Indigenous Language Revitalization Research Articles

Corrigendum

Rosborough, T.P., & Rorick, C. L. (2017). Following in the footsteps of the wolf: connecting scholarly minds to ancestors in Indigenous language revitalization. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 13: 11–17. DOI: 10.1177/1177180116689031 . The above article that appeared in the March 2017 issue of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples was missing an in-text citation on page 15. The first sentence of the second paragraph should have read as follows: “Language shapes [our epistemology:] the way we think, perceive, and organize the world in culturally meaningful ways, and [our] First Nations languages provide irreplaceable ways of organizing the social, natural, [and metaphysical] world, based on [our ontology, which is] the ancient, cumulative human experience and associated assumptions of First Peoples” (Ignace, 2015, p. 12). The following reference was also missing from the reference list: Ignace, M. (2015). British Columbia kindergarten - 12 First Nations languages curriculum building guide. First Nations Education Steering Committee. Retrieved from: http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/614108-FNESC-LANGUAGE-BULDING-CURRICULUM-BOOK-290316-B-F-with-Cover.pdf The authors apologise for these errors and any confusion they may have caused.

Breathing Life into New Speakers: Nsyilxcn and Tlingit Sequenced Curriculum, Direct Acquisition, and Assessments

Many Indigenous languages are critically endangered and faced with the urgent need to create parent-aged advanced speakers. This goal requires sequenced curriculum, effective teaching methods, students being supported to spend more than 2,000 hours on task, and regular assessments. In response to this urgent need the author followed a proven direct acquisition method and curricular design developed for Nsyilxcn and Interior Salish languages and wrote two beginner Tlingit textbooks and their accompanying teaching manuals. The author piloted the Tlingit textbooks with a cohort and developed a filmed assessment process. This article shares results of filmed assessments for Nsyilxcn and Tlingit, implemented by beginner and intermediate speakers. Recommendations are made for Indigenous language revitalization, including assessment methods appropriate to critically endangered Indigenous languages and strategies to create advanced speakers.

Language and indigeneity

Work in indigenous language revitalization often justifies itself along using one of two arguments: the intrinsic good of diversity and the importance of language in constructing indigenous identity. This article examines the second argument, first analyzing modern trends in the conception of indigenous identity and its link to language, and then uses two recent studies in indigenous language loss from South America and North America to determine the role of indigenous language in the production of indigenous identity. The result is that indigenous language serves as a linguistic mechanism of othering – the creation of an out-group with language as the criterion of exclusivity, and as a means of transmitting a romanticized image of indigenous people through indexicalizing such into indigenous language use. However, this article points out that the debate is far from over and that further research is need in the field of indigeneity and language.

Following in the footsteps of the wolf: connecting scholarly minds to ancestors in Indigenous language revitalization

The authors’ respective experiences as Indigenous people, scholars, language activists, and Kwak’wala (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw/Kwakiutl language) and ḥiḥiškʷiiʔatḥa (Hesquiaht dialect of the Nuu-chah-nulth/Nootka language) adult language learners and teachers are discussed in relation to the literature on spirituality and the supernatural. Using dialogic and autoethnographical voices, the authors highlight the long-term effects of metaphysical interaction on learning, as well as acknowledging its role in Indigenous research as a foundational and continuous part of Indigenous search for knowledge. Indigenous cultural principles and the narrative research practice of Indigenous scholars guide the authors in drawing on the traditions of teaching through story, centering relationships, and practicing reciprocity in the context of where Indigenous researchers stand in continual relationship to their Indigenous communities.

Developing an Indigenous proficiency scale

With an increased interest in the revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultural practices worldwide, there is also an increased need to develop tools to support Indigenous language learners a...

Quechua Language Programs in the United States: Cultural Hubs for Indigenous Cultures

With nearly eight million speakers around the globe, Quechua is the most widely spoken American Indigenous language, yet the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other entities recognize it as an endangered language due to its vulnerable situation and the rapid decline. Throughout the world, initiatives have sought to promote the Quechua language and Andean culture; and in the United States, in particular, the study of Quechua and of Andean culture has expanded in recent years. This essay discusses the importance of Indigenous language planning and revitalization from within the U.S. academy and how these initiatives can advance a more diverse and inclusive educational system.

Revitalizing Indigenous languages, cultures, and histories in Montana, across the United States and around the globe

AbstractMany educators have sung the praises of Indian Education for All, Montana’s constitutional mandate, and heard the successes of Montana’s Indigenous language revitalization efforts which reverberate around the globe. Teaching Indigenous languages is especially, challenging since there are limited numbers of fluent speakers and scarce resources resulting from harsh education and language policies imposed by the US federal government throughout the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. Tribal members in Montana spearheaded a unique licensure process for Indigenous language instructors to revitalize and maintain their languages. Language revitalization as a culturally responsive pedagogy strategy is enacted through Class 7 certification, as it is known. It took years of work to assure that the authority rests with the tribal nations, where it should be, to decide who should be a language/culture teacher. By embracing culturally responsive pedagogy, a dramatic change to education in Montana to truly pro...

Towards reconciliation through language planning for Indigenous languages in Canadian universities

ABSTRACTThe Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) began in June, 2008 as a response to the Indian Residential School legacy. The commission concluded with a 2015 report which includes 94 calls to action. Some of these calls pertain to higher education including the following example “We call upon post-secondary institutions to create university and college degree and diploma programs in Aboriginal languages” [TRC, 2015. Truth and reconciliation commission of Canada: Calls to action (p. 2). Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf]. These calls to action exist within a broader global context of Indigenous language revitalization policy. What these policies have in common is the declaration of the value of Indigenous languages as well as recommendations for Indigenous language revitalization. This paper responds to these policies through an examination of Indigenous language planning in higher education. We situate this language planning within a broader project of reconciliation between Indigenous and settler peoples in Canada. We consider English dominance in higher education, Indigenous languages in university classrooms and the history of Michif, an Indigenous language spoken by Métis peoples. We describe an initiative which introduces Michif into credit courses in a teacher education programme. This paper’s discussion of the planning of this programme reveals possibilities for greater institutional inclusion of Indigenous languages in higher education.

Indigenous language revitalization, promotion, and education: function of digital technology

ABSTRACTWithin the last two decades, there has been increased interest in how technology supports Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation efforts. This paper considers the effect technology has on Indigenous language learning and teaching, while conceptualizing how language educators, speakers, learners, and technology users holistically understand, skillfully apply and communicate creative and balanced technological solutions that are based on understanding of contextual factors. A total of 80 participants representing at least 47 Indigenous languages completed a survey in 2009 representing individuals, organizations, and institutions that serve one or more Indigenous language communities across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Guatemala, Peru, Greenland, Mexico, Bolivia, French Polynesia (Marquesas Islands and Tuamotu Islands), and Russia. The data reveal the functions digital technology has in Indigenous language revitalization, which include (1) positive and supportive roles (2) concerns, constraints, and tensions, and (3) Indigenous language education. Regardless of the size of the community, opportunities for using technology in Indigenous language revitalization efforts are shaped by linguistic, cultural, social, economic, environmental, and technological factors as expressed in the technacy framework for language revitalization. Findings indicate that technology has wide and mostly positive applications in language learning and teaching, that the benefits of those applications remain consistent across communities regardless of size and geographic location, and that new and innovative uses of technology are being adopted to support language revitalization efforts. Overall, the study underscores the importance of context in making grounded decisions about technology as a component of contemporary language revitalization efforts.

Exploring goals and motivations of Māori heritage language learners

Motivations of Māori heritage language learners are explored within this qualitative study. Te reo Māori (the Māori language) is currently classed as endangered (Reedy et al., 2011), which calls for the exploration of the motivational experiences of Māori heritage language learners. A total of 19 interviews with beginner, intermediate and advanced level learners were conducted. Results demonstrated how Māori heritage learners were motivated to learn due to their cultural heritage connection to the language and to other ingroup members. This study explores some of the motivations why Māori heritage language learners learn te reo Māori. For this group of indigenous language learners, cultural and language revitalisation are tied to language motivation. Furthermore, the ability to participate in cultural practices was central to language motivations.

Objectives at the crossroads: Critical theory and self-determination in indigenous language revitalization

Indigenous language revitalization is a popular focus of critical theorists. From the perspective of sociolinguists, critical theory interrogates language policies to name and shame inequalities and propose solutions to correct injustices and emancipate the disadvantaged. From a broader perspective, language revitalization policy also resides within national and international political agendas for the restoration of indigenous self-determination, including not just language, but also indigenous cultures, governance, and philosophies in the wake of imperialist oppression of native peoples. However, in terms of indigenous language revitalization specifically, are self-determination and the objectives of critical theory one and the same? This article considers this question and suggests that the emancipatory goals of critical theory are not necessarily synonymous with self-determination. Instead, language policies that support self-determination may conversely impede language revitalization processes by creating onerous demands on indigenous individuals who might instead conceptualize their own linguistic emancipation in ways self-determination does not.

Questions for Bernard Spolsky

This essay is based on a June 2014 interview with Bernard Spolsky, in which he discussed his life with educational linguistics. A self-described “accidental professor,” Spolsky directed the first study of Navajo sociolinguistics, established educational linguistics as a field of study and practice, co-created a national language policy for Israel, conducted seminal language surveys of Māori and Samoan in support of Indigenous language revitalization efforts, and founded this journal. In the context of this work he has published 240 scholarly articles and book chapters and 35 books, including 66 “Recent Publications” written post-retirement. His recent work returns to his original interest in Jewish sociolinguistics. This article considers Spolsky’s remarkable legacy and his continuing contributions to the field of language planning and policy.

Bill Gates speaks K'ichee'! The corporatization of linguistic revitalization in Guatemala

Based on the study of the recent development of the K'iche' Facebook platform and Microsoft Windows' K'iche' version, I discuss the conflict between Western and Maya language ideologies embodied in current translation practices in Guatemala. International corporations prefer hiring individual translators and consultants and avoid engaging the indigenous institutions charged with standardization and linguistic revitalization. The lack of community sanction for local corporate proxies leads to contestation of the translators' credentials and provokes community turmoil. It also highlights opposed community views of globalization and OF the best strategies to cope with the challenges and opportunities it affords. Finally, I examine the consequences for indigenous language revitalization of the current political economy of social media and corporate software.

‘I'm not dead yet': a comparative study of indigenous language revitalization in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey

At the outset of the twenty-first century, the survival of many minority and indigenous languages is threatened by globalization and the ubiquity of dominant languages such as English in the worlds of communication and commerce. In a number of cases, these negative trends are being resisted by grassroots activists and governments. Indeed, there are many examples of activists and governments working together in this manner to preserve and revitalize indigenous languages and cultures. Such coordinated efforts are vital to the success of language revitalization. This article compares the work of language activists and governments in three small island jurisdictions in the British Isles: the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. Comparison between these cases is greatly facilitated by similarities in their political, economic and demographic circumstances. The cases, however, reveal important differences in the way that activists and governments have responded to the challenges of language revitalization, as well as some interesting insights on the future prospects of the indigenous languages of these small island jurisdictions.

Re-vitalizing an indigenous language: Dictionaries of Ainu languages in Japan, 1625–2013

Abstract The re-vitalization of indigenous languages depends on political and legal support and the implementation of language rights depends on knowledge of vocabulary and grammar structures of the individual languages. Throughout the nineteenth century world, compilers of dictionaries adapted indigenous languages to match standards defined in nation-building and, thereby, enabled latent possibilities for indigenous populations to re-vitalize their languages in connection with the United Nations Year for Indigenous Peoples in 1993, and the first United Nations Decade for Indigenous Peoples, 1995-2004. This article focuses on dictionaries of the languages of the Ainu populations in the borderlands between the nation-states Japan and Russia. The main argument is that the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act promulgated in 1997 had a significant impact on the production and purpose of Ainu dictionaries. The dictionaries prior to 1997 functioned, predominantly, as records, which contributed to the increased visibility of Ainu populations inside and outside Japan in the immediate national interests of Japan, whereas the dictionaries published after 1997 are intended to enable the active use of Ainu language today. An important sub-point is that the post-1997 Ainu dictionaries rely heavily on dictionaries, word lists, and grammar books compiled before 1997, which have therefore come to support efforts to re-vitalize Ainu languages in the twenty-first century.

Revitalizing indigenous languages through indigenous immersion education

This article provides a context for understanding indigenous immersion education and the issues surrounding the model as a critical strategy for revitalization of indigenous languages. Through articulating narratives and drawing on literatures internationally, an image of indigenous language education models emerges. Inspired by strong heritage language learner identities, program models are shaped around building family and community relationships, revitalizing cultural traditions and practices, and re-establishing indigenous language identity in its homeland. Indigenous language immersion models vary as they are developed in vastly different contexts. Three distinct contexts — Ojibwe, Māori, and Hawaiian — are described to illustrate the diversity and range of models. The article closes with some reflections from practice that will provide a context for building a research agenda to advance the revitalization of indigenous languages through immersion.

“Until I Became a Professional, I Was Not, Consciously, Indigenous”: One Intercultural Bilingual Educator’s Trajectory in Indigenous Language Revitalization

Drawing from long-term ethnographic research in the Andes, this paper examines one Quechua-speaking Indigenous bilingual educator’s trajectory as she traversed (and traverses) from rural highland communities of southern Peru through development as teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and advocate for Indigenous identity and language revitalization across urban, periurban, and rural spaces. Neri Mamani grew up in highland Peru and at the time I met her in 2005 was a bilingual intercultural education practitioner enrolled in master’s studies at the Program for Professional Development in Bilingual Intercultural Education for the Andean Region (PROEIB-Andes) at the University of San Simón in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Drawing from my ethnographic research at PROEIB that year, situated also within a broader context of my ethnographic research on bilingual education in the Andes across several decades and Neri’s life trajectory across those same decades, this paper analyzes her narrative as it emerged in a 4-hour interview with me. I argue that Neri and her peers’ recognizing, valorizing, and studying the multiple and mobile linguistic, cultural, and intercultural resources at play in their own and others’ professional practices around bilingual intercultural education enable them to co-construct an Indigenous identity that challenges deep-seated social inequalities in their Andean world.

Indigenous languages and the racial hierarchisation of language policy in Canada

This paper addresses language policy and policy-making in Canada as forms of discourse produced and reproduced within systems of power and racial hierarchies. The analysis of indigenous language policy to be addressed here focuses on the historical, political and legal processes stemming from the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963–1969) to the 1982 Canadian Constitution and its aftermath. Through a critical historical and discursive analysis, we demonstrate how racial hierarchies and language ideologies favoured French and English dominance and reinforced the marginalisation of indigenous groups defined in terms of the socially constructed and assigned category of race. We relate these race-based language policies to contemporary indigenous language struggles in Canada, including the Task Force Report on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures (2005), and describe the logic imposed by colonial constitutional arrangements on indigenous language promotion, revitalisation and mobilisation in Canada.

Rethinking community-based Indigenous language revitalization using cultural–historical activity theory

This article suggests a theoretical framework for re-examining the complex relationship of language, literacy, and cultural practices, across multiple generations in the context of community-based Indigenous language revitalization. In the scholarship of Indigenous language revitalization and education, researchers have shifted from viewing language policy and planning as a top-down process to suggesting the imperative for engaging local communities in the dialogues and development of language-related programmes. Going beyond taken-for-granted notions of bounded, monolithic community structures, we ask: what are the critical mediating practices between individuals and larger communal structures that create affordances or constrain opportunities for collective efforts? To address this, we employ cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) to examine the processes of language revitalization in one Truku (Indigenous) village in Taiwan. With its attention to the role of artefacts in an activity system, CHAT helps us to problematize the use of orthographic conventions in language revitalization. Furthermore, we discuss how the incorporation of other semiotic resources mediates the spaces of agency and expands villagers' opportunities to participate. Lastly, CHAT helps community researchers and practitioners to reconceptualize the frustrations that accompany their language revitalization efforts as ‘historically accumulated contradictions’ across activity systems. We conclude with a reinterpretation of community-based language revitalization as an emerging process in which a shared goal is actively sought and negotiated.

Mathematics curriculum development and indigenous language revitalisation: contested spaces

This paper examines the development of two iterations of mathematics curricula over a 15-year period for classrooms teaching in te reo Māori, the endangered IndigenouslanguageofAotearoaNewZealand.Similaritiesanddifferencesbetweenthe two iterations are identified. Although parameters set by the New Zealand Ministry of Education about what the curricula would look like and how they would be developed were not always commensurate with Māori aspirations, analysis suggests that Māori wereabletouseopportunitiestoensurethattheir agendasforlanguagedevelopmentand revitalisation were achieved. Spaces were made available because of the government's ideological assumptions, but were used by Māori to achieve their ideological aims. However, neither iteration was smooth, with Māori having to determine how to operate within these contested spaces. The result of Māori requirements to have language recognised as an important issue was that both process and product of curriculum development were affected.