Ways of Talking (and Acting) About Language Reclamation: An Ethnographic Perspective on Learning Lenape in Pennsylvania

Language Activism

“…This constructivist perspective gained new nuances as I participated in education scholarship in the United States as a student of educational linguistics, where I began to talk about communicative repertoires and communities of practice in place of the Language and its People. Experiences working in non-governmental organizations (Save the Children and the Center for Applied Linguistics), academic outreach projects (the Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages), and participating in a study of the reclamation of a sleeping language (Hornberger, De Korne, and Weinberg 2016;Weinberg and De Korne 2016) have further influenced my perspective. As a result of my participation in a variety of scholarly and activist domains, my own orientation is towards minoritized languages and speakers.…”

“…The incorporation of Indigenous languages as subjects without using them as a medium of instruction at any time, which also occurs in some "bilingual Indigenous" schools in Mexico, is also unlikely to result in significant changes in language use. Teaching Indigenous languages as subjects may create new communities of practice and increased awareness around issues of language prejudice and endangerment, however (Hornberger, De Korne, and Weinberg 2016).…”

Changing ideological and implementational spaces for minoritised languages in higher education:Zapotequizaciónof language education in Mexico

“…Within the important social gate/keeping space of Higher education there are multiple ways that Indigenous languages have been promoted. Linguistic research on Indigenous languages has typically focused on languages as objects (forms and texts), although there are exceptions where Indigenous languages are taught as subjects with the goal of achieving communication among learners (Hornberger, De Korne, and Weinberg 2016;Mendoza-Mori 2017). Providing quality education for Indigenous language teachers is a challenge which institutions in a variety of places around the world are working to address (Whitinui, Rodríguez de France, and McIvor 2018).…”