Language revitalization

Language Revitalization

In communities where a language shift has begun, language revitalization reverses this shift and prevents language decline. Developing their own opportunities, these communities deal with the problems which caused the language shift to better understand how and why their language has begun to decline and how it may be revived. In Sm'algyax Language Renewal: Prospects and Options, written by Daniel S. Rubin, a detailed approach to defining various stages of language revitalization and approaches to counteract its affects are outlined providing an interesting insight on this problem.

The Language and the Learner

State of the Language

In Sm'algyax Language Renewal: Prospects and Options, Rubin outlines the various steps taken in language revitalization, he begins with determining the state of the language. This step includes collecting data such as number of speakers within the community and community attitudes toward the language. How the language is perceived is an important factor in determing whether the language has a chance to be revitalized. Among the Tsimshian Nation in Canada, there is a strong ressurgence in cultural pride which may lend to the beginning efforts of revitalization. 

These positive attitudes toward the ancestral language, however, may not always be the norm, as evidenced among speakers of Kwak'wala, a First Nations language spoken in British Columbia, Canada whose speakers live primarily in larger cities and feel that English is the right choice to be successful. 

Acquisition of Language

How languages are acquired at different stages of life and by different personlities is very important in understanding how the language should be taught so that it might be "acquired" rather than "learned". Rubin makes a distinction between the two terms, arguing that with the first one is able to put the language to use in a wide range of situation while the latter refers only to retaining words and phrases with no ability to use them. Rubin also stresses the importance of language as feeling; that is, involving personal aspects in the learning which help speed up acquisition as well as solidify the acquired material.:

"On the structural level, language is made up of units called phonemes (sound units), morphemes (units of meaning), syntax (word order), usage rules (how words are to be used), and interpretive rules (how to tell what words mean). However, in terms of actual language use, language is the vehicle for feeling, imagery, poetry, story, and metaphor. To understand the essence, the life within the language, is the point of language learning."

Rubin goes on to explain a very interesting practice he observed from Sylvia Ashton-Warner called "Key Vocabulary", which facilitates language learning by asking certain questions used to draw out words with personal meaning to the students and building a program around these words in sentences and stories, demonstrating the importance placed on language learning at an emotional and personal level.

Outlining Fluency Levels

Rubin gives five levels of fluency that help in two ways with language learning; these may be used as a measuring tool to assess the students familiarity with the language as well as possible outcomes of language instruction:

•	passive: able to understand common words or phrases, with or without deeper comprehension of their meaning •	symbolic: able to use common phrases and sentences in formal settings, as symbols of language participation and cultural ownership •	functional: able to speak the language, with basic understanding of its syntax, grammar, and rules of usage and a minimal vocabulary •	fluent: able to understand and speak the language with confidence and skill, with understanding of normal syntax, grammar and rules of form, and an extensive and growing vocabulary •	creative: able to understand and speak the language fluently in ways that create new word usage and structures, showing a deeper understanding of the language and its potential new uses

Community Dynamics

Rubin emphasises two main points which he believes should be components of the language community, the first: a community dimension. The community dimmension places the responsibility also on the families of the community to use the language. He argues that language revitalization will fail if it is constricted to the classroom setting. The community dimmension calls into question a wide range of language learning problems such as how the language will be used by children whose parents do not presently speak the language, how negative emotional factors such as initial embarrassment while grappling with the language will be overcome, or how dialect difference will fragment the community as a whole.

Rubin's second emphasis is on establishing a language authority, some decision making body that will perform tasks such as teacher training, maintenance of grammar and syntax, screening new words which enter the language, and organizing the planning and development of language programs. Such controlling bodies are seen in languages like Spanish, which is regulated by the Real Academia Española. The question of dialectal differences is also an issue here as there are language communities, such as the O'odham language spoken in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, which has various dialects among its speakers. Dialects are treated as a mark of pride, as seen in Collaborative Sociolinguistic Research among the Tohono O’odham by Ofelia Zepeda and Jane Hill who write  :

"...dialect differences in the language complicated bilingual education programs in reservation schools because parents did not like their children to be taught by instructors who spoke a dialect different from their own."

A standardization of a given language may be difficult due to dialect differences.

Language Revitalization Approaches:

Print Based Materials

Among the various ways Rubin propose to facilitate language revitalization, print-based materials is first. Print-based materials refers to any literature from books to posters and games as well as textbooks produced in the language. Rubin points out that these sorts of materials are essential to develop literacy among a language community but have their drawbacks. Possible problems to arise are those of difficulty of pronunciation of a written material or appropriate language level for the learner. Rubin acknowledges that print materials must be guided by the language communities goals, i.e. if the language is very under documented then a grammar and dictionary may be useful to begin with.

Teacher Instruction

Rubin points out that, although important, teacher instructed courses in a language may have problems. He observed among the Sm'algyax language community the following problems:

•	it is difficult to teach Sm'algyax effectively in short, intermittent half-hour sessions •	issues of respect and focus arise while working with students •	students are having difficulty retaining basic vocabulary •	students do not use their language after they leave the classroom •	there is little support from the home for language learning •	there is a need for more effective and vivid learning materials •	the traditional cultural context for learning the language is missing from schools

He acknowledges various causes of such problems and states that teacher centered classrooms should be examined so as no to restrict the students learning of the language to just mimicking the teacher and passive listening. These are problems that may be avoided with the proper training of new teachers on new materials and approaches in language teaching.

Media-based and Computer-interactive Approaches

The use of pre-recorded audio and video brings the language experience into the home, exposing children to the language while they are away from the classroom setting, a problem addressed earlier. These methods, however, do propose one problem: the question of expense. Finding efficient, high quality, and inexpensive ways to produce such materials will be obstacles to be overcome by the language community. Rubin suggests partnerships with other tribes or independent filmmakers to ease this problem.

The use of computer programs may also be readily used in the home. These can be produced in large quantities and have the ability to evaluate the learner. The format of such programs can be used to immerse the student in the community language, using little or no English. Stories, games, dictionaries, reference materials, etc. may all be developed with these programs to help the student's learning. Such programs have already been developed by the Hawaiian Language Center, Hilo, HI, providing students with computer software written entirely in Hawaiian.

Internet

Rubin proposes the internet as a resource which could offer valuable tool to develop online interactive dictionaries, linked to texts which use certain words presented, or as a space for cultural information easily accessible by the language learner. Many websites have been created to facilitate language revitalization by providing language lessons, such as the online Nawat Language Program offering beginner lessons in the Nawat language spoken in central Mexico or the Cherokee Nation website  which offers interactive online classes at differen levels of instruction.

The Silent Way

The Silent Way is an innovative approach which puts the learning largely in the hands of the students. Coined the Silent Way after Caleb Gattegno's work, the teacher lets the students discuss and discover on their own in the language being learned and becomes something of a facilitator, prompting the students discussions but minimizing their own involvement in the discussions. This shows a profound respect for the student and the student's learning and is used mostly in mathematical teaching settings but may prove useful in language learning settings as it provides nonthreatening conditions to induce language learning.

Immersion

Perhaps among the best known and most successful approaches is the Immersion approach which requires fully fluent teachers who present only the students' L2 through a variety of methods such as discussions, story telling, games, etc. This may prove to be a challenge as there may not be sufficient material in the language being taught. Immersion methods may also be applied in a cultural sense, which would use the language being taught while performing some traditional activity such as fishing or basket making.

Master-Apprentice Model

Developed among in California as a response to language revitalizations efforts there, the Master-Apprentice approach proposes fluent speakers to act as linguistis and teachers through training younger speakers in the language, that is, asking speakers of a given language who may not be trained teachers to step in as language teachers and fill the immediate need for younger members of the community to learn the language.