<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="">Protecting Our Cultural Endangered Species: School Policies</h1>
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Posted:
11/03/2014 4:32 pm EST
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Updated:
11/03/2014 4:59 pm EST
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<p><a href="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-03-firstdayatsmp1.jpg"><img alt="2014-11-03-firstdayatsmp1.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-03-firstdayatsmp1-thumb.jpg" height="427" width="570"></a></p><p>It
took some time for the movement to save endangered species to catch on.
It has taken the endangered language movement even longer due to
layers of politics, globalization, modernization, assimilation and the
dominance of English.<sup>1</sup> This is the start of a series of
postings that will look at efforts to save languages that are threatened
or already endangered.</p><p>What are the keys to preventing minority
languages from disappearing? UNESCO recommends creating "favorable
conditions for its speakers to speak the language and to teach it to
their children".<sup>2</sup> UNESCO goes on to say that national
policies that "recognize and protect minority languages" and "education
systems that promote mother-tongue instruction" are two of several
factors that can help keep a language strong.<sup>3</sup> </p><p>In
almost all countries with multiple languages, the opposite has been the
norm: national governments have purposefully suppressed the use and
teaching of minority languages in schools in their drive toward
political unity. Policies on language education are often "used by
those in authority to turn ideology into practice through formal
education."<sup>4</sup> This is understandable from a nationalistic and perhaps economic standpoint, but not so much from a cultural one.<sup>5</sup> </p><p>In
1896, in an effort to bring Hawaiians into the fold, the United States
mandated English as the language of instruction for all private and
public schools in Hawaii. Enforced by zealous administrators, this law
effectively, though not officially, removed Hawaiian from the schools,
sending all sorts of pro-English and anti-Hawaiian messages to school
children. It wasn't until 1978 that activists gained enough momentum to
convince legislators to grant Hawaiian official status, which paved the
way for the first private Hawaiian language immersion preschool to open
in 1984. In 1986, only 28 years ago, public schools were finally
permitted to teach in Hawaiian alongside English<sup>6</sup> the result of a small, but powerful political movement to change Hawaiian language policy.<sup>7</sup></p><p>In
linguistically proud France, regional languages were considered a
significant internal threat. In 1925, after years of skirmishes, the
Minister of Education finally laid down the monolinguist gauntlet: only
French was to be used in all schools.<sup>8</sup> It took eighty
years for the government to budge, cracking the door open wide enough to
permit France's minority tongues of Occitan, Breton, Catalan and Basque
to be taught, but only as extra-curricular activities.<sup>9</sup> Now, regional languages are permitted in schools and are recognized by the French Constitution<sup>10</sup> but for many of those languages, it is too late.<sup>11</sup> </p><p>Indonesian
is a success story of how an indigenous language can be promoted to a
national language in the face of over 700 local languages and the allure
of English, but the success of Indonesian was at the cost of many of
the country's minority languages: a whopping 146 languages in Indonesia
are already endangered.<sup>12</sup> Indonesia requires all schools
in the 17,000 island archipelago to be taught in Indonesian, but nodding
to the national slogan of "Unity in Diversity" had loosened up in some
regions to permit schools to teach minority languages for all of one
hour a week (often more for Javanese), hardly enough to teach anything
substantial, but symbolically important. In 2013, in a pro-nationalism
move, the Indonesian government decided to get rid of even that much.
Schools were free to teach regional languages, but regional language
instruction had to be part of cultural studies, meaning that the
teaching of a region's history, dance, art, and now language all had to
take place in a single hour per week. Mass protests by students and
teachers in Bali led to the granting of an exemption for Balinese<sup>13</sup>
to add to the exemption already afforded to the more politically
powerful Javanese. Schools in Bali were permitted to keep the one
hour per week instruction designated solely to the teaching of Balinese,
but without strong advocates, other languages in the archipelago were
not given the same protection.</p><p>The United States, France, and
Indonesia are among scores of countries which have set out
mono-linguistic policies to firm up political unity. Now on a more
secure base, they have bowed to internal pressure to permit a certain
degree of teaching of regional languages. The combination of political
stability and internal educational policy advocacy is one combination
that seems to hold promise for the strengthening of regional languages.
But the pace needs to be sped up, before regional languages are too
inconsequential to be revitalized.</p><p>What has been your experience with educational policies that have helped promote minority languages?</p>____________
<ol><li>Hornsby, Michael, Language Endangerment, Book of Knowledge,
<a href="http://languagesindanger.eu/book-of-knowledge/language-endangerment/">http://languagesindanger.eu/book-of-knowledge/language-endangerment/</a>.</li><li><a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/faq-on-endangered-languages/">http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/faq-on-endangered-languages/</a></li><li>Ibid.</li><li>Shohamy (2006) , Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches, Abingdon: Routledge, p. 76.</li><li>Interesting debate on whether minority languages should be protected
in BBC News, Talking Point¸8 March 2000,
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/664149.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/664149.stm</a>.</li><li><a href="http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/TeachingAndLearning/StudentLearning/HawaiianEducation/Pages/History-of-the-Hawaiian-Education-program.aspx">http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/TeachingAndLearning/StudentLearning/HawaiianEducation/Pages/History-of-the-Hawaiian-Education-program.aspx</a>.
</li><li>Language Matters With Bob Holman, a film by David Grubin, airing on PBS in January 2015: <a href="http://www.languagemattersfilm.com/">http://www.languagemattersfilm.com/</a></li><li>Costa, James and Lambert, Patricia, France and Language(s): Old
Policies, New Challenges, Towards A Renewed Framework?
<a href="http://www.academia.edu/200588/France_and_Language_s_Old_Policies_and_New_Challenges_in_Education._Towards_a_Renewed_Framework">http://www.academia.edu/200588/France_and_Language_s_Old_Policies_and_New_Challenges_in_Education._Towards_a_Renewed_Framework</a>.</li><li>Ibid.</li><li>Ibid.</li><li>26 French minority languages are on UNESCO's endangered list
<a href="http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php?hl=en&page=atlasmap">http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php?hl=en&page=atlasmap</a>.</li><li>UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, <a href="http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap.html">http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap.html</a></li><li class="">Students Oppose Removal of Balinese Language from
Schools, The Jakarta Post, Dec. 15, 2012,
<a href="http://www.thebalidaily.com/2012-12-15/students-oppose-removal-balinese-language-schools.html">http://www.thebalidaily.com/2012-12-15/students-oppose-removal-balinese-language-schools.html</a>.</li></ol>
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<h2>More:</h2>
<span class="">
<span class="">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/endangered-languages/">Endangered Languages</a>
</span>
<span class="">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/minority-languages/">Minority Languages</a>
</span>
<span class="">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/languages/">Languages</a>
</span>
<span class="">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/endangered-species/">Endangered Species</a>
</span>
<span class="">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/indonesian/">Indonesian</a>
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