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2014 CALL Conference
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be
Allyson Eamer
University of Ontario, Oshawa, Canada
allyson.eamer@uoit.ca
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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2014 CALL Conference
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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:
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