Reclaiming Our Languages

Definitely endangered

Reclaiming our languages Annotated BibliographyDownload

“teepaalilaani” © Hannah Buchanan 2025

  • A worksheet, a whiteboard, a teacher-learner: leveraging materials and colonial language frames for multimodal indigenous language learning

    Engman explores the relationships between teacher-learners, multilingualism, classroom materials, and print literacy in an Ojibwe kindergarden class in the Great Lakes Region. She is especially interested in how English can be used to cultivate Ojibwe literacy in an English-majority environment. She comments on the challenges of providing high quality immersive language education within an English-majority classroom given a lack of time for planning, schedulaing constraints, and the presence of other instructional staff. She learns that using English may allow students to experiment across languages, and that the presence of an Indigenous language in a classroom, no matter how ineffectual in promoting proficiency, disrupts colonial education norms.

    Engman, M. M. (2021). A worksheet, a whiteboard, a teacher-learner: Leveraging materials and colonial language frames for multimodal indigenous language learning. Classroom Discourse, 12(1–2), 75–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2020.1856696

  • Melding language and image: Kaytetye Indigemoji as a language learning project

    Lea et al. report on creating Kaytetye, an Indigenous emoji app, as a community resource development project, demonstrate how app creation can act as a forum for language teaching/learning, and consider how digital images relate to Indigenous language learning. They strongly support the need for Indigenous people to play an integral role in language learning materials creation and show how collaborative community projects facilitate language learning. They explicitly address the gap that often exists between the development of an online/digital tool and the purpose it serves post-development.

    Lea, B., Turpin, M., & Liddle Perrurle, J. (2024). Melding language and image: Kaytetye Indigemoji as a language learning project. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2024.2320669

  • Creating Space and Defining Roles: Elders and Adult Yup’ik Immersion.

    Alexie et al. investigate how incorporating Elders into the Yup’ik Language Proficiency Program facilitates year-round, sustained learning and carves out a space for Yup’ik cultural norms within the university environment. They describe the nuances of working with Elders in a university space including relationship navigating and managing dual agendas of language revitalization and intergenerational cultural knowledge transmission. They consider the myriad of ways that including Elders in language programming can add depth, sustainability, and significance to language acquisition.

    Alexie, O., Alexie, S., & Marlow, P. (2009). Creating space and defining roles: Elders and adult Yup’ik immersion. Journal of American Indian Education, 48(3), 1–18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24398752

  • Turning a Corner in Language Revitalization: Sitting Bull College’s Lakota Language Capacity Building Initiative.

    Hauff et al. describe the community impacts, creation, successes, and lessons learned through Sitting Bull College’s language revitalization program: Lakota Language Capacity Building Initiative. They hope to share what they have learned in their revitalization work with other Indigenous communities who wish to implement similar programs. They explain how including elder speakers can facilitate the re-creation of a speech community, and how various assessments, especially videos, can be used to help student self-awareness as well as program evaluation. They also call for increased scholarship about the successes and failures of other language revitalization projects, and note the need for sustainable, long-term funding.

    Hauff, T., Walker, N., & Bannister, E. (2024). Turning a corner in language revitalization: Sitting Bull College’s Lakota language capacity building initiative. Tribal College, 35(3), 60–64. https://tribalcollegejournal.org/turning-a-corner-in-language-revitalization-sitting-bull-colleges-lakota-language-capacity-building-initiative/

  • Anishinaabemowin pane: A Qualitative Exploratory Case Study of an Indigenous Language Immersion Revitalization Program

    Gordon explores the nuanced relationship between adult Indigenous language immersion curriculum goals and outcomes, and learner goals and objectives. In his dissertation, he considers adult learning theories, immersion models of reclamation, program evaluation, and curriculum development. He finds that learners in an Anishinaabemowin adult Indigenous immersion language program at a tribal community college attend the program to restart intergenerational language transmission, become fluent speakers, increase their sense of identity, and to heal. He also finds a misalignment between program goals and learner goals, and advocates for increased attention to learner motivations during curriculum development. He calls for the integration of high-quality assessment in adult immersion programs.

    Gordon, C. J. (2009). Anishinaabemowin pane: A qualitative exploratory case study of an indigenous language immersion revitalization program. (Publication No. 3360094) [Doctoral Dissertation, Capella University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/publiccontent/dissertations-theses/anishinaabemowin-pane-qualitative-exploratory/docview/305164171/sem-2?accountid=14789

  • Designing Indigenous Language Revitalization

    Hermes et al. explore how the creation of the Ojibwemodaa! language learning software became a process of language learning and sharing in it of itself, with community members building relationships and mobilizing to reclaim the liveliness of their language. They also discuss Ojibwe movie-making workshops, and how they contribute to an Ojibwe language strategy. They theorize about Indigenous knowledge production, materials creation, immersion schooling, ceremonial and relational epistimology, relationality, and reciprocity.

    Hermes, M., Bang, M., & Marin, A. (2012). Designing Indigenous language revitalization. Harvard Educational Review, 82(3), 381–402. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.82.3.q8117w861241871j

  • Creating Books for Use in Language Revitalization Classrooms: Considerations and Outcomes

    Nee considers the development, implementation, and consequences of using three different types of storybooks in a Teotitlan del Valle Zapotec language camp for 5-12 year-olds. She demonstrates how the collaborative creation of a storybook by students creates a culturally relevant teaching aid and inspires students to engage with the language on their own. She also models how to pair classroom instruction and supported interactions with community members in public spaces.

    Nee, J. (2020). Creating books for use in language revitalization classrooms: Considerations and outcomes. L2 Journal, 12(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.5070/L20042838

  • Learning through an Aboriginal Language: The Impact on Students’ English and Aboriginal Language Skills

    Usborne et al. explore how learning through an Indigenous language impacts student language skills in English and in the Indigenous language, by contrasting a Mi’kmaq immersion program with a Mi’kmaq as a second language program in a Nova Scotian public school. They provide an example of how community-anchored assessment-based longitudinal research can serve the language needs of an Indigenous community and they find that Indigenous immersion language programs can actually correlate to higher language skill development in both the Indigenous language and English.

    Usborne, E., Peck, J., Smith, D.-L., & Taylor, D. M. (2011). Learning through an Aboriginal language: The impact on students’ English and Aboriginal language skills. Canadian Journal of Education, 34(4), 200-215. https://www.jstor.org/stable/canajeducrevucan.34.4.200