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Indigenous Language Revitalization
Language revitalization, described in this entry, is an area of study and a social movement that emerged in response to the endangered status of indigenous and minority languages. Language revitalization is one component of language regenesis—activities designed to recover, restore, and strengthen the use of endangered languages. The linguist Christina Paulston divides those activities into three categories:
- Language revival, the restoration of oral or written uses for a language that is no longer spoken or for which little or no tradition of print literacy exists. For example, Massachusett, an Algonquian language once spoken by peoples indigenous to what is now the northeastern United States, is being revived using the 1663 Eliot Bible, the first bible published in an indigenous language in the Western Hemisphere.
- Reversing Language Shift (RLS), a concept developed by the sociolinguist Joshua. A. Fishman, which entails restoring intergenerational language transmission, primarily in the family and community spheres.
- Language revitalization, efforts to engender new vigor in a language still spoken but falling from daily use. Language revitalization activities may target several domains, including family, community, and school.
In practice, language revival, revitalization, and RLS intersect and overlap. Before discussing these processes in detail, it is important to understand their genesis and rationale in the Native American context.
Status of Native American Languages Today
Of 300 to 500 languages indigenous to what is now the United States and Canada, 210 are still spoken. According to the linguist Michael Krauss, this includes 175 Native American languages spoken in the United States alone. These languages represent more than 60 language families, and scores of subfamilies, many of which are no less distinct from each other than are English and Mandarin.
All Native American languages are seriously endangered. In the 2000 U.S. Census, 72% of Native Americans 5 years of age or older reported speaking only English at home. Krauss classifies the present status of Native American languages as follows:
- Class A, the 20 languages still spoken by all generations
- Class B, the 30 languages spoken only by the parent generation and older
- Class C, the 70 languages spoken only by the grandparent generation and older
- Class D, the 55 languages spoken only by the very elderly, often less than a dozen people
This means that 155 (80%) of all Native American languages have no new speakers to pass them on. Even Class A languages face an uncertain future, for, unlike immigrant languages, there is no external pool of Native American language speakers to refresh the speaker pool. Language loss is proceeding at such a rapid rate, Krauss warns, that more native American languages stand to be lost in the next 60 years than have been lost since the first contacts between native peoples and Anglo-Europeans more than 500 years ago.
Why Native American Languages Are Endangered
The fate of a language is intimately tied to that of its speakers and, thus, to power relations among groups. Languages do not fall silent of their own accord. Rather, covert and overt social practices and policies diminish the status and utility of some languages while elevating that of others. Sociolinguist Tove Skutnabb-Kangas refers to this as linguistic genocide or “linguicide.” According to some projections, 90% of the world's 6,700 languages are likely to be displaced by dominant languages within the next 90 years. Most of these will be indigenous languages.
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- Family, Communities, and Society
- Accommodation Theory, Second-Language
- Americanization and its Critics
- Attitudes toward Language Diversity
- Benefits of Bilingualism and Heritage Languages
- Bilingual Education in the Press
- Easy and Difficult Languages
- English in the World
- English-Only Organizations
- Heritage Languages in Families
- Hidden Curriculum
- Hispanic Population Growth
- Home/School Relations
- Immigration and Language Policy
- Language Brokering
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- Peer Pressure and Language Learning
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- Spanish, The Second National Language
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- Boarding Schools and Native Languages
- Defense Language Institute
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- Early Immigrants and English Language Learning
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- German Language in U.S. History
- Languages in Colonial Schools, Eastern
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- Indigenous Language Revitalization
- Indigenous Languages as Second Languages
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- Multicultural Education
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- Oyster Bilingual School
- P.S. 25, New York City's First Bilingual School
- Phonics in Bilingual Education
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- Spanish, Proactive Maintenance
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- Affective Filter
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- BICS/CALP Theory
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- Code Switching
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- Compound and Coordinate Bilingualism
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- Container Theory of Language
- Continua of Biliteracy
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- Critical Period Hypothesis
- Discourse Analysis
- Ebonics
- English, First World Language
- First-Language Acquisition
- Indigenous Languages, Current Status
- Indo-European Languages
- Interlanguage
- Japanese Language in Hawai'i
- Language Acquisition Device
- Language Defined
- Language Dominance
- Language Persistence
- Language Registers
- Language Revival and Renewal
- Language Shift and Language Loss
- Language Socialization
- Language Socialization of Indigenous Children
- Learning a Language, Best Age
- Linguistics, an Overview
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- Metalinguistic Awareness
- Modern Languages in Schools and Colleges
- Monitor Model
- Native English Speakers Redefined
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- Second-Language Acquisition
- Semilingualism
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- World Englishes
- People and Organizations
- Alatis, James E.
- Andersson, Theodore
- Baker, Colin
- Bennett, William J.
- Bernal, Joe J.
- Bourne, Randolph S.
- Cárdenas, José A.
- Castro Feinberg, Rosa
- Center for Applied Linguistics, Initial Focus
- Center for Applied Linguistics, Recent Focus
- Chavez, Linda
- Christian, Donna
- Collier, Virginia P.
- Crawford, James
- Cummins, James
- De Avila, Edward
- Epstein, Noel
- Escamilla, Kathy
- Escobedo, Deborah
- Fernández, Ricardo
- Fishman, Joshua A.
- Gómez, Joel
- Gómez, Severo
- García, Eugene E.
- González, Henry B.
- González, Josué M.
- Guerrero, Adalberto
- Hakuta, Kenji
- Haugen, Einar
- Hayakawa, S. I.
- Hogan, Timothy M.
- Hornberger, Nancy
- Kloss, Heinz
- Krashen, Stephen D.
- LaFontaine, Hernán
- Lyons, James J.
- Moll, Luis
- Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy (META)
- National Association for Bilingual Education
- National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education
- Nieto, Sonia
- Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
- Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs
- Ogbu, John
- Oyama, Henry
- Pérez-Hogan, Carmen
- Peña, Álbar Antonio
- Porter, Rosalie Pedalino
- Rodríguez, Armando
- Rodríguez, Richard
- Roos, Peter D.
- Roybal, Edward R.
- Ruiz, Richard
- Saville-Troike, Muriel
- Seidner, María M.
- Simon, Paul M.
- Spolsky, Bernard
- Stanford Working Group
- Tanton, John H.
- TESOL, Inc.
- Troike, Rudolph C, Jr.
- Truán, Carlos
- Trueba, Enrique (Henry)
- Unz, Ron
- Urquides, María
- Valdés, Guadalupe
- Wong Fillmore, Lily
- Yarborough, Ralph
- Zamora, Gloria L.
- Zelasko, Nancy
- Policy Evolution
- Castañeda Three-Part Test
- Flores v. State of Arizona
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- Méndez v. Westminster
- Affirmative Steps to English
- Amendment 31 (Colorado)
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- Bilingual Education as Language Policy
- Canadian and U.S. Language Policies
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- Civil Rights Act of 1964
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- Federal Court Decisions and Legislation
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- Home Language Survey
- Immigration and Language Policy
- Improving America's Schools Act of 1994
- Labeling Bilingual Education Clients: LESA, LEP, and ELL
- Language Education Policy in Global Perspective
- Language Policy and Social Control
- Language Rights in Education
- Maintenance Policy Denied
- National Defense Education Act of 1958
- National Literacy Panel
- Native American Languages, Legal Support for
- No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Testing Requirements
- No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Title I
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- Official English Legislation, Favored
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- Official Language Designation
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- Question 2 (Massachusetts)
- Texas Legislation (HB 103 and SB 121)
- Title VII, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 1967 Senate Hearings
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- Title VII, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Text (Appendix B)
- Transitional Bilingual Education Model Questioned
- U.S. Bilingual Education Viewed from Abroad
- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report
- Undocumented Students' Rights
- Voter Initiatives in Education
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- Acculturation
- Affective Dimension of Bilingualism
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- Bilingualism in Holistic Perspective
- Brain Research
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- Culture Shock
- Deficit-Based Education Theory
- Enculturation
- Ethnocentrism
- Home Language and Self-Esteem
- Language and Identity
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- Languages and Power
- Latino Attitudes toward English
- Melting-Pot Theory
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- Teaching and Learning
- Academic English
- Audio-Lingual Method
- Best English to Learn
- Bilingual Paraprofessionals
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- Communicative Approach
- Communities of Practice
- Concurrent Translation Method
- Contrastive Analysis
- Credentialing Foreign-Trained Teachers
- Critical Literacy
- Culturally Competent Teaching
- English, How Long to Learn
- Error Analysis
- Four-Skills Language Learning Theory
- Grammar-Translation Method
- Language Experience Approach to Reading
- Language Learning in Children and Adults
- Language Study Today
- Literacy Instruction, First and Second Language
- Natural Approach
- Primary-Language Support
- Professional Development
- Proficiency, Fluency, and Mastery
- School Leader's Role
- Situated Learning
- Social Learning
- Spanish-Language Enrollments
- Teacher Certification by States
- Teacher Preparation, Then and Now
- Teacher Qualifications
- Technology in Language Teaching and Learning
- Transformative Teaching Model
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