O n f e r e n c e

References 
Council for Cultural Cooperation, Education Committee, Modern Languages Division, 
Strasbourg. (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, 
teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
Long, M. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In 
W. Ritchie and T. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (413
–
468). 
San Diego: Academic Press. 

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2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Allyson Eamer 
University of Ontario, Oshawa, Canada 
[e-mail] 
E-learning for Endangered Languages: What is the State of the 
Art? 
Bio data 
Allyson Eamer
is a sociolinguist who researches the role of language proficiency in 
identity development, and group membership and solidarity. Her special interest in the 
ethnolinguistic vitality of Canada’s aboriginal peoples has extended to include the role of 
mobile technology and virtual classrooms in the revitalization of endangered languages 
around the globe. 
Abstract 
This paper builds on a recent contribution to the language learning discourse which 
proposes a theoretical space called the “i4” (Eamer 2013). It is described a
s the space 
created when three discourses overlap: Technology Enhanced Learning, Language 
Education and Teaching for Social Justice. Colonialism and globalization have created a 
linguistic hegemony in which indigenous languages are the casualties of assimilation and 
empire building. Increasingly language loss is becoming part of public consciousness 
(Morrison, 2013) and well-coordinated efforts to revitalize a language have taken place in 
various parts of the world (i.e. Wales, Ireland, France, Peru, New Zealand). While online 
foreign language learning opportunities abound in social media and web-based 
applications, speakers of endangered languages have only just begun to make use of 
digital tools to reach learners in their communities and in the diasporas. Mobile devices 
have further facilitated access to these digital devices. This paper grew out of exhaustive 
research into the software that is being implemented by various cultural minority groups 
around the globe in an effort to keep their ancestral languages vital. The applications 
and devices which are referred to herein were drawn from academic and popular texts, 
all of which can be found on the author’s curated content site. A wide variety of e
-
learning strategies and media are presented in this paper, such as learning Central 
Australia’s indigenous sign language via online videos, learning Ojibwe through a 
smartphone app (Canada and the U.S.), reading interactive e-books that support learning 
Inuktitut (the Arctic), learning Manx with free apps for tablets (Isle of Man), consulting 
talking dictionaries to learn Pipil (El Salvador); and using virtual realities and gaming to 
learn Cherokee (U.S.). This paper presents the rationale for incorporating technology in 
efforts to learn and preserve endangered languages, and an overview of the 
technological state of the art in this endeavour. 
The laws of a culture, the folktales, songs, riddles, and rhymes, ironic phrase and puns, 
jokes, greetings, blessings and curses, religious texts (whether oral or written), 
incantations and spells or cures, these and many more are all linguistic in nature. They 
cannot be implemented or invoked without language, and accordingly, no one can be a 
full-
fledged, native (or even “native
-
like”) member of the culture and participat
e in these 
acts, events, occasions, and cultural processes without mastering the specific language in 
which they are implemented and lacking which they would not exist. (Fishman, 1994, 
p.86)

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-138- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
It is widely speculated that half of the world’s 7000 languages
are no longer being 
transmitted to the children of that linguistic community, and are therefore likely to 
become extinct by the end of this century. If, as distinguished sociolinguist Joshua 
Fishman (1994) maintains, language and culture are inextricably linked, then the loss of 
half of the world’s languages should be cause for considerable alarm. This paper is not 
intended to synopsize the author’s research findings or theory building with respect to 
language loss (see Eamer 2008, 2012, 2013 for those endeavours), but rather this paper 
provides an overview of the innovative way that minority linguistic communities are using 
technology to protect their languages from extinction.
Languages become endangered when there is a shift to the more powerful language in 
which official, educational, institutional and economical interactions take place. For 
example, the global economy within which corporate outsourcing of labour takes place in 
under-resourced nations, will, no doubt, eventually result in an irreversible shift from the 
local language to the language of the corporation’s satellite workplace (i.e. the ubiquitous 
call centres in developing nations that handle customer service for American 
corporations). Subtractive language education programs which operate on the premise 
that the language of power is best acquired when the indigenous language is repressed 
within an individual’s repertoire are also culprits (This was the case until recently with 
most English as a Second Language programs in North American public schools with 
respect to immigrant languages). Moreover, the assimilationist policies of colonialism 
and expansionism have often resulted in linguicide or the intentional eradication of an 
indigenous language (as was the case with native residential schools for aboriginal people 
in Canada, the U.S. and Australia). In each case, the resulting homogenization can be 
considered a threat to the human species, in that reduced biodiversity results in reduced 
adaptability and potential to thrive (Skutnabb-Kangas et al, 2009), as well as a tragic 
loss of knowledge, history, songs and stories developed over many generations. 
Termed “killer” languages by some sociolinguists, colonial and state languages such as 
English, Spanish, French, Mandarin and Hindi have threatened or replaced indigenous 
languages on all continents. Sadly indigenous peoples have often participated in the 
devaluation of their own linguistic identities which served as a further for catalyst for 
language shift. This tacit endorsement of the superiority of the dominant language by the 
members of a minority language community is referred to by Bourdieu (1991) as the 
process of symbolic domination. Highly political and well-funded efforts to revitalize 
endangered languages have had varying degrees of success in countries such as: Wales 
(Welsh), Ireland (Gaelic), the Basque and Catalonia regions within Spain and France 
(Basque and Catalan), Peru and Bolivia (Quechua), New Zealand (Maori) and Israel 
(Hebrew) to name a few.
At the UN’s World Co
nference on Indigenous People (WCIP 2013) held last year in Alta, 
Norway, the rights of indigenous peoples globally to preserve and use their ancestral 
language was listed as a priority. The efforts of scholars, linguists and activists to protect 
languages from extinction were affirmed eighteen years ago in the following articles of 
UNESCO’s 1996 Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights: