Teaching And Learning Resources For Endangered Languages

This volume showcases latest developments and innovations in teaching and learning materials in, about and for endangered languages, as well as discusses challenges in the production of such materials.

Written by leading international scholars and activists, this guidebook provides ideas and strategies to support language revitalization.

It is generally agreed that about 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today and at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. This state-of-the-art Handbook examines the reasons behind this dramatic loss of linguistic diversity, why it matters, and what can be done to document and support endangered languages. The volume is relevant not only to researchers in language endangerment, language shift and language death, but to anyone interested in the languages and cultures of the world. It is accessible both to specialists and non-specialists: researchers will find cutting-edge contributions from acknowledged experts in their fields, while students, activists and other interested readers will find a wealth of readable yet thorough and up-to-date information.

The theme of the third annual Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) Conference was Endangered Languages and Education, focusing on how education can be used to promote, resist, and reverse the decline of a language. The conference papers are broken into several sections covering the topic from a variety of aspects and perspectives. "Finding a Policy" looks at the more general issues of how to proceed when the old link between the language and the traditional culture seems to be fraying. The question is considered in three North and South American contexts (among North Dakota American Indians, the Amish community, and Mayans in Guatemala), as well as for the Saami in Norway and the Irish under British rule. "Looking at Learners" switches the focus to the pupils in the education process, surveying attitudes and assessing acquired proficiency in Brittany and New Zealand, where there is a single minority language and a single metropolitan language. In "Working with Non-Written Languages", the special problems of making a bridge between oral and written language education comes to the fore. "Ways and Means" examines practical measures that can be taken to get teaching and learning organized. The examples of Maori in New Zealand and Khoisan in Namibia are examined. The "Role of Standard Dialects" is considered using the case of the disruption of language transmission among Basque dialects in Spain. Finally, "Impacts and Future Prospects" examines the overall impact that education programs seem to be having in preserving endangered languages. (KFT)

The contributions to this volume present ways in which indigenous knowledge in minority communities is sustained and how attempts are made to safeguard endangered languages. Two recent seminars at the Foundation for Siberian Cultures were devoted to the discussion of community-based pedagogical initiatives in Siberia, with comparative examples from other parts of the world. In this volume, scholars with backgrounds in anthropology, linguistics and in the use of new media share their experiences of how to design adequate learning tools in collaboration with their native colleagues. In their articles they discuss previous shortcomings and limitations, with the aim of exploring future directions for maintaining cultural diversities, not only in Siberia, but also among many other peoples of the world.

Cataloguing the World’s Endangered Languages brings together the results of the extensive and influential Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) project. Based on the findings from the most extensive endangered languages research project, this is the most comprehensive source of accurate information on endangered languages. The book presents the academic and scientific findings that underpin the online Catalogue, located at www.endangeredlanguages.com, making it an essential companion to the website for academics and researchers working in this area. While the online Catalogue displays much data from the ELCat project, this volume develops and emphasizes aspects of the research behind the data and includes topics of great interest in the field, not previously covered in a single volume. Cataloguing the World’s Endangered Languages is an important volume of particular interest to academics and researchers working with endangered languages.

The Munda group of languages of the Austroasiatic family are spoken within central and eastern India by almost ten million people. To date, they are the least well-known and least documented languages of the Indian subcontinent. This unprecedented and original work draws together a distinguished group of international experts in the field of Munda language research and presents current assessments of a wide range of typological and comparative-historical issues, providing agendas for future research. Representing the current state of Munda Linguistics, this volume provides detailed descriptions of almost all of the languages in the family, in addition to a brief chapter discussing the enigmatic Nihali language.