Rejecting the Marginalized Status of Minority Languages

Educational Projects Pushing Back Against Language Endangerment

Edited by Ari Sherris, Susan D. Penfield

Publication date:

20 November 2019

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781788926256

This book explores Indigenous, tribal and minority (ITM) language education in oral and/or written communication and in the use of new technologies and online resources for pedagogical purposes in diverse geopolitical contexts. It demonstrates that ITM language education transpires in both formal and informal spaces for children or adults and that sometimes these spaces are online, where they become de-territorialized discourses of teaching and learning.’ The volume brings together examples of ITM language education that are challenging the forces that flatten ‘languacultures’ into artefacts of history. It also examines the economic and material realities of the people who live in and through their ‘languacultures’, or who aspire to do as much. The book will be useful for educators and all those interested in Indigenous and minority language issues, as well as for a wide range of undergraduate, graduate and research contexts where topics of language education and minority rights are the focus.

Set against a background of social justice and linguistic human rights, the case studies in this book richly illustrate the educational and community efforts being made towards language sustainability and revitalization in places around the world where languages are regarded as of marginalized status. The chapters explore old and new strategies for reclaiming languages, the challenges that are encountered, and the resilience of those who choose to engage in such work.