Preservation of Indigenous

Languages​
Elard Badillo Morales, 2023
AGENDA

1 2 3 4 5

INTRODUCTIO
N IMPORTANCE EROSION PRESERVATION CONCLUSION
OF I.L. OF I.L. OF I.L.
INTRODUCTIO
N
What do we know
about
“Indigenous Language”? ​ (Tân, 2020).

Why is it important for us to

Do we know how many Indigenous preserve our indigenous
Language languages?​
are spoken in our country?​ ​
​
IMPORTANCE OF INDIGENOUS
LANGUAGES

It’s Unique.

It Mantains our cultural identity.

Cultural Diversity.

Connection to the Land and Nature.

EROSION OF INDIGENOUS
LENGUAGES
Representativeness by Language Size
Number of
mother-tongue
speakers per 1,001– 10,001– 100,001–
language 0 1–100 101–1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 >1,000,000 No data Total
Number of
languages, global
total 387 548 1,071 1,967 1,779 892 347 308 7,299
% of global total 5.3 7.5 14.7 26.9 24.4 12.2 4.8 4.2 100

Representativeness by Region
Africa Americas Asia Europe Pacific Total

Ethnologue 2005 2,092 1,002 2,269 239 1,310 6,912

% of global total 30.3% 14.5% 32.8% 3.5% 19% 100%

Source: Language Documentation & conservation Vol.4, 2010.
EROSION OF INDIGENOUS
LENGUAGES

Source: Unesco, 2011

Source: Language Documentation & conservation Vol.4, 2010.

LANGUAGE LOSS OVER THE PAST 100
YEARS

(Simons, 2010)
PRESERVATION OF INDIGENOUS
LENGUAGES
Documentation and preservation. Immersion practices.
Curriculum/resource development Research.

Language engineering. Bilingual schooling.

Teacher training/ Post-secondary initiatives. Language classes.

Policy development and political advocacy.

Hermes (2007) draws upon the work of a
number of prominent researchers to assert
that “the Indigenous-immersion method is
quickly being recognized as one of the
mosteffective tools for restoring Indigenous
language…”
What methods
Aguilera and LeCompte (2007) studied…
communities’ experiences with language
immersion. They emphasize that immersion
language learning can be successful
without affecting a student’s performance in
English and advocate for well educated
bilingual and bi-cultural adults who will no
doubt contribute in important ways to their
nations and society as a whole.

are working
Peter (2003) describes a “Culturally
Responsive Evaluation” model created by an
“Immersion Team” with the Cherokee well? Norris (2004). Canada is one of the only
nations to collect data on language use
Nation in Oklahoma. It is a tool they and ability Because many language
continue torefine and describe as an open- revitalization strategies are new, “few
ended, culturally-responsive, useful and longitudinal studies are available to
thorough tool which effectively identifies assess the impact on language vitality”
strengths and weaknesses of their program
in order to continue to improve.
 CONCLUSIO
N
Preserving indigenous languages is vital for keeping alive our cultural
diversity and identity.

Many efforts are made to preserve indigenous languages, but

more research is needed to know if these strategies are totally
efficient.
 REFERENCES
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Unesco. (2011). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Unesco https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000192416

Dunkel, W. (2020). Danke, Thank you, Merci, Grazie, [Photograph]. Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/white-printer-paper-with-black-text-AKQlYooS72w

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https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ847926.pdf
(Gunkel, 2020)