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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>Good language maintenance (apart from community transmission) needs trained language teachers and someone who speaks the language. How do they do it in New Zealand? If the trained language teacher is not already a speaker of Maori, each class or program needs a trained language teacher and a speaker.<BR>
Whether it’s the same language in every place wanting a language maintenance program or a dozen different languages, the staffing needs are the same, so the costs must be similar.<BR>
We already have dictionaries and grammars of most languages which would fit in the language maintenance box, so the costs seem much to same to me whether we are talking of maintaining one language or many.<BR>
The costs and benefits are not just financially measured. Respect for and use of an indigenous language engenders respect for English and its use.<BR>
Margaret Sharpe</SPAN></FONT>
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