Shirley’s Traineeship at MLT
December 15, 2024
In late 2024, Shirley joined the MLT’s Community-Led Aboriginal Language Work project. As an active speaker and listener of Western Desert language, she has long woven parts of her language into her daily life.
Through her traineeship, Shirley set out to strengthen her own language skills and share them with her children and other young people in her community. The goal of developing language resources was to create tools that are both relevant and easy to use in everyday life.
This involved focusing on conversation topics like getting ready for school and asking what’s for dinner. Everyday topics like this are a great way to incorporate language into interactions between parents and children, making language learning a shared and family experience and a true expression of the every day life. These familiar conversations not only support the development of language skills for both the adult and the child, but also strengthen the use of Western Desert language in daily life.
By focusing on practical language use, Shirley helped develop resources that younger learners can connect with. This process focused primarily on decoding complex grammar and language learning resources and stripping them down to their bare basics. Accessible resources are key to making language materials more accessible for kids and new learners.
Shirley’s work shows how language can be part of daily routines, even for those who aren’t fluent yet, and how this kind of effort plays a big role in language revitalisation.
If you’re interested in developing language resources for your community, the MLT runs traineeships year-round. Contact us to find out ways you can get involved.