Indigenous Language Learning Research Articles

“Las Del Istmo Son Muy Cabronas”: Teaching an Indigenous Language in a Language Teaching Preparation BA Program

ABSTRACT Language teaching preparation programs in Mexico have been part of the modernity/coloniality legacy favoring so-called “modern” languages (e.g., English and French) over Indigenous languages. The alleged neoliberal benefits these languages bring and their connection to “modernized” individuals and cultures overshadows the learning of Indigenous languages, whose speakers struggle with the colonial difference, the discourse that transforms otherness into inferiority. Situated in Oaxaca, the most culturally and linguistically diverse state in Mexico, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an ongoing, longitudinal, critical-ethnographic-action-research project that has documented the recent inclusion of the Indigenous language Diidxazá/Isthmus Zapotec as part of a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree program in language teaching. Adopting a decolonizing theoretical lens and using vignettes co-constructed from participatory classroom and extra-curricular activity observations, photographs, and video recordings, ethnographic field notes, and on-going dialogue in formal and informal debriefing sessions, this paper presents the story of Kiara, the first Diidxazá teacher in this BA program. Based on an iterative analysis of the data, this paper addresses three main themes: (a) Indigenous teachers challenging the coloniality of being; (b) (Indigenous) women repositioning themselves; and (c) reflective activism decolonizing language teaching.

Ideological and implementational spaces in Covid-era language policy and planning

The ongoing global pandemic exacerbates, but does not initiate, longstanding language policy and planning (LPP) concerns around the ways language education policies and practices sustain inequalities across linguistic and social identities. Elsewhere, I have argued there is an urgent need for language users, educators and researchers to counter those inequalities, filling up and wedging open ideological and implementational spaces for multiple languages, literacies, identities and practices to flourish in classroom, community and society. Here, using the lens of layered, scaled and interacting implementational and ideological spaces and focusing on cases of Indigenous education in the Andes and Mexico, I explore how ethnographic studies uncover intertwining LPP dynamics that might be leveraged to promote social change in the Covid heightened context of inequality. For example, potential equality and actual inequality of languages intertwine in Mexican education policy and practice to interrupt spaces for Maya language in a Yucatec Mayan Indigenous preschool, and intertwining monoglossic and heteroglossic language ideologies in the discourse of Indigenous leaders of Ecuador’s bilingual intercultural education reveal tensions negotiated in the politics of Kichwa identity and language across spaces like ministry offices, bilingual classrooms or official translation workshops. Meanwhile, top-down and bottom-up LPP activities intertwining in Peruvian bilingual education are leveraged locally to create transformational spaces for Quechua youth to acquire and use their heritage language in multimodal ways, and critical and transformative LPP research paradigms intertwine in an ethnographic project examining how higher education administrators, teachers and students collaborate to create new spaces for Indigenous language learning in Diidxazá/Isthmus Zapotec classes in Oaxaca, Mexico. How might these dynamic LPP ideological and implementational spaces be leveraged to confront the ever-greater inequities wrought by Covid in Indigenous educational access and ways of speaking and being?

A worksheet, a whiteboard, a teacher-learner: leveraging materials and colonial language frames for multimodal indigenous language learning

ABSTRACT The growing demand for Indigenous language education in the United States often relies on community teachers with widely varying proficiencies as part of local language reclamation efforts. While these English-dominant ‘teacher-learners’ play a central role in the success of classroom-based K-12 language programs, their classroom experiences and practices have received little attention in second language acquisition research. I address this gap in the literature by examining an English-dominant Ojibwe teacher-learner’s pedagogical practices in an English-dominant tribal school. I theorise the use of colonial language and materials by relying on linguistic ethnography’s multi-scalar approach to language in use as well as a focus on sign-makers’ transformations of local resources. Findings show how the teacher-learner’s reliance on relational knowledge and colonial language framing scaffolds translingual practices and opens up discursive space for learners to experiment, play, and learn. This study highlights how one teacher-learner negotiates the ideological and material conditions that shape the learning and use of an Indigenous language within a colonial institution (school) that has long been a tool of assimilation and erasure.

Land as Interlocutor: A Study of Ojibwe Learner Language in Interaction on and With Naturally Occurring ‘Materials’

AbstractEcological approaches to language learning and materials use represent educational settings as complex and dynamic systems by applying relational perspectives from the natural world in the classroom. For young bilingual Ojibwe learners, the natural world (i.e., local, rural, and reservation land) is a significant language learning resource unto itself. In the underrepresented context of Indigenous language reclamation in the Upper Midwest of the United States, local land is central to ways of knowing and being, thus it is also central to learning. This study examines the ‘intra‐actions’ among land‐based materials, an Ojibwe Elder, and immersion school youth on local forestland. Focusing on the interrelated nature of human and nonhuman elements, we rely on Indigenous perspectives of relationality and sociomateriality to expand and clarify the roles of land in Indigenous language learning for reclamation. This study highlights Ojibwe practices of relational consensual engagement with the environment and has implications for materials use research, as it underscores the significance of the natural world as emergent language learning and teaching materials.

Teachers' views on a double transit in Grade 4: From Foundation Phase to Intermediate Phase and from Indigenous Language to English

South African Grade Four learners cannot read and comprehend written language in their own mother-tongue. In the midst of this challenge, the Language in Education policy prescribes that these learners should use English as Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT). The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effects of double exit experienced in the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4; and from indigenous language learning to learning in English. The study used semi-structured interviews in collecting data from 6 purposively sampled participants who teach Grade Four classes. Qualitative thematic and narrative analysis were used to scrutinize data. The research findings identified negative impact of transition on teaching and learning, teachers' diffidence and incompetence to teach in English, the overuse of code switching and lack of support by authorities, schools lack of focus and direction in mitigating the transition challenges, and participants' suggestions on how to mitigate the challenges of transition. The study recommends that the use of English as LoLT should be introduced at an advanced stage for second language learners.

Indigenous language learning impacts, challenges and opportunities in COVID-19 times

In March 2020, the COVID-19 global health crisis caused disruption to the daily lives and regular practices of most human populations. Indigenous language revitalization (ILR) work is often undertaken face-to-face and regularly includes the most elderly populations in our communities. Therefore, ILR activities that were not already online were vastly affected. The authors of this Situation Report are three Indigenous colleagues, scholars, language teachers, learners and co-activists in the on-going efforts toward the reclaiming, maintaining, and reviving of Indigenous languages across the lands now known as Canada and the USA. We describe the early impacts, challenges and foreseeable opportunities this current global health crisis brings to the critical work of continuing Indigenous languages into the future.

Indigenous Language Revitalization and Applied Linguistics: Parallel Histories, Shared Futures?

AbstractDamages done to Indigenous languages occurred due to colonial forces, some of which continue to this day, and many believe efforts to revive them should involve more than Indigenous peoples alone. Therefore, the need for learning Indigenous languages as “additional” languages is a relatively new societal phenomenon and Indigenous language revitalization (ILR) an emerging academic field of study. As the ILR body of literature has developed, it has become clear that this work does not fit neatly into any single academic discipline. While there have been substantial contributions from linguistics and education, the study and recovery of Indigenous languages are necessarily self-determined and self-governing. Also, due to the unique set of circumstances, contexts, and, therefore, solutions needed, it is argued that this discipline is separate from, yet connected to, others. Applied linguists hold specific knowledge and skills that could be extended to ILR toward great gains. This paper explores current foci within ILR, especially concepts, theories, and areas of study that connect applied linguistics and Indigenous language learning. The intention of this paper is to consider commonalities, differences, current and future interests for shared consideration of the potential of collaborations, and partnerships between applied linguistics and ILR scholars.

Pronunciation among adult Indigenous language learners

Abstract This paper describes the features that set adult Indigenous language learning apart from other types second language learning, examining in particular the role that unique teaching and learning contexts might play in the acquisition of pronunciation. As a case study, the pronunciation of SENĆOŦEN (Coast Salish) /t’/ is compared across four groups of speakers, including two groups of adult learners. Acoustic analysis shows that /t’/, described as a weak ejective in previous work, is now consistently realized as a strong ejective, especially among learners and teachers. These findings are discussed with reference to factors relevant to language learning and teaching in general, as well as to ones relevant to Indigenous language learning and teaching in particular.

An Exploration of Multilingualism and Zimbabwean Language Policy as an Impact to Child's Holistic Development

The language policy of Zimbabwe observes all 16 languages as official. However, it is a contradiction of what the Zimbabwean market dictates. The job market dictates that the English language should be passed to either access the higher institution of learning, the higher secondary education and the job market. The move by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to promote the learning of science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) as paradigm shift is also elevating the English language as the only language to explicate reality in science and the business fraternity. The learning of indigenous languages currently is of no benefit to an individual yet language competence in the second language is guaranteed by a proper bilingualism initiation at the proper linguistic level of the child. This article analyses English language performance at “0” and the University level to uncover if multilingualism is a resource or problem in Zimbabwe. The study observes both the “0” level and first year university student competence through essay writing.

Language-in-education policies and Indigenous language revitalization efforts in Canada: Considerations for non-dominant language education in the Global South

Indigenous languages are struggling for breath in the Global North. In Canada, Indigenous language medium schools and early childhood programs remain independent and marginalized. Despite government commitments, there is little support for Indigenous language-in-education policy and initiatives. This article describes an inaugural, country-wide, federally-funded, Indigenous-led language revitalization research project, entitled NE?OL?EW? (one mind-one people). The project brings together nine Indigenous partners to build a country-wide network and momentum to pressure multi-levels of government to honour agreements enshrining the right of children to learn their Indigenous language. The project is documenting approaches to create new Indigenous language speakers, focusing on adult language learners able to keep the language vibrant and teach their language to children. The article reflects upon how this Northern emphasis on Indigenous language revitalization and country-wide networking initiative is relevant to mother tongue-based education and policy examples in the Global South. The article underscores the need for both community level initiatives (top-down) and government level policy and funding (bottom up) to support child and adult Indigenous language learning.

Reading Experience as Communitist Practice: Indigenous Literatures and Community Service-Learning

Our paper analyzes a community service-learning class on Indigenous literatures from the perspectives of graduate student and instructor. Enacting Jace Weaver’s theory of communitism (a portmanteau of “community” and “activism”), the class asks students to read Indigenous texts through the lens of their experiences at communitybased organizations in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and to consider how these readings shape their interactions with and responsibilities to Indigenous communities. First, the instructor discusses the complexities of community service-learning as an engaged approach to literary study in a settler colonial context. Informed by Tomson Highway’s novel Kiss of the Fur Queen, the second author then analyzes their1 contributions to the social justice club at Oskāyak High School, highlighting Oskāyak’s unique academic culture, where music and Indigenous language learning are incorporated into the fabric of everyday life. Ultimately, we argue that a communitist approach to Indigenous literary scholarship creates or furthers relationships with/in and responsibility to Indigenous communities, while encouraging an integrative approach to literary study through critical embodiment.

Changing ideological and implementational spaces for minoritised languages in higher education: Zapotequización of language education in Mexico

ABSTRACTIndigenous languages of Mexico have largely been excluded from formal education spaces. This ethnographic action research study highlights a context where Diidxazá/ Isthmus Zapotec, an Indigenous language of Oaxaca, has recently begun to be taught in higher education. We examine the ways that administrators, the teacher, and students in these classes have collaborated to create a new space within the institution. By tracing the power dynamics behind the implementational and ideological efforts that have made this possible, we aim to provide insight into the social change underway in this setting, as well as the concrete steps that were taken in the creation of this pluralist space for Indigenous language learning. We conclude with a discussion of the collective engagement that has been necessary in order to foster and develop a community of Indigenous-language learners, and the challenge of going beyond tokenistic inclusion of minoritised languages in education.

Digital Realities of Indigenous Language Revitalization: A Look at Hawaiian Language Technology in the Modern World

This paper discusses some barriers, complexities, and opportunities Indigenous peoples face when engaging in language revitalization efforts, and how those elements contribute to the adoption, adaptation, or abandonment of digital technology. I begin with framing the context of Indigenous languages in the United States and Canada to underscore the current realities in comparison to world languages. The next section introduces the uptake of digital technology for Indigenous language learning, based on the themes of equity, access, and engagement. I conclude with a case study of the Hawaiian language community as a potential model for Indigenous communities that choose traditional and contemporary pathways.

Navigating between a Monolingual Utopia and Translingual Realities: Experiences of American Learners of Yorùbá as an Additional Language

Translingualism advocates for the appreciation of multilingual speakers’ fluid, flexible, and creative deployment of semiotic resources without regard to the ideological constructs of named languages. While this scholarship has been developed primarily in the contexts of world Englishes, English as a lingua franca, and bilingual education in Anglophone nations, its implications to foreign language education in higher education have not been fully explored. The current article addresses this issue by shedding light on the conditions of teaching and learning of indigenous languages spoken in once-colonized regions of the world as an additional language for English speakers. More specifically, it examines how American students who participated in an eight-week Yoruba study abroad program in Nigeria navigated a rather conspicuous gap between a monolingual utopia promoted by the program and the complex translingual realities of everyday language use outside of the classroom. Through the review of the perspectives of students with diverse backgrounds, the article discusses the significance of taking sociohistorical and geopolitical contexts surrounding the target language into account to cultivate informed learners.

An Exploration of the Effects of Mentor-Apprentice Programs on Mentors' and Apprentices' Wellbeing

Increasingly, adult Indigenous language learners are being identified as the “missing generation” of learners who hold great potential to contribute to the revival of Indigenous languages by acting as the middle ground between Elders, children, and youth within their communities. Our research project NEȾOLṈEW̱ “one mind, one people” studied adult Indigenous language learning through the popular Mentor-Apprentice Program method. Over a 2-year period, our team conducted interviews and focus groups with participants involved in a Mentor-Apprentice type program in British Columbia, Canada. While our primary interest was to document the successes and challenges of the Mentor-Apprentice Program method for adult Indigenous language learning, we also included interview questions that gave participants an opportunity to share how participating in such a program affected them. During data analysis, we noticed repeating comments from participants about how their involvement with a Mentor-Apprentice Program impacted their own and their community’s wellbeing; 6 exploratory themes were identified. Although studies have reported protective effects of Indigenous language use on health, health-related outcomes of language revitalization efforts remain underexplored. In addition to discussing the exploratory themes that arose from the study, our paper also proposes that these themes can inform future research in investigating the links between language revitalization and wellbeing.

The Needs of Educators in Intercultural and Bilingual Preschools in Chile: A Case Study

Several studies have examined the lack of or the insufficient preparation of K-12 educators to work in intercultural and bilingual (IBE) schools in Chile, but little is known about the preparation of educators to teach in IBE preschools. Even less is known about teachers’ perceptions of their own preparation. This work contributes to a growing body of literature that examines the experiences and practice of second language teachers in Indigenous language education settings from a sociocultural perspective. This qualitative case study focuses on teachers’ perceptions of their preparation to teach Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people, in urban IBE preschools in Chile. Three research questions guide this study: What are teachers’ perceptions of their needs regarding their preparation to teach Mapudungun in urban IBE preschools? What are the current challenges that teachers face teaching Mapudungun in urban IBE preschools? Which experiences fostered their ability to teach Mapudungun? The findings of this study have implications for the incorporation of more complex notions of Indigenous language learning that are linked directly to Mapuche culture and its sociopolitical context, as well as the inclusion of teachers’ experiential knowledge in the preparation of teachers for work in IBE schools.

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.

La pédagogie de l’ évangélisation des Noirs d’ Afrique selon la congrégation du saint-Esprit de 1841 à 1930

In the nineteenth century, François Libermann, a converted Jew who became a priest, is attracted by the ministry to the Black people of the French Colonies and Africa. Having obtained a mission site in Guinea, he sent his first vicar apostolic, Benoît Truffet, who set up the beginnings of a pedagogy of Pauline evangelization, according to the will of Libermann. In 1930, about eighty years later, the Directory for Missions, under the leadership of Bishop Alexandre Le Roy, was an indispensable summary of missionary teaching methods developed by the Holy Ghost Fathers in Africa. After analyzing it, we outline a two-step process. The first step is that of the Pauline insertion, “all in all” marked by kenosis, learning of indigenous languages and the insertion of the missionary in local life. The second step is that of inculturation which consists in making use of the culture as a vehicle for the new faith, then in practising a hermeneutics of cosmogonies and finally in establishing a suitable pastoral approach which should lead to the emergence of a native clergy. This process corresponds to that applied in Oceania.

Indigenous Language Learning and Maintenance Among Young Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children

Internationally, cultural renewal and language revitalisation are occurring among Indigenous people whose lands were colonised by foreign nations. In Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are striving for the re-voicing of their mother tongue and the re-practicing of their mother culture to achieve cultural renewal in the wake of over 250 years of colonisation (Williams in Recover, re-voice, re-practise. Sydney, NSW AECG Incorporated, 2013).While 120 Indigenous languages are still spoken in Australia today, little has been documented regarding the extent to which languages are learned and maintained by young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The current paper offers a unique insight by drawing upon a large-scale dataset, Footprints in Time: the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), to describe patterns of language use and maintenance among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Of the 580 children followed longitudinally from the first wave of the baby cohort of LSIC (aged 0–1 years) until wave 4 (aged 3–5 years), approximately one in five (19.3 %) were reported to speak an Indigenous language. Children in the study were learning up to six languages simultaneously, including English (both Standard Australian English and Aboriginal Australian English), Indigenous languages, creoles, foreign languages (other than English) and sign languages. Social and environmental factors such as primary caregivers’ use of an Indigenous language and level of relative isolation were found to be associated with higher rates of Indigenous language maintenance. These findings have important implications for identifying ways of supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to learn and maintain Indigenous languages during early childhood, especially for children who may not have the opportunity to learn an Indigenous language in the home environment and for children living in urban areas.

Learning foreign and indigenous languages: The case of South African universities

Learning a language through another language is trivialto any type of language learning, whether it is the learning of a local or a foreign language. South Africa’s language policy for higher education recommends the study of foreign languages (FLs) and indigenous languages.A decade after its adoption, the learning of a foreign or indigenous language in that foreign or that indigenous language, respectively, at universities has been overlooked. In essence, the learning of foreign languages at the country’s universities dates back to the 19th century, when the first higher education institution,the South African College was established. At that College a Department of General Literature that offered Dutch, English, Latin and Ancient languages was established. English and Dutch teachers provided instruction in the English and Dutch language, respectively. The instructions involved theory, history and practice of English grammar and literature or Dutch grammar and literature. The learning of indigenous languages at the country’s universities began in the 20th century under the departments of Bantu Studies. They were learnt through English, and then later through English andAfrikaans. The instructions involved theory, history and practice of English grammar and literature. The aim of this study is to gain knowledge on the different approaches that may be used to learn a foreign language and an indigenous language. The study focuses on the complex challenges facing the country’s universities to adopt new, different and best models for the teaching of foreign and indigenous languages after many decades of using English and Afrikaans mediums. A case study method is used for this study. The emphasis is on the learning of foreign versus indigenous languages in South African universities (SAUs). The paper consists of an introduction, the theory of Grammar Translation Method (GTM), a case study on the learning of foreign versus South African indigenous languages (SAILs) at the SAUs, and a conclusion. Keywords: foreign language, indigenous language, learning, English, Afrikaans