Language revitalization Archive

Humanity is facing a language endangerment crisis on a global level, as indigenous languages are increasingly being replaced by widely spoken languages like English and Spanish. In response, communities around the world have initiated efforts to encourage the use of endangered languages. However, little empirical research on what makes these language revitalization efforts most successful…

Linguistic Contributions to Native California Language Teaching Andrew Garrett, Linguistics Department, UC Berkeley Academics with PhDs in linguistics rarely have graduate training in language learning or language teaching; applied linguistics is not often part of a linguistics graduate program, and when it is the students in applied linguistics and in theoretical and descriptive linguistics are…

From the News Center: Breath of Life

Listen to a story on the language restoration workshop from KQED’s The California Report: Breath of Life Language Restoration Workshop for California Indian Languages June 1-7, 2014 University of California at Berkeley Hosted by The Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival and The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages This is a one-week workshop…

Berkeley Language Center Spring 2006 Lecture Series Linguistic Human Rights – Some Recent Debates: Intellectual Games versus Respect by Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Professor Emerita, Department of Languages and Culture, Roskilde University, Denmark, Department of Education, Åbo Akademi University Vasa, Finland Using concrete examples (from Pennycook, Blommaert, Canagarajah, May, etc), the paper presents and discusses some recent…

Teaching Endangered Languages by Leanne Hinton, Professor, UCB Linguistics Department Focusing on Native American languages, we will examine the ways in which the teaching of endangered languages differs from teaching world languages.  Teaching and learning of endangered languages has different problems, needs, and settings.  This includes different goals-with the ultimate goal, being to put the…

Teachers' Forum In this paper, I examine the development, implementation, and results of utilizing three types of storybooks in a language revitalization classroom for students ages 5-12 learning Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec, an indigenous language of southern Mexico. Although each method used for creating books in Zapotec generated a positive reaction from students and parents, I consider the ways in which each method facilitates student learning while also problematizing the cultural authenticity of the classroom. Based on classroom observations, a parent focus group, and student interviews, I conclude that the most effective method for storybook creation involved students creating their own book modeled on a pre-existing book written in the non-indigenous language. This student-created book generated sustained interest in the language and allowed for students to shape the materials into something that was culturally relevant for them personally.