O n f e r e n c e

Article 3 (1) 
This Declaration considers the following to be inalienable personal rights which may be 
exercised in any situation: the right to be recognized as a member of a language 
community; the right to the use of one’s own language both in private and in public; the 
right to the use of one’s own name; the right to interrelate and associate with other 
members of one’s
language community of origin; [and] the right to maintain and develop 
one’s own culture; Article 7 (1&2)All languages are the expression of a collective identity 
and of a distinct way of perceiving and describing reality and must therefore be able to 
enjoy the conditions required for their development in all functions. All languages are 
collectively constituted and are made available within a community for individual use as 
tools of cohesion, identification, communication and creative expression.

---

-139- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Increa
singly the world’s indigenous people are recognizing the value of using digital 
environments in the battle against the extinction of their languages and cultures (Hermes 
& King 2013). Likewise as indigenous languages become increasingly visible on the 
internet, perceptions of them as antiquated or as anachronistic in the Information Age 
are challenged. Thanks to sites such as languagegeek.com, keyboard layouts, fonts and 
diacritical markings can be freely downloaded to allow for the digitization of the scripts of 
many of the world’s indigenous languages. 
The creation of databases as part of language documentation projects has been 
instrumental in determining the level of endangerment of threatened languages in a 
multitude of regions across the globe. Invaluable partnerships between indigenous 
groups and universities or other institutions have allowed for great precision in these 
documentation and archiving projects, and for the broad sharing of this knowledge on the 
web. Amongst the best known examples of 
these partnerships are National Geographic’s 
Enduring Voices Project (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices), 
the Living Tongues Institute’s Language Documentation Project (www.livingtongues.org),
Google’s Endangered Languages Projec
t (www.endangeredlanguages.com/), and 
UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (www.unesco.org/culture/ 
en/endangered languages). 
Furthermore the adoption of digital technologies has enhanced both the production and 
distribution of indigenous language learning materials. E-resources and printed text 
books are readily available for purchase on the internet, and synchronous and 
asynchronous indigenous language learning software applications are being designed 
with increasing frequency and sophistication. Thus the capacity of Information and 
Communication Technologies makes ICT uniquely able to “reduce many traditional 
obstacles, especially those of time and distance, [and] for the first time in history makes 
it possible to use the potential of these technologies for the benefit of millions of people 
in all corners of the world” (WSIS 2003, Principle 8).
Not in all cases, however, is formal curriculum or even a trained teacher required for Web 
2.0 language learning. Social networking sites and videoconferencing applications enable 
would-be language learners to set up their own cyber interactions with native speakers 
on their own terms, for their own reasons and at their convenience. A quick browse of 
Facebook groups demonstrates the extent to which individuals are initiating tandem 
language learning and teaching communities through applications such as Skype, iChat 
and Google Talk. 
However, even as indigenous youth are responding with enthusiasm to the ability to text, 
email, chat, and use Facebook and Google Talk in their ancestral languages, some 
indigenous communities have resisted the rush to embrace technology. Transmitting 
traditional ways of knowing and cultural knowledge has always been the dominion of the 
elders in most aboriginal communities. Thus it flies in the face of thousands of years of 
history to create a means of language transmission that circumnavigates the authority of 
–
and respect for- the elders of the community. In North America, for under $25,000 
(USD), 
many 
software 
companies 
(i.e. 
Thorton 
Media 
Inc. 
http://www.ndnlanguage.com/) will fly out company employees to an indigenous 
community to record native speakers, gather photographs and songs, and within four 
days, create a 500-word or phrase app, thus usurping the role of the elders in language 
transmission… and in North America, $25,000 for language revitalization is not hard to 
come by. Regional and federal governments, in an attempt to provide redress for the 
horrors of “Indian Residential Schools”, are readily funding la
nguage revitalization 
projects. Oil companies, which have devastated aboriginal land, are eager to fund 
revitalization initiatives for the purpose of enhancing their public profile. Corporate social 
responsibility departments of multi-national conglomerates are also eager to enhance the 
public’s perception of them as ‘giving back’ to the disenfranchised. 

---

-140- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
It is worth noting that within academia, there has been some cynicism with respect to 
the excitement attached to technology’s widely touted ability to re
scue dying languages.
Databases, websites, and language learning apps all do a great job of keeping 
endangered languages visible and at the top of scholarly research agendas. 
They do not, however, necessarily translate into fluent speakers, and it is only via fluent 
speakers that dying languages can be inter-generationally transmitted in order to once 
again become the mother tongues of a new generation. The World Wide Web, though 
subject to the power struggles inherent in any society, does provide a number of 
possibilities... Utilizing the Web’s 
vast resources in regard to language.... can become 
part of a critical repertoire in the world language classroom. (Osborn, 2006, p.xi) 
What follows is a brief overview of some of the affordances that digital technology 
provides through mobile learning apps and other digital offerings. Listed, by continent, 
are some of the technologies being implemented in the fight against language extinction. 
For the purpose of brevity, we will touch on only a few of the endangered languages in 
each region. A far more comprehensive study of the technologies currently in use for 
indigenous language education can be found on the author’s curated content site 
(http://www.scoop.it/t/indigenous-language-education-and-technology).