Mizuki Miyashita
Mizuki Miyashita is a professor of linguistics and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Montana. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Arizona. She is engaged in Community-Based Research and established a network among the tribal stakeholders in the state of Montana through her Collaborative Language Planning Project. She has recorded lullabies and other songs, narratives, conversations, and isolated words in Blackfoot. Her current research focuses on the documentation and application of rhythm and melody in Blackfoot.
Tools for learning Blackfoot word melody: Pitch Art, Praat and MeTILDA
1. Rhythm and Melody in Blackfoot (Mizuki Miyashita) It is challenging for English speaking learners to perceive the rhythm and melody of Blackfoot words. To address this, my team has been developing a tool to help learners perceive the unique rhythm and melody of Blackfoot called MeTILDA. This tool allows users to extract the rhythmic and melodic elements from actual words and play them back in isolation (without vowel or consonant sounds). This tool can be utilized by teachers when instructing pronunciation. I will describe the unique rhythm and melody of Blackfoot and how second language learners may make pronunciation errors with respect to rhythm and melody. Then I will explain how MeTILDA works and potential impact on pronunciation teaching. 2. How to use Pitch Art in pronunciation instruction (Naatosi Fish) Pitch Art is a visual teaching tool that represents the word melody of Blackfoot words. By illustrating how pitch rises and falls across syllables, it helps learners sound more native-like. This workshop introduces the use of Pitch Art with learners of Blackfoot to support pronunciation. Participants will receive a brief overview of the online tool used to create Pitch Art, an introduction to the concept of word melody, and strategies for using Pitch Art in the classroom. 3. Praat and MeTILDA workshop (Mizuki and Naatosi) This workshop is offered for participants interested in using MeTILDA to create Pitch Art images for Blackfoot Word Melody. Participants will receive a brief introduction to understanding word melody, followed by have hands-on training in MeTILDA to create pitch art