Using existing documentation for teaching and learning endangered languages

Abstract

Although the ideal in work with endangered languages is to design collaborative projects that integrate documentation and support for revitalization from the outset, the reality is that many language workers must rely on existing products of documentation to create materials. Traditional documentation, including reference grammars, dictionaries, and texts, was often created primarily for academic audiences and may be unsuitable for learning and inaccessible to nonacademics. However, time pressure and limited corpora result in many community members’ reliance on less-than-ideal resources to support revitalization. This article illustrates the ways in which existing products of language documentation can be used in support of revitalization activities. Drawing on the authors’ varied work with speakers, teachers, and learners of languages of the Americas, this article provides example uses for documentation in curriculum, lesson, and materials development. Attention is paid to finding functional samples of language and getting maximal use from a single product by illustrating multiple uses for individual resources.