SIL International Partners with 7000 Languages Project
Nashua, NH (PRWEB) July 15, 2015 -- Transparent Language, Inc. and the 7000 Languages Project today announced the formation of the SIL 7000 Partnership in cooperation with SIL International, an eighty-year old nonprofit with deep language expertise and a history of serving language communities worldwide.
Of the 7,100 or so living languages in the world today, only about 100 attract significant commercial interest and support. The goal of the 7000 Languages Project is to create world-class web- and mobile-delivered learning materials for the other 7,000 languages.
The technology for the 7000 Languages Project is donated by Transparent Language, while SIL and other 7000 Languages Partner organizations contribute their linguistic expertise and passion.
SIL’s FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) software enables field workers to organize and study the data collected in their language research. The SIL 7000 Partnership will make it possible to convert that research data from FLEx into user-friendly language learning tools for computers and mobile devices. The primary audience for the new resources will be people who want to gain fluency in their heritage language. An initial pilot project will involve working with Cherokee speakers to create resources that will support the community’s language revitalization efforts. “What we are hoping to do through this program is release language-learning materials for hundreds of languages,” commented Dr. Gary Simons, Chief Research Officer for SIL International.
About SIL
SIL International is a faith-based NGO that supports ethnolinguistic communities in realizing their goals for language use and development. Since its founding in 1934, SIL has been involved in language development partnerships with more than 2,000 language communities in more than 100 countries.
About Transparent Language, Inc.
At Transparent Language, we leverage our expertise in technology and in the research and practice of language learning and teaching to build unique capabilities for use by US Government agencies and organizations, as well as hundreds of public libraries, thousands of schools, and millions of individuals. We care about all languages, regardless of commercial value. We believe that language technology needs to work for all courses and curricula, not just a few courses. It needs to benefit not only individuals, but entire programs. We believe that great language technology not only changes the user experience; it transforms the economics, logistics, and reliability of language learning.
About the 7000 Languages Project
The 7000 Languages Project is a charitable initiative of Transparent Language that makes world-class language-learning and teaching technology available at no charge to the experts and advocates of languages of limited commercial interest. Transparent Language donates its unique technology and trains the technologists of 7000 Partnerships, such as the NCOLCTL 7000 Partnership, the BasaBali 7000 Partnership, the Doyon Foundation 7000 Partnership, the Langscape 7000 Partnership, the Grassroots Indigenous 7000 Partnership, and the SIL 7000 Partnership. Those 7000 Partnerships in turn select and support the 7000 Language Teams creating materials in each particular language. To inquire about support for your language team or for more information, visit http://www.transparent.com/about/7000-languages-project.html.
Chuck McGonagle, Transparent Language, Inc., http://www.transparent.com, +1 (603) 262-6335, [email protected]
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