Kayan Tara | Indiana Public Media | October 13, 2022

Associate Professor of Education Serafín Coronel-Molina said the conference will engage in local and global exchange of ideas, research, and experiences on the themes of the event.  (Indiana University School of Education)

The third International Conference on Literacy, Culture, and Language Education will take place at the IU School of Education this weekend. The theme of this year’s conference is “Languages, Cultures and Literacies in the Margins and Contact Zones,” and will highlight indigenous languages and literacy.

Associate Professor of Education Serafín Coronel-Molina said the conference will engage in local and global exchange of ideas, research, and experiences on the themes of the event.

“This conference is an international conference, not just for graduate students, also for researchers, scholars, practitioners, policy makers,” Coronel-Molina said. “It’s a very wide, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary conference.”

One of the invited speakers, The Language Conservancy (TLC), a nonprofit that preserves indigenous languages, will unveil the largest Native American dictionary. The advanced preview will show methods, materials and training TLC has created to preserve indigenous languages on the brink of extinction.

TLC Chairman Wil Meya said modern methods can now build a dictionary for languages in less than a year. The process used to take decades.

“A dictionary allows accuracy in the language. It allows young people to eventually use that for learning and knowing how to pronounce it,” Meya said. “It also forms the building block for doing things like apps and e-learning and many other things that are needed to help young learners with the language.”

The conference will begin Friday and end Sunday. It costs $20 for Indiana University students, $70 for students in general, and $150 for others. Individuals can register online through the IU School of Education.