, 2000), a nine hundred page bilingual series
of texts in Serrano and English. Also in preparation are:
a bilingual (Serrano/English, English/Serrano) dictionary
with 2514 declined nominal entries, and 2914 conjugated
verbal entries, a working manuscript of a textbook of Basic
Serrano, Na’cec Maarrênga’cu’,
containing eighty-four lessons, approximately four hundred
pages in length. This manuscript is already being used
to teach the language to adults.
I understand how people learn a language, at all developmental
levels. I know how to keep language learning light-hearted.
|
I began work on Cahuilla twelve years ago, with native
speaker Katherine Siva Sauvel. Our work has thus far produced ‘ísill
Héqwas Wáxish ‘A Dried Coyote’s
Tail’, a thirteen hundred page collection of
bilingual texts, accepted for publication by Malki Museum
Press. We also have a dictionary of Mountain Cahuilla in
manuscript, with complete conjugation and declension of
all entries, containing 4679 verbal entries, and 3194 nominal
entries. Our collaboration continues: at present we are
reviewing Harrington’s notes on Cahuilla.
My work on Cupeño began in 2000, when Leroy Miranda
of Pala, grandson of Rosinda Nolasquez, asked me to conduct
a class on Basic Cupeño. This class has since become
a part of Palomar College’s Program in American Indian
Studies. Malki Museum Press has enlisted my help in the
revision of Rosinda Nolasquez’s classic Mulu’wetam,
a bilingual series of texts in Cupeño and English
originally published by Malki Museum Press in 1973. This
text is to be republished with a more consistent, user-friendly
orthography to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
expulsion of the Cupeño from their ancestral homeland
at Cupa (Warner Springs).
I am a fully credentialed elementary and secondary bilingual
(Spanish/English) school teacher in the State of California
with seventeen years experience in the bilingual classroom,
from preschool to graduate level at the University of California.
I understand how people learn a language, at all developmental
levels. I know how to keep language learning light-hearted.
I am proficient enough in spoken Luiseño, Cahuilla,
and Serrano to create a Luiseño, Cahuilla, or Serrano
language immersion environment for youngsters in which
children will simply acquire the language through play
and daily activities. I am also fully qualified to work
in the classroom environment for adult second language
learners. Working together with the Cupeño community,
I can help create a Cupeño language immersion preschool
environment.
I hold a Mittlere Reife and an Abitur from the Senator
für Schulwesen, Jugend, und Sport der Stadt Berlin
West, a B.A. in German from the University of California,
Irvine, as well as an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from
the University of California, San Diego.
