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Cited by 151Ethics and Social Impacts of AIIndigenous Health, Education, and RightsNatural Language Processing Techniques

Decolonising Speech and Language Technology

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Bird, Steven·2020·Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Computational Linguistics
DOI 10.18653/v1/2020.coling-main.313
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Abstract

After generations of exploitation, Indigenous people often respond negatively to the idea that their languages are data ready for the taking.By treating Indigenous knowledge as a commodity, speech and language technologists risk disenfranchising local knowledge authorities, reenacting the causes of language endangerment.Scholars in related fields have responded to calls for decolonisation, and we in the speech and language technology community need to follow suit, and explore what this means for our practices that involve Indigenous languages and the communities who own them.This paper reviews colonising discourses in speech and language technology, and suggests new ways of working with Indigenous communities, and seeks to open a discussion of a postcolonial approach to computational methods for supporting language vitality.

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  • Indigenous Peoples decolonizing the digital landscape are breaking habits of algorithmic, linguistic and technological colonization.

    “Indigenous Peoples decolonizing the digital landscape are breaking habits of algorithmic, linguistic and technological colonization (Bird, 2020).”

    From Decolonizing the digital landscape: the role of technology in Indigenous language revitalization (2021) · cites this paper as Bird, 2020

    Section 3, “Decolonising Language Work” (page not provided), identifies a habit of algorithmic and technological colonisation and advocates Indigenous self-determination. But Bird describes that habit as belonging to the speech and language technology community and calls on its practitioners to change; the paper does not establish that Indigenous Peoples are already breaking algorithmic, linguistic, and technological colonial habits across the digital landscape. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Indigenous communities can choose to engage outside experts in ILR projects based on their terms and needs.

    “This self-determination also means Indigenous communities can choose to engage “outside experts” in ILR projects based on their terms and needs (Bird, 2020, p. 3507).”

    From Decolonizing the digital landscape: the role of technology in Indigenous language revitalization (2021) · cites this paper as Bird, 2020

  • Bird (2020) remarks that this is a colonising frame which assumes that major western languages are standard-bearers, and that Indigenous languages need the standard technologies.

    “Bird (2020) remarks that this is a “colonising frame” which assumes “that major western languages are standard-bearers, and that Indigenous languages need the standard technologies” (pp. 3507–3508).”

    From Decolonizing the digital landscape: the role of technology in Indigenous language revitalization (2021) · cites this paper as Bird, 2020

  • A dictionary app may represent an access point for one participant, and a marker of recognition in the digital realm to another, and this latter is no less valuable, given that prestige is a factor in language shift.

    “Bird underscores, “a dictionary app may represent an access point for one participant, and a marker of recognition in the digital realm to another. And this latter is no less valuable, given that prestige is a factor in language shift” (p. 3509).”

    From Decolonizing the digital landscape: the role of technology in Indigenous language revitalization (2021) · cites this paper as Bird, 2020

  • Language death or loss is a byproduct of oppression and colonization.

    “his case study does not acknowledge that language death or loss is a byproduct of oppression and colonization (Bird, 2020).”

    From Decolonizing the digital landscape: the role of technology in Indigenous language revitalization (2021) · cites this paper as Bird, 2020

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Authors
Bird, S.
Affiliations
Charles Darwin University (AU)
Corresponding author
Bird, Steven
ORCID
Bird, Steven
Venue
Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Computational Linguistics
Publisher
International Committee on Computational Linguistics
Published
2020
Pages
3504-3519
ISSN
1525-2477 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.18653/v1/2020.coling-main.313
OpenAlex
W3112849432
Cited by
151
References
121
Citations by year
2026: 27 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 1
FWCI
23.08
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
International Conference on Computational Linguistics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Australian Research Council
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
  • Social Sciences › Health › Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Natural Language Processing Techniques
Keywords
decolonization, indigenous languages, postcolonial perspectives, endangered languages, language vitality, community participation

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