15 - Revitalization of endangered languages

Summary

School-based programmes include examples of the most successful cases of language revitalization. Contributing to that success is the fact that relatively large groups of potential language learners are obliged to be present in the schools for a large portion of the day, providing the opportunity to teach an entire generation of future speakers. Many communities, whether or not they have school-based language programmes, have language and culture camps in the summer time. They often follow the same language-teaching methodologies found in immersion schools. Adult language learning is an essential part of language revitalization. Education in endangered languages is often hampered by a critical shortage of teachers who can speak the language, given that most native speakers were not teachers, and are also beyond retirement age. The ultimate goal for language revitalization would be for it to regain its place as a language of daily communication within the speech community.