Linguistics associate professor Colleen Fitzgerald presented her approach to student training in service learning with a language revitalization course at the University of Hawaii.

Fitzgerald is a specialist in language revitalization, a field of study that focuses on preserving and teaching languages that are hard to access, but are still in use.

In the presentation, Fitzgerald taught tactics she personally uses to approach language barriers of different cultures. She said she enjoys the knowledge shared during the presentations.

“What I find from when I give presentations is that it inspires other instructors to use it,” she said.

She conducted her research in Oklahoma with the Chickasaw, Comanche and Gagauz communities and languages. She encouraged reflection before, during and after service-learning activity. Linguistics students also had the opportunity to participate in at least two trips to Oklahoma to help preserve the native languages.

Fitzgerald said she sees the best out of students when they are working directly with the communities.

“I see the strengths I didn’t know they had,” she said. “I see the things you wouldn’t see in the traditional class settings. It allows for them to explore different sides of diversity.”

Sean Cooper, linguistics graduate teaching assistant, is one student who taught techniques in Oklahoma. Cooper is an Oklahoma native, but seeing the demand for language revitalization was new to him.

“It’s not something that publicized or shown to community,” he said. “But seeing how what I taught could help is really worthwhile and exciting.”

Cooper said that because he is a German descendant, he can visit Germany at any time to learn about his culture and heritage.

What separates Native Americans in Oklahoma from other cultures is their lack of having a base, he said. Cooper said they can’t return to their homeland in the U.S. to learn about their culture and how they live.

“There is nowhere else for them to go to learn if they lose this,” he said. “They don’t want their children to forget where they came from,”

Linguistics assistant professor Cynthia Kilpatrick said her students have variety of reasons as to why they need to study linguistics.

“They want to gain knowledge about methodologies and make themselves more marketable,” she said. “Others are interested in gaining more in-depth knowledge about language that is relevant for their studies in other fields.”

Kilpatrick said the skill of being familiar with various languages is an advantage students can carry on with them into several careers.

“The study of linguistics can be relevant in psychology, cognitive science, child development, gender studies and many others,” she said.