Naples, May 24-31, 1998
Present at the meeting:
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NEL working group: Joseph Norment Bell (U.Bergen), Arvi Hurskainen (Helsinki),
Maddalena Toscano (IUO).
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Other partners: Sergio Baldi, Giorgio Banti, Elena Bertoncini (IUO), Corrao
Calvetti (IUO), Ines Fiedler (Berlin), Baudouin Janssens (ULB), Jean de
Dieu Karangwa (INALCO), Maarten Mous (RUL), M. Tosco (IUO), Ekkehard Wolff
(Leipzig).
The meeting was in cooperation with CAMEEL.
Report
Jean de Dieu Karangwa presented the report
prepared at CRIM-INALCO (by Jean de Dieu Karangwa and Jacques Souillot)
for the CAMEEL project. An overall assessment of the feasibility of the
creation of a European Masters was offered, and the strong and weak points
of the designed structure were highlighted.
The conclusions of the report were accepted. A few bits of information
were still expected from some of the participants. A final deadline was
agreed upon (September 15). The report will be made available to all and
will be accessible on the NEL pages of ACO*HUM.
Study guide and leaflet
The Study Guide prepared by Arvi Hurskainen was modified.
It was agreed that a letter be designed to all participating universities
in order to seek their cooperation in establishing a European Master's
Programme for CAMEEL.
The information leaflet on CAMEEL as designed by M. Toscano was reviewed
and some changes were suggested. It was resolved that the leaflet should
be ready as soon as possible.
It was agreed that the original character of CAMEEL as a pilot project
with exclusive emphasis on African languages should be maintained until
the testing and evaluation phase was completed. However, interested parties
should be given observer status and have access to the CAMEEL website hosted
by CILA.
Masters courses, ECTS and teaching material
The discussion was mainly on the overall structure of the course with an
emphasis on streamlining the final year. The following picture has emerged:
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first degree or 90 ECTS (i.e. half of three years relevant study) devoted
to core subjects including minimally those of level 1
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compensation for deficiencies, i.e. level 1, by attending courses at participating
universities.
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90 ECTS (1 1/2 years) of CAMEEL course proper
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Doctorate (future aim)
For the moment, CAMEEL is committed to the bold frame.
Level 1
Before entering the course the student must meet certain requirements which
are specified in the study guide and the student should have at least some
knowledge of African linguistics and of computer science. This basic knowledge
is described under level 1. The description of this basic knowledge is
in the form of modules divided over:
1a. Computer science knowledge, and
1b. African linguistic knowledge.
Each module is approximately 2.5 European credit points in the ECTS
system or 70 hours working load. In essence, it is only the equivalence
of these modules that counts. And it is up to each home university and
the CAMEEL board to decide whether a student masters the equivalence of
these modules. Thus it is up to each of us to check in their home universities
which courses are offered that could be marked as constituting together
the equivalence of level 1.
The presentation is in modules because CAMEEL is committed to provide
study material for the modules in 1b, i.e.:
5. Introduction to African linguistics,
6. Phonetics, phonology, tonology and orthography of African languages,
7. Morphology and syntax of African languages, and either
8. Lexicography and lexical semantics, or
9. Historical and comparative linguistics, or
10. Dialectology and socio-linguistics.
This study material will be available by October 1, 1998. The form will
either be a detailed outline of approximately 20 pages with suggested reading
material (adopted to local needs) or a textbook form of roughly 100 pages.
The following individuals are responsible for timely completion of this
material.
Other commitments in this respect:
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Joseph Bell will see to supplying Ekkehard Wolff with a contribution on
the sociolinguistic situation of Arabic.
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Ekkehard Wolff will seek the co-operation of Ayo Bamgbose for the general
sociolinguistic part of this course.
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Maarten Mous will send Ekkehard Wolff teaching material for dialectology
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Ekkehard Wolff will send Claire Grégoire a contribution on tonology
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Afrophone will be used as part of the phonetic chapter in course 6.
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Maddalena Toscano will help Baudouin Janssens preparing course 5.
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Module 4 in 1a will contain the list of programs in Jean de Dieu's report.
Afrophone is a programme for computer aided articulatory phonetics
training. It was developed by Thilo Schadeberg and Alex de Voogt at Leiden
University on the basis of Ladefoged and Maddieson's archives for the Sounds
of the World's Languages. It was translated into English by Alex de Voogt
within the 1997/98 CAMEEL project.
The meeting had a look at this concrete result.
The CAMEEL course proper consists of 90 ECTS or roughly one-and-a-half
years divided into several modules which are divided into two levels, level
2 and level 3.
Level 2
Level 2 consists of 4 modules. The idea is that two of these will be offered
in an intensive course, namely:
Course 12 would ideally be taught by a specialist outside our own circle.
Arvi Hurskainen would be the ideal teacher of course 13.
Intensive courses need 2 weeks previous preparation on the part of the
students plus 2 weeks course and maximally 2 courses in a row could be
offered. The intensive courses need organisation by the hosting university,
scholarships for students and a specialised teacher including the money
to pay her or him.
The other modules of level 2 consist of:
11. Programming language 1, and
14a. Use of tools for phonetic analysis, or
14b An equivalent course more appropriate for students of Non-European
languages other than African languages, for example specific needs for
students of Arabic.
These other modules will either be offered by the home university or the
student will have to do such courses elsewhere.
Level 3
Level 3, i.e. the full year of CAMEEL studies, consists of three compulsory
modules, 15, 16, 17, which are ideally offered by the home university,
a three additional optional courses of 6 ECTS or 140 hours each, for which
most students will have to travel, and a compulsory final project. The
overview is as follows:
course 15, 16, 17 at home university
| LINE A: language learning / multimedia
Modules: 18(20), 19, X
Host univ.: INALCO |
LINE B: lexicography, search engines, semantic
networks, parsing
Modules: 22, 23, 21 or X
Host univ.: Helsinki |
other lines C and D to be developed |
Final paper or project
Through the options, the student may choose for a line of interest such
as
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language teaching material development (multimedia, computer aided language
learning, and open and distant learning)
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lexicography, search engines, semantic content networks, parsing
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speech engineering
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multimedia
Those interested in line A do modules:
These could be offered by CRIM-INALCO in Paris. Plus:
one course among the other options (modules 21-25).
Those interested in line B do the following modules, which could be offered
in Helsinki:
and another option, for example, in the case of lexicography,
21. Building lexical databases.
Lines C and D cannot be offered yet. In order to be able to develop these
lines and new modules in general in accordance with the fast-changing needs
of the profession, one of the modules is kept open. For the speech engineering
line, we could try to interest Hombert (Lyon) and Demolin (Brussels), and
Roux (South Africa).
Additional points:
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The number of students to be admitted to the course will be limited to
twenty and only 2 courses could be organised in a row. More cannot be handled
in an intensive course and we should be able to guarantee participation
to all the students.
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For these and other matters a decision taking board is needed.
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Teaching material is ideally available on internet.
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Module 12 should include an understanding of the difficulties in using
computers for languages and linguistics (the limits of artificial intelligence
and the failures of automatic translation).
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Everybody in the core group should investigate which of the modules are
being offered by their university and send descriptions of these courses
to Arvi Hurskainen.
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Bearth requested permission of access to the 'secret' CAMEEL files for
his computer companion Hannes Henzel. This permission was granted.
NEL activities and relations with CAMEEL
Agreement was reached between the CAMEEL Steering Committee and the representative
of ACO*HUM J. Bell (Koenraad De Smedt was consulted by telephone) on the
following points:
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Most members of CAMEEL have become partners in ACO*HUM/NEL
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Although NEL and CAMEEL are two separate entities, communication between
both has to be encouraged
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J. Bell is welcome to attend CAMEEL meetings as an observateur and a representative
of NEL
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The working group of NEL consists of: J. Souillot, A. Hurskainen, J. Bell
and M. Toscano (coordinator).
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Three parners: A. Hurskainen, J. Souillot and M. Mous (representing M.
Toscano) will attend the Bergen Conference. Their participation will be
funded by NEL.
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J. Bell will attend the next CAMEEL meeting (planned for October in Brussels).
His participation will be funded by the Bergen University.
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NEL will host a meeting in 1999.
The WEB site
The NEL web pages are hosted and organised by ACO*HUM and will cross-link
to CAMEEL. The main NEL page is http://www.hit.uib.no/AcoHum/nel/.
CAMEEL web pages, presently hosted by CILA, are divided into two sets:
Next meeting
The next joint NEL and CAMEEL meeting will be in Brussels, October 23-24,
1998.
Participants: CAMEEL Steering Committee and J. Bell
Provisional agenda:
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Report on 97/98 activities
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Renewal of the application and planning for 98/99
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Implementation of CAMEEL's European masters (see WORK PLAN)
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Information from the Bergen Conference
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Information from the EU Commission, after contact with them
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Finalization of the "CAMEEL Dossier" (see Work Plan)
WORKPLAN June - Dec. 1998
Phase 1 - Preparation of the "CAMEEL Dossier" - by beginning Oct. 1998
Phase 2 - Getting institution involvement - by the end of academic year
98/99
Phase 3 - Preparation of the teaching material Level 1 - early Oct.
98
Phase 4 - Official documents (forms, papers, certification, boards,
etc.)
Scheduled meetings:
23-24 Oct. 1998: Meeting with J. Bell: Finalization of European Masters
Early 1999: Meeting for NEL activities
May 1999: Meeting for Level 2
Paris, October 15, 1998
Jean de Dieu KARANGWA and Jacques Souillot, CRIM-INALCO,
edited by Koenraad de Smedt
