I was searching through Google Scholar this morning and was pleased to find a very, recent Master’s paper (written in 2013) that was created by a graduate student, Winoka Rose Begay, at the University of Arizona.  The theme of her paper is “NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FIELD OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION”.  Winoka focuses on mobile technology and how it can be used with indigenous communities.  She discusses the language learning software that is available for learning indigenous languages.  In addition, she examines online learning, technology-based language projects, language websites and virtual worlds.

It was interesting to see that there are also indigenous language immersion programs in the United States, similar to the Chief Atham school in Chase, B.C.  Winoka also gives examples of communities such as the Navajo, who have community members under 40 years old who are either latent speakers of the language or who don’t speak Navajo at all.  There is a fear amongst community members that teaching the language will only hinder the children’s academic performance.

This is an excellent reference for my final paper, since it goes along exactly with my theme of revitalizing native languages.

References

Begay, W. (2013). Mobile Apps and Indigenous language learning: New Developments in the Field

          of Indigenous Language Revitalization.  Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate

          Interdisciplinary Program in American Indian Studies.  Masters of Arts at the University of

          Arizona.