Language Nests

Abstract

Language nests are one of the most crucial methods of language revitalization. The conservation and reclamation of endangered and/or oppressed languages is a critical scientific and ethical endeavor. Intergenerational transmission is the most significant factor in determining the endangerment (or conversely, the vitality) of a language, and language nests are the method of revitalization that most directly addresses the challenge of creating a new generation of first language speakers, or language users in the case of sign languages. Language nests bring together the methods and theories of both language revitalization and child language acquisition. In 1998 the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, stating that people have a right to use their language both in public and in private and to preserve their culture and language. The first recorded early childhood language immersion programs of non-endangered languages were French immersion classes for young children in Quebec, Canada, in the 1960s. Sāmoan language nests in New Zealand were later developed for Sāmoan heritage speaking children in New Zealand. This method was then adopted by Māori speakers to revitalize the Māori language. Unlike Sāmoan heritage speakers in New Zealand, the Māori were not diaspora in the traditional sense of having left their homeland. However, as a result of language encroachment, many Indigenous people have become linguistic diaspora within their own homeland, in the sense that their language has become displaced from many of its prior domains of use. Indigenous people who do not speak their ancestral language and whose languages are severely endangered have explained that a challenge they face is that there are no locations learners of an endangered language can travel to where they can be completely immersed in the target language in a place where everyone speaks it fluently, where it is used in every domain. This is unique from other language situations, and unlike learners of more widely spoken languages like Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, or Arabic, who can participate in an immersive study abroad experience after taking classes. The language nest seeks to create a reservoir of an immersive experience, which has historically fed into the development of immersion schools, universities, and even graduate programs. Those who graduate from the immersive education, especially higher education, often deliberately and consciously introduce or re-introduce the language to ever increasing domains. The accelerated rate of language loss in the current and recent century requires these new approaches to language maintenance and language reclamation.