Indigenous Languages

Students will gain theoretical knowledge and practical skills that they can use to develop and implement a language plan that will lead to learning, teaching, and transmitting their respective languages to the present and future generations, in a variety of forms and through any medium or channel. The language plan will support individual and community-centered goals for reclamation, revitalization, resurgence, education and/or maintenance based on available resources (e.g., human, financial, linguistic, technology), or resources they need to seek. There will also be opportunities to engage with experts outside the course through UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL) events. While the course is designed to privilege free or low-cost digital learning that does not rely on high-bandwidth or infrastructure to access resources, we understand that not everyone will have the wherewithal and infrastructure to connect. Hence, we will encourage students to share open access resources with their community members.

This course is for:

Indigenous community members wanting to develop a language plan for their family, local community, local schools or other settings

Indigenous community members interested in language and linguistic human rights, language policies, language conservation and maintenance and key concepts and practices in language policy, planning, implementation and assessment

Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in international development, teaching, public policy, political science, social sciences and other fields who are interested in the key concepts and practices in language policy, planning, implementation and assessment

Teachers, policy makers, government officials and other practitioners interested in the policy and language factors impacting the communities they support and serve

Sustainable development practitioners who want to understand the linguistic needs and support necessary to help communities globally, including those who work for international aid organizations and nonprofits in the realms of human rights, language rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights and education

What you'll learn

• Policies that impact Indigenous language use, linguistic rights and access to resources
• How to plan, develop, implement and assess Indigenous language projects for different contexts
• Case studies from Indigneous language scholar-educators, illustrations of successful language planning