Revitalization “Handbook”: Mapping Language Classifications, Goals, and Methodologies

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/0z708w79k

Abstract

According to Cowell (2012), the language revitalization literature and speech communities' efforts have been characterized by three major swings over the past fifty years: additional language teaching methods, "revitalization" emphasis, and now an anthropological approach. This thesis is a "revitalization manual" that brings the three waves together, redefining troublesome areas while maintaining useful concepts. By considering certain pre-existing literature helps identify the benefits of a usage-based demographics/domain assessment for each individual language such that achievable goals are matched to language teaching methodologies, creating a system of revitalization that works within the ideological frameworks of the speech communities. Such a system contributes to new, more nuanced measures of "success" for revitalization efforts and outcomes. Four languages--Irish Gaelic, Hawaiian, Arapaho, and Wichita--and their various efforts to reverse their conditions are examined as case study examples for understanding usage-based domain assessment. These case languages also contribute to the refined classification typology proposed, and the mapping of language teaching methods to revitalization efforts based on achievable goals for success.

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